$6 an hour using CompuServe, IIRC. Dang I'm old.
So you could download a program to generate numbers, and use made up data, to get free illegal access to Compuserve. Sometimes the accounts lasted a few months before being closed.
My parents were so cheap they refused to buy a second phone line for years. In retrospect they probably enjoyed not being called by their friends or telemarketers.
Notable quote, written over 20 years ago, from that image (about BIX, $9 per hour, which grew from a magazine.):
"This is the computer industry as it used to be: people sharing ideas and solutions without the greed and grit associated with today's corporate driven, litigation-laced, industry"