Looking back now it was risky. Another aspect of Notes was that you could transfer one balance to another note in entirety but you could not withdraw funds in entirety. For example, after withdrawing the previous balance (which was never paid), I was still left with around $8 which was too small for it to be processed.
I don't know about you, but I think the whole idea of paying users in notes was kind of risky, in case they didn't work, and I guess now we see why; because they depend on the operator's presence to redeem.