$3 for a month gold membership?

No I kind of agree. I paid $24.99 for a 3 month xbox live gold membership, I played it for a month and a half, and didn't play for a while after that. 2 or 3 months later when I go to play online, its says my gold membership ran out. Its *** up that they
charge you when you're not even using your xbox. I payed for 3 months of gold, only used 1 and a half, and even when I wasn't playing they were taking time off my membership. They should only charge and deduct your membership when you are playing. I bought
3 months of gold membership, I deserve 3 months of gold membership. So time of the xbox gold membership should only be taken off when you're logged in.

Did you use a Trial-Code for your Gold-Membership?

When "Yes" - With a Trial-Membership you can't use Games with Gold or Deals with Gold - pls buy an normal Membership for 1, 3, 6 or 12 Month.

1. A gold membership is required to play online multiplayer.

2. If you purchase a gold membership, you can pay monthly, every 3 months, or yearly.

It is not an actually membership 1 month and 3 and 12 months are consider gold so some matchmaking will be limited

Yeah the trial cards don't count as actual Gold Membership and serve more as a temporary online extension Silver Membership if that makes sense. Any gold subscription card should do, be it one month, 3 month or annual.