Will my Visa Virtuon card work in SL?

I have a problem in using my Visa debit card (Visa Virtuon) in SL. When I fill the update billing info form i get failed response, I called the bank and they said coz the money i transfered wasn't in the card yet. Then after the card got the money I started to get not authorized response , I called the bank again and they said they didn't get new requests from SL so the problem is not at their side.

I submitted a ticket to SL help and the responses come very slowly and they kept asking me about my info then my card type, I stated that it is a visa prepaid re-loadable debit card and they answered as I said it is a gift card and said it is not working in SL.

That was the last response:

The reason as to why you are unable to purchase Linden Dollars is because Visa have stopped allowing pre-paid cards being added to Second Life accounts as they are no longer seen as a recurring method of payment
Unfortunately, you will have to use another method of payment in order to purchase Linden Dollars from the Second Life website. Alternatively, please goto our partners at XStreet where you may be able to use your gift card there.

I reopened the ticket to say that my card is not a gift one but no response yet.

I wanna know if my card will work in SL or not, Can anyone provide me with info about that?

Thanks in advance.

From what I have heard, most debit cards are not usable as Second Life payment methods now. Sorry, but I don't know any way to work around that.

Oh Why do they ask about "Credit Card / Debit Card" in the Billing information then??

Because they used to freely accept debit cards, and apparently there are some sub-types, where it is verifiable that the debit card is also linked to a checking account that it can draw on for funds if the amount on the card itself is depleted, which they will still accept.

The change in what they will accept is recent, and they don't update the wording on the website to keep up with policy changes very well at all.

Ok Thanks. Is there any other way to buy lindens? I can'y use PayPal in my country and all the official resellers in Europe only.

Sara, my understanding is that you can use a debit card, IF the card is the type that requires you to register a billing address with the cardholder. VISA "green dot" has been mentioned as one that works.

My debit card is linked to a bank account if that what you mean by "requires you to register a billing address with the cardholder". It is a Visa Virtuon card. I transfer money to it from my bank account or pay cash to the bank and use it over internet.

If you are trying to buy or sell L$, you can still use Xstreet for that. If you are paying for a permium account or paying tier, the conversion rate for each step to work around LL's bugged billing will be taking a big bite out of your funds, but it is workable.

I want just to buy lindens. I dunno how to use xstreet for that. When i tried to deposit USD dollars there it redirected me to the PayPal page and I can't use PayPal.

Yes, PayPal is sort of the middle man here. But you do NOT need a PayPal account to use it. You can just proceed like a one time credit card payment. You will in essence pay PalPal who will in turn pay Xstreet. It can take a few hours while PayPal verifies the card is good the first time you use that card but after that it pops right through.

Right! When you go to the PayPal page from XStreet's "Buy $L" link, you're not going to YOUR PayPal account, but to LL's PayPal account. You can use a credit (or validated debit) card to make the payment.

Oh really? but it asks for the country and my country is not there coz PayPal doesn't work in my country.

Hmm, I looked, and you may be right. If your country isn't on that long drop down list, you may be out of luck. You could email PayPal and ask.

(((((((. But I know ppl who are using debit cards in SL. dunno why not me? lol

If it's a policy change. The announcement on the support blog made it look like it was a bug.

My debit card works just fine, but I don't "transfer" funds from my checking account to my card. The card just pulls it right out of my checking account. It works basically like a credit card.

If the Debit card is tied directly to a checking/savings account, such that anything charged to the Debit card will come directly out of the checking account, then it is usable. If the Debit card simply has a balance of money that you put on it, but that balance can go to zero and stay there, then a charge against it could fail -- that is what LL is trying to avoid.

Where has LL stated this? The only announcement I have seen is in the status blog where it was described in terms that imply the problem with some debit cards not working is a bug, not a policy.

its expected then!

So I can't use my card to buy lindens by any way?

Umm, you really expect them to properly communicate something?

They could avoid that if I will have a monthly payment , like subscribing for premium account but I will just buy lindens. It won't be a big deal if the transaction failed.

One thing they seem to have missed is that ones checking account can fail as well. Or simply refuse to pay LL.

My own experience has been that LL can manage to make a transaction fail even when you're using paypal with an adequate balance... which is why I now make sure my US$ credit at LL is always at least a couple of months ahead. They haven't taken anything directly from my paypal in at least two years. I first fed money in via debit card to my alts, before I was making enough in-world to make it irrelevant.

I have had a debit card refuse to pay LL. Not because LL was not accepting it, but because the issuing bank had a "risk" lock on Linden Lab.

I suspect that has more to do with their reasons than any new policy.

I called the bank to see if the problem at their side and they said they don't get requests anymore from secondlife website. They got some requests and failed because my card was still empty. But now it has money and they don't get any request. I told the support person who replies to my ticket the whole story but he ignored everything and just said that I can't use my gift card in Sl (and my card is not a gift card!)

OH NO, I tried again without hope (I tried before thousands of times with the same data) and LL accepted my card and it is pending now!!!!!

Sara holds her breath waiting for the card to get activated or fail again!