Where's my Lindens?

Hi, I'm pretty new and am enjoying Second Life so far, so I thought I would buys some Lindens thru my Paypal account and really have some fun. I went to the "buy" button which followed with a minimum purchase of $25USD, so I followed through and when it was finished, my account showed a $25USD credit and my original Linden amount. I did get a Paypal confirmation email that I paid second life,but my $Linden balance has not changed. I logged into the game serveral times, but the $25USD worth of Lindens does not show. When I tried to buy Lindens again, it tells me I have exceeded my daily limit.

Then I tried to buy Lindens clicking the option in the left column which shows the option of buying in Lindens or USD amounts. The next step shows only the Paypal option(which I have already done) but I clicked on it to see what was next. The next page says I have exceeded my daily limit again and some errors and it can't procees and to try again.
From what I've read the Lindens should show up almost immidiately.

How do I get my Lindens? I haven't even bought anything yet.

Layla

You increased your USD balance, which can be useful for tier and such, but you didn't actually buy any Linden dollars. You need to use 'Buy L$' on the left side of your account page on the site, not 'Increase Your Credit' on the right, or purchase in-world using the L$ symbol at the top right of the viewer.

There are 2 balances, your Linden balance and the US$ balance on the site. I'm not 2 sure how but u can send that into the game some how

It won't let me. It keeps saying I have reached my limit. How could I, the lindens are not ther to spend...
I just put $25USD worth in, I do not want to have to add more.

Layla

Go here: https://secure-web3.secondlife.com/currency/buy.php and log in, you will be able to convert your US$ into L$

You can only spend $10 for Lindens/$25 for USD charges on your first purchase, so it thinks you already hit your limit. It probably won't change until whenever they update tomorrow.

You won't have to add more at that point, it will pull from the credit balance you already have.

That's where I was when I followed thru it gave me the paypal option and error.

I also tried in game but it still tells me I reached my limit.

Layla

Why would there be a minimum purchase of $25USD if I have a $10USD limit?

This whole purchasing Lindens has not been very clear on the site. I thought I was buying Lindens not USD credit.

Layla

I don't know if this is the answer you want, but it at least bumps the thread so someone who knows more about what they are doing can answer you. I KNOW someone here can answer this question.

You indicated that you have a $25.00 credit when you look at your account from the secondlife.com site and you need to convert it to Lindens (because US$ do you no good in SL). From that site, click "buy Lindens" That should take you to a page that shows where you put in a buy order. It should also show two balances. Whatever is in your SL Linden account and the $25 in your USD account. Try this - put in $10.00 where it says approximate cost. I think there were limits as to how many Lindens you can buy when you first start. You can dump a bunch of USD in your account, but the rate you convert to L is limited to prevent money laundering or some such nonsense.

If it lets you buy $10.00, then go play with a slightly smaller budget and come back in 24 hours and see if it lets you cash in the remaining $15.00. You might have to do $10 again. After a few days, the limit goes up substantially.

They give a $25 USD limit in case you wanted to do something like pay for a monthly membership (~$10), buy the $10 worth of Lindens, and maybe pay $5 worth of tier or something as well. There are more things to spend on than just Linden dollars.

The link to the Billing and Trading Limits is also on the left side of your account page, but remember that they're cummulative. If you spend all $25 on Lindens tomorrow, you'll only have another $25 to spend on them until day 14. If you spend the entire $50 by day 13, you'll actually only have $100 to spend between days 14 and 27. Same thing with 'Purchase' limits shown separately...those are your total USD expenditures allowed.

It isn't you; Linden Lab repeatedly seems to make it as confusing as possible for customers to give them money.

This tendency has a few of us baffled.

It's not clear. Basically, you have two accounts. One holds USD and one holds L$. You can put as much USD in your account as you want, but you can only convert so much to Lindens your first few days. You pay some of the charges that SL has out of USD, such as Tier and premium account fees, so you need a USD account. Actually, it sounds like you are on a free account, so those charges won't apply to you. Now that you have money in your USD account you need to convert it to Lindens. That's where the minimum charge comes in. Try to buy $10.00 worth of Lindens instead of the whole 25 and see what happens. It might tke a couple days to convert the whole $25 to L. After a few days, the limit is lifted, though, and you will likely not have this problem again.

Welcome to SL, by the way!!

It seems like that *should* work, but it never has when I've suggested it to people in the past. Unless they're fibbing to me, the system apparently views it as a new purchase, rather than the conversion it actually is.

Ok I'll try to buy $10 out of game. When I try to by in game is shows $L1000 in the window but before I can clear it and enter any amount, it changes screens and tells me I reached my limit again.
I do that in a little bit, I have to go make dinner

Thank you all for you help

Layla

There's a 30 cent fee for every L$ buy so it's generally better to buy 1 "large" amount at a time than 10 "small" amounts.

What happened is that she reached her account spending limits, and this same thing happened to me when I upgraded to premium right after I made my account. I used the annual billing, and so it charged 72USD to my account, effectively stopping me from buying Lindens for half the month. There is really nothing she can do but wait until her limits raise, which doesn't take long.

Or go to http://www.slexchange.com, set up an account there, buy your $L, and then send them to yourself in-world.

I love SLExchange, because they let you use PayPal's Mass Pay feature, which minimizes the service fee bite.

This sounds good, but the site is not available. I'll have to check it later.

I did try to buy $10USD but it wants me to pay for it thru paypal not my SL USD credit.

SL would be wise to get this system fixed. Had I known about this hastle I wouln't have spent the $25USD. The strange thing is my friend was able to purchase $10USD worth of lindens without any trouble and it showed in her account right away.

Some keep saying I reached my spending limit...I didn't spend anything yet. What do they mean by that?

Layla

She must have used the 'Buy L$' link or purchased them from in-world. The page you went to is not a necessary step for Linden dollar purchases.



You put $25 on your account...that qualifies as reaching your spending limit at the moment, regardless of whether you actually got the Lindens you wanted. People often put a balance on their accounts for fees which require USD, like Premium memberships and tier, and all of that counts towards the billing limits.

If it required a $25 payment and gave you no Lindens, you used the 'Increase Your Credit' link on the right side of your account page, not the 'Buy L$' on the left. Purchasing in-world works the same as 'Buy L$' on the site.

This is the page you want:

http://www.secondlife.com/currency/buy.php

This is not:

http://www.secondlife.com/account/manage_balance.php

Hmmm that is very strange, because I did use the buy lindens link which took me to the first URL page you posted, but as I followed thru, it did take me to the second URL page you showed. Since I was following it thru for the first time, I wouldn't have known. But yes it seem I did increased my credit. So, then can I expect to be able to get the Lindens tomorrow and if so how do I go about it?

Layla

I bet this is what happened: You chose to do a "limit buy" instead of a "market buy".

When you do a market buy, where you just accept whatever is the currently best sell offer, you can buy the L$ directly.

But if you do a limit buy, where you specify the rate you want to pay, you must first add US$ to your account balance -- at least $25 -- and then place the buy order.

Unfortunately the billing limit includes BOTH adding US$ to your account balance AND buying the lindens, and the first step automatically puts you over the limit for the second step.

But this really is easily resolved... just wait the two days. Then your limit will go up and you'll be good to go.

(P.S. If the $25 is not showing on your US$ balance, please let us know... that means your buy order WAS accepted, but just hasn't been filled yet. We can tell you how to check on that. )

I think I know what happened now.
Before I actually proceeded to buy the Lindens, I explored the pages and also my account page. I think this is where it messed me up. I saw the $25 credit minimum on my account page and thought I had to enter USD credits that would be converted automatically to Lindens. I also though the buy buttom would have taken me here too, so I entered $25USD. It showed the $25USD credit amount, but the Linden amount had not changed. I thought I now had to "buy" the Lindens using my $USD credit, so I went to the buy button and after entering the amount, it gave me the pay option which was paypal (this is what I should have done in the first place). I had just used my paypal to buy the credits (which I thought was how to buying Lindens) so when I followed through to see what it showed, it told me I had reached my limit for reason previously stated in the thread.

I think if I had just used the buy button from the beginning, it would have been a simple matter. I confused myself checking pages for all information, (which is a good thing).
I think our account pages should have info and a link about buying Lindens directly.

Layla

Layla and the other helpers, the same exact thing has happened to me today!
So now I have $25 credit but no Lindens.

karlpeter