MetaCard: feedback please

Hi all. I signed up today with Metacard as a participating merchant. What do we know about Metacard, especially with regard to its stability and integrity ? TIA.

Links for you:

https://www.firstmeta.com/main][url=https://www.firstmeta.com/main]https://www.firstmeta.com/main[/url]

http://www.secondlifeinsider.com/2007/09/04/metacard-the-credit-card-for-the-metaverse/][url=http://www.secondlifeinsider.com/2007/09/04/metacard-the-credit-card-for-the-metaverse/]http://www.secondlifeinsider.com/2007/09/04/metacard-the-credit-card-for-the-metaverse/[/url]

I saw this awhile back and was interested until I saw what info they collect and basically if they release the real world name info they can't do it in SL because that is against TOS so they are going to use a website to break TOS instead. I also dont like the idea that the money is held and not given immediately to the vendor it kinda makes no sense so although its a good idea its set up wrong so I would never use it.

i`ll use the L$ on demand trough the lindex and cc

I would actually give it a try if it wasn't for the minimum charge, I buy more than the minimum amount in merchandise in any given month but especially since it's just starting out there's no way I'd spend that much on MetaCard merchants so I'd get stuck paying 500L every month, if they waived that I'd probably sign up just to try it out.

After reading the comments on secondlifeinsider.com, I'm less impressed. I'm not very comfortable that they are anywhere close to the SL equivalent of a RL bank-backed Visa, Mastercard, Discover, etc.

Why add a third party to a very simple transaction?
Just use the lindex, its pretty quick.

If someone wont give there CC data to Linden Lab, then why would they provide it to MetaCard? oh, i know why......because the card they are using is stolen ( just a thought )

I've been investigating this option, and have interviewed a few of the key Players at MetaCard in-world. They were happy to talk to me and to answer my questions. Textures-R-Us, where I sell my textures, is considering an option of allowing its artists, on an individual choice basis, to accept the MetaCard. If we go forward with that, then I will set up a merchant account with them, but won't get a credit card for myself.

On the plus side: Their website says clearly who their staff are, both in-world names and Real World names and biographies - in most cases even with pictures. The effort is being led by a felow who teaches classes in entrepreneurship at a school in Singapore. And apparently Singapore has pretty stiff laws regarding inappropriate business practices, so if they did try a scam, they could be in a world of hurt. So, unlike every other "SL Bank" that I have heard of, these people are putting their real info on the line from the first action.

The real name info that they collect on merchants is NOT avalable to anyone via their website. They don't disclose real ID's of clients. And as I understand it, you can sign up to *accept* MetaCard payments, and can at the same time *decline* the "automaticly approved merchant metacard". If you don't ask them for credit yourself, they will still set up a merchant account that you can access via their ATM's, to collect payments that your customers make with MetaCard. Like any credit card, they charge a small fee per transaction, which is where they make their money. Also, if you don't ask for credit, you may be able to negotiate not having to put your real name on file with them.

If you use their modified vendor script that allows you to accept MetaCard, any payments that your clients make from their L$ balance, without MetaCard, still go straight to you. It's *only* the MetaCard-finanaced transactions that send the profits to your ATM account and that they charge any fees on. They said the funds must go through your merchant account so they can provide accurate and tracable transaction records, which are then available to the merchant via their website. And they retain these records indefinitely, not just the last 30 days. So you can always go back and check every transaction and fee. Looks like fairly clean bookkeeping practices.

Personally, I don't want to have one of their credit cards myself. I don't need more credit inside SL. And if I do sign up with them as a merchant, then I'll not leave a balance in their account for any longer than I have to. If I want interest on "savings", I'll cash out the L$ and put the money in a federally-insured and certified real world bank. So I wouldn't be interested in their savings account either.

I do think, however, that allowing my customers the *option* of using a line of credit with MetaCard will likely increase sales, as they will be able to buy things that they don't have the L$ for at that moment. Real world merchants recognize that accepting credit cards does increase their sales, even though their profits on *individual sales* paid for with the card are lower, due to transaction fees.

Bottom line: They seem like a legitimate operation. They look like they are *not* trying to promise impossible rates of return that could only be supported by a Ponzi scheme. The interest that they offer and the fees that they charge look to be rational in terms of a micropayment system. But only time will tell, really.

I signed up for it as a business, so I will give you a rundown of what I have experienced thus far.

I have alot of objects for sale...so when I signed up I decided to myself I will try this in a smaller shop to make sure it doesn't ruin anything and also to see if anyone will like it.
After about a week I finally have about 4 small shops using this as a payment method. No results. I sold things from those shops, but never using the card payment option. I made sure to stick all the metacard info I could right next to these smaller shops and still nothing.
Then one day after begining to feel like no one in SL uses metacard, suddenly my ads started spamming me. Every single ad with a metacard payment script in it was going haywire and I was the one getting all these messages. Each ad was messaging me an average of 2 times a minute. When you add up all the ads spam I was getting per minute..it was insane. I couldn't even talk to those around me. I had to say I'm sorry I cannot even see what you are saying because the spam was filling up my screen at a rate that I did not have time to read my customer's comments.
After standing for about 15 minutes doing this, I ran over and yanked every single metacard ad down. In the middle of doing this, I breathed a sigh of relief that I had not put my entire store like this, that would have taken me SO long to do and then to have to REDO it over something like this...let's just say I was relieved as I could be.
My advice...I can't honestly say if it works well or not as far as an payment option, as the entire time I did have it up, no one used that. But my advice is this...be very careful testing it out. I definately wouldn't take my big mainstore that make all my money and put those scripts in each ad. That could turn sour in a matter of minutes as I have shown you.
Good luck and if it works out well if you try it, let us know. I'd love to know if anyone has actually had any success with it.

I'll state at the begining, I do NOT work for First Meta.. we as a company have carried out some small advertising movies on their behalf..

That said, I did get to know those members of the First Meta Bank people that are ingame, spoken not only ingame, but on Skype and via emails, whist we discussed in detail their requirements for the work we carried out.. each seemed very polite, reasonable, and inteligent business minded, professional people.

I looked in deatail at the business model, in order to gain a better understanding of the product we were to create the movie advertising of. The basic concept is that when there are times that someone doesn't had access to funds to convert into L$ for whatever reason, such as salary goes into the bank at <insert date here> but you want to buy that special offer now, but you don't have any L$, you use the card.. nothing new there...

Obviously they don't provide that service for nothing, so there is a relatively small transaction cost applied to both the user of the card and the recipient. In addition, as this is a micro-economy, those revenues would not amount to much, and certainly not enough to pay the staffing levels, so there is a minimum threshold of spending that each card holder must do each month, to negate being charged a minimum 'membership' fee.

From my knowledge of the people I have dealt with, including those shown on their website, that are close to the top of the tree, I found them very sincere and business like.

ALL The Above Is My Humble Opinion, not some reference or guarantor for their company.