Help! $25 US equals $0 Lindens :-(

hi all.

i'm new to second life ( just a week old) and i decided to buy some lindens from the LindenX page on the SL website. Or at least i thought i did. it told me that I had to buy $25 US minimum so I did but somewhere along the line something strange has gone on. the money shows up in my account as $25 US but I want to turn that into Lindens but i don't know how. i have no money at all in-world and i'd like to know where my twenty five bucks went because i'm confused. i should have nearly 6000 lindens...so where are they? i've tried buying more lindens, both in world and on the website and it tells me that my billing limit has been reached. the SL website is next to useless in explaining anything so can someone explain what I'm doing wrong? how do i turn my balance of twenty five dollars into lindens?

If you look on the My Account page, on the left hand side, you should see a "Buy L$" option. Click that, and you will be given an option to buy L$ from the USD$ that you have in your account. Unless this is what you've already tried...?

It sounds like rather than buy lindens, you added US $'s to your account. Your account contains a balance of both $L lindens and $US dollars. Any account
charges will be automatically deducted from the $US balance before hitting your payment method on file (Credit card or Paypal). You can convert your $US balance to $L lindens on the Buy $L page

https://secure-web16.secondlife.com/currency/buy.php

I think your purchases of lindens in world will also be drawn from your current $US balance first. But i have not tried this to find out.

I've tried that. That's how I thought it worked but I get the following error message:

"We are unable to complete your request.
• This transaction would exceed your monthly billing limit by US$9.7. You have already billed US$25.00 of your monthly billing limit is US$25.00.
• Couldn't reserve order.
• The system encountered an error while processing your order, please try again. "

And I've had the same message for the past 48hrs. Help someone.

Normally, yes, but there have been a lot of threads from people who weren't able to convert the USD balance to L$ when they had this issue with their first transaction. The system seems to count the attempt to buy L$ as going over the day 0-1 total limit of 25USD...the OP may be stuck until the limit increases on day 2.

Not sure if this is any help but you get a similar message when paying by Paypal, I think - if you exceed your limit. If you are paying via Paypal then you can alter the limit within your P/P account.

As this has gone on for more than 24 hours, try looking in Knowledge Base and seeing if they can suggest anything to help?

It was also reported that one could successfully place a LindeX limit order and have it filled using that US$ credit, even when a market order (the simple "Buy L$" method) was blocked for new accounts. I believe one has to enable the "Advanced" Linden Dollar Exchange Setting for the account in order to place limit orders. Every time I've suggested it on this forum, though, those threads' OPs never replied with success or failure, so I don't really know whether this actually worked.

It may be worth investigating anyway because a limit order will get a rate about 3.5% better than a market order. A limit order will fill in minutes if placed for L$1 less than the lowest Open Buy Order.

It is just a matter of time. LL lets you purchase 10 dollars worth of lindens the first day. This increases over time. And the timer starts from your first purchase, not the first day you joined up. So try buying less than 10 dollars worth the first time. By the second day you should be able to purchase up to 100 dollars worth of lindens. You can see the exact limits by clicking on the billing and trading limits link on the left side of your account page.

Hope that helps.

Also, there is no "minimum purchase". You must have mis-read the information.

If you want to get around the purchase limits (which should be lifted automatically within a few days), set up an account at http://www.slexchange.com

Fund it with a credit card or PayPal. Buy SLL (L$) on their exchange. Keeping your browser open, log on to SL in another window. Click the SL Exchange "withdraw" button, and your funds will be delivered to your avatar.

Alternatively, make the withdrawal from any SL Exchange ATM in world.

There is when you increase your USD balance...no minimum if you go directly to the L$ buy.



It seems like it should have increased by now though, if it had been 48ish hours when you originally posted. If you follow this link, which column of the 'Resident Monthly Limits' table is highlighted blue?

http://www.secondlife.com/currency/describe-limits.php

From what's been posted in the past, it isn't working that way. Once they make the 25USD purchase, the system will not let them convert it to L$ until the limit increases on day 2. Basically, it's treating the attempted L$ purchase as if it exceeds the 25USD limit, rather than deducting it from the USD balance. Once they hit day 2, it WILL deduct from that balance first.

I'm also not sure it's clear to new Residents that they can buy the L$ directly...increasing the USD balance first isn't necessary.

This is still happening -- ran out of cash and tried to out fit my avie with an acceptable look, and had to add billing info (didn't need to before). In world, I noticed I had about a 5.00 spending limit or something like that, which wouldn't buy me enough L to buy a skin, hair, and outfit, so I headed to the website to see if I could get a larger amount. I saw that I could increase my balance by a minimum of $25, which I did.

Sadly this had the effect of completely locking me away from transferring it to lindens. Both the in world and web site interfaces now tell me that I've already used up my purchase limit for the day. The $25 still shows as being available in the balance, so I guess nothing's been lost assuming I get purchase capabilities back tomorrow. Clearly the interfaces are checking the account purchase limits before checking the current account balance, which I doubt is the intended behavior.

Just wanted to let people know this seems to still be happening. Its very confusing and, truthfully, stressful as it is dealing with real money. I don't feel that what is going on is in any way made clear by the messages; good thing I tried a forum search first otherwise I would have been very concerned that my $25 had basically been stolen

-Payton

Yes, the way they calculate whether or not you've hit your purchase limit is silly and confusing. The mere act of transferring $US to your account seems to count as a "purchase", even though you haven't bought anything.

As others have said, the simplest thing to do is to make any small purchase that the system will allow (e.g., $10 worth). Then wait a few days to buy more L$.

As annoying as they are, the purchase limits are there for everyone's protection. They help prevent thieves from using stolen credit cards to buy L$ and then sell them to unsuspecting people on eBay.

If you are in a hurry, you can always buy L$ from SLX. But since 25US$ are already tied up, you may want to wait until your spending limit is increased. It goes up pretty quickly in just a few days.

This is why I always purchase L$ through SLexchange.com. Easier and faster and no hassle. You'll need to go to the website, sign up, and verify your account in-world (they will provide instructions). Very straightforward and after that it's fairly smooth sailing.

Has anyone ever figured out a way around this? Or what is going on? I am having the exact same experience as Serendipity.

Buy L$ in-world or use 'Linden Dollar Exchange' link for your first purchase, not 'Increase Your Credit.' Otherwise, wait the two days for your limits to increase and/or go to SLX.

What's going on is that the system (for some reason) thinks you're trying to exceed your initial $25 limit, rather than convert part of it. It's a dumb setup, but that's how it is.

Edit: Oh, have you tried Qie's suggestion on post #7? It'd be great to know if that worked.