Why is PayPal no longer an SL option?

I have a friend I am trying to help become a premium account. Her alt did not have any options for choosing PayPal when she clicked on "Update Payment Method".

I must confess, I didn't quite believe her so I made her send me screenshots and it's true. She really does not have PayPal options when trying to upgrade her existing avatar.

I thought maybe the problem was with existing avatars, so I told her to create a brand spanking new alt (she's new and not attached to her current one) and she went through the screens to set up her new alt and when it came to the upgrade to premium screen, the ONLY choice was credit card for new alts as well!

My friend didn't want to, but she tried using her debit card. Her bank (like so many others) immediately declined it for fraud because Second Life seems to be deemed high risk for fraud. She does not want to bugger around with her credit card fraud team; she just wants to use PayPal.

What the heck is going on?

This is just a random guess, but maybe its something to do with the verification of accounts? I dunno, but I would say its just a bug that you'd have to call up LL to get fixed. I use Paypal to pay for my account and haven't received any notice that they were ending that agreement which would be required before they just cut it off.

My advice, take out a ticket on it and see what comes of it. Seems odd that they would risk losing a good portion of their population by cutting out a major payment method but then again it is LL -rolls eyes-

EDIT: My credit card company has blocked Blizzard even though I used it earlier this year for World of Warcraft, so im guessing thats a plan for any online world?

I use PayPal for my own av, and that seems to work just fine. It just seems to have gone missing as an option for new avs to use.

I've had bother with Paypal over the last few weeks, and I've ended up transferring money into paypal, waiting 10 days for it to clear, then using it to pay LL. Shouldn't have to do that - ought to be able to pay LL and paypal automatically takes the money from the bank account then (it's verified etc) but there you go.

I upgraded to Premium during the week, and was able to use Paypal ok (using the method above). Has your friend set up her PayPal account to work with LL? I would suggest updating the payment method before she tries to upgrade, do the two entirely seperately so PayPal is in as a payment method before she gets to upgrading at all.

It's in the "update payment method" link that paypal is missing (and for new avs, in the start-up screens).

I had to set my main and alt up on separate email addresses before the alt was given the PayPal option. I originally had them on the same one.

This happens because LL uses a European company to process their credit cards. So, when banks see an American company using a European company to process their credit card payments, a red flag is raised for possible fraud.

Actually, the fraud department at my bank raise a red flag for any foreign transaction, regardless if an American company is involved anywhere in the process.

More the likly LL has taken it out and not told anyone like they do every time they decide to screw us.

I had the same issue after already haveing used PayPal and I contacted the Lindens and was told it was due to my useing a hotmail e-mail account, so I switched to my regular e-mail and got the paypal option back and it works fine
(also it would not work with a yahoo account either)

apologies i misread your post - thought it was just in the upgrade account bit. I'd say she's going to have to get in touch with them, it can't be something they've done on purpose (otherwise they're losing too many customers who use paypal).

It only takes a 5 minute phone to most banks to get them to clear the transaction for you. There's no fraud investigation or anything complicated. They just need to hear personally from the account holder that charges to "Second Life" are authorized.

Well, the Linden response was quite funny, if you overlook the incredible frustration it creates. The (almost immediate) response was that there "should be" a paypal option. That's it. It *should* be there. No response when she reopened the ticket and said it *wasn't* there.