Had to leave second life:((

Im sorry to say I had to close my account at second life because my Bank Abbey uk has installed a new security software called "Abbey online Verification", although its up and running and told its correctly set up, most transactions to the USA and Paypal have failed.

I have around 900$ invested in SL but i stand to lose all of it if i cant resolve this problem by
the time scale given, to reactivate my account. Around 5 weeks ago when this verification software was introduced, 4 sites I tried to join online rejected the card. I /we (my partner) have had an Visa Electron card for 6 years, and never had much trouble with it uptil now.

I cant pay my land tiers or buy anything on slex, change money or by US$ to buy L$, Im virtually out of second life.(( but I have 700$ worth of items in my inventory, about £350 worth of goods/ widescreens/mansions/boats/ helicopters/waves/ hippo rentals/ marine life and other tropical plants and fauna, a whole cinema/ etc etc

Paypal wrote me an email 4 days ago saying the bank account we held was deleted from our
Paypal account, because the back up debit card (the Electron card) is now, not accepted within these new Abbey secure verification guidelines, even my £7 premium monthly standing order was not paid on the 9th May....for no apparant reason other than it was suspicous..!

I have again written a long letter to the bank saying there new security system is causing a lot of problems and I stand to lose everything invested in second life. the cashier at the bank said that the Electron card is only for using as a swipe card or by a pin machine in a store to buy things in RL , its not for online use??? But i have seen many uk retailers online offering the visa Electron card as a valid payment???? Im waiting for a reply at this momment.

This problem seems to be one that affects transactions in the USA, and I have no idea how to resolve it??? I cant upgrade the account because you need a certain amount of funds incoming each month to do that, because only my partner works. Below is a reply from linden labs, but seems not to offer a solution for the main player in transactions and thats Paypal. Without the paypal Account Im screwed!!(



Hi there,

Thanks for contacting us about the problems with your payment method.

Our payment processor is returning a "rejected" message from your bank. This often means that your bank or CC issuer is suspicious of the transaction with Linden Lab, and has flagged it for manual review.

I suggest that you call your bank or Visa issuer and advise them of three things:

1. That you wish to verbally authorise transactions with Linden Lab and Linden Research Inc.
2. That Linden Lab's billing is based in England, and you are aware of the international nature of the transaction (that it can appear as being in Ireland, as well as the UK).
3. That you would like them to remove any blocks or flags with regard to Linden Lab or Linden Research on this account.

Once you have done this, please "update your payment method" on the website once again.

Regards,

Marc

Linden Lab Support



So, to all my many friends out there, if anybody can find these important second life people in world and explain im trying get back into second life, but not hopeful, I would be grateful. Im sorry to ask this, but hardly any of them go, or belong to forums, and I dont have any other means of contacting them.

these include:

My bussiness partner: Susan Beaumont uk
My land owner: Jacki Rickenbacker usa
My SL boyfriend: Patric34 Romano greece
My two important friends/investors Rhianna Loam wales uk
Safran Fargis ?

Has any other uk resident who uses the Electron Visa Current account to use on SL and Paypal had similar problems, could they respond please!

I will be sorry to leave second life, but seems my days are numbered because of the type of account we have.(

thanks for all your help answering my questions in forums and wish u all the best!

Mike

Michaeltv - there may be another way to get access to purchasing SL funds. I don't know if this will work or not with you being in the UK, but in America, you can buy Visa gift cards all over the place. They work for all online purchases and may not run through the new system you're talking about. I would hit a local grocery store or somewhere similar and see if you can pick one of those up. Then just change your payment method and go with that. It's going to be a hassle, because you'll have to buy a new one periodically as the old one emties out, but it may be a temporary quick-fix until you get this resolved.

Trout is right.

And you can get a prepaid credit card (proper MasterCard or Visa and not any of that Electron nonsense) in the UK.

Here's a link

http://www.creditsolveuk.com/prepaid.htm

Hi Michaeltv, I am from the uk and use a prepayed Visa card, just look for them on google.
I hope that helps you out.

Michelle

indeed, you may have to get a prepaid credit card (aka debit card) to handle it. But make sure they work with the paypal and linden labs.

People in your area of the world and play on sl might be able to inform you on useful ones

I ran into a similar issue with my bank blocking a lot of online transactions and trying to get me to use the full credit card (not happening) but pay pal works so I use it instead.

1. Set aside a few hours. Have a fortifying port and lemon, or six. Prepare a list of things that you want them to do. Call up the bank and say "I have complained about this before and got nowhere, I am extremely dissatisfied with this and I will cancel my account unless I am able to actually use my Visa account as it is meant to be." Remember the magic words when somebody is giving you the run-around: (a) "Can I take your name please" and (b) "Please put me through to your manager."

2. If that doesn't work, open a new account somewhere. Unless you have really terrible credit you should be fine. There are plenty of online banks who will be quite happy to give you a decent Visa card that you can use for online transactions. People in this country are really far too reluctant to change banks in my opinion.

It's safer to use a prepaid card, too, so consider that everything will be better once it's arranged.

FYI - while SL is still accepting these cards, I was recently informed they are trying to phase them out.

I happened to call support last week to find out about them, because I have a wad of cash sitting at home from gifts people gave me for birthday gifts that I wanted to put directly into SL, not have it go through my bank and then back out through a credit card (yes, trying to prevent my husband from seeing how much I'm filtering in again )

I wanted to make sure these gift cards are ok to use and the person I spoke to said right now the still were useable however, LL are seriously considering suspending their use "soon".

He wouldn't elaborate, so I can only assume support doesn't have details. But suffice it to say that anyone who needs to use these would be best advised to call support first to assure they are still useable!

One does end up paying extra for them though.

Ordinal is right - I think a $100.00 card has a charge of approximately $6.00 to activate it, so you lose a few bucks on the transaction. She's also right in that you should raise some hell with your bank. There's no reason in this day and age for them to have a system that prevents you from making purchases online.

I think really I was thinking about debit cards, rather than credit cards - not so much prepaid. I have a wee separate bank account with a debit card that I use for teh intarwebz. I don't know WHY I somehow got that all mixed together with prepaids. Lack of oxygen to the brain?

Even in the us the banks do this.

I have to call my bank and sit on hold for hours at least once a month! and it doesn't end with LL "looking" suspicious but will block my buying fuel for the car and food as well. with a VISA it normally takes a couple of calls to get to the proper person to speak with. but then its back on track for a month or two.

I don't know about the electron card your talking about or the banks in the UK but it seems like everyone complains there is only one or two banks, my that would suck, there must be 150 different owned banks in my city area alone

The OPs electron card is a debit card, but not a particularly versatile one, nor is it popular with merchants.

Unless the bank upgrades the card to a Visa Debit, or hands over a credit card, the prepaid option is probably best, albeit as Ordinal correctly suggests, obtainable at a premium.

You are not getting any customer service from your bank! In this day and age when banks in the UK are falling over themselves to get your business you really should be.

Take a hard line with them and DEMAND they resolve it so you can go about your business unhindered...tsk..this sort of thing REALLY bugs me..

i really hope you get this sorted out...good luck and a few ~squishes~ to fortify you

Fai x

Have you tried buying Lindens in SLExchange, then transfer to your SL Acct? You could then convert to US$ in Lindex so you can pay your tier. If there's a will, there's a way.

Change your bank. Visa Electron is pretty rubbish, you want a plain visa debit card.

If you can get your PayPal account up and running, they have a plug-in which generates credit card numbers that charge back to PayPal. It's intended as a security measure, so you don't have to enter your real credit card numbers online, but it would probably for this as well.

I completely agree.

I feel for you. Stuff like this can be really aggravating; I've had problems with banks in the past (though not SL related).

My advice would be to try to talk to your bank to get this sorted out. If you find them unreasonable and unable/unwilling to help you actually use your money, I'd say try to find another bank or credit card.

thanks all for your replys, but i cant upgrade our account to get a full visa card, we dont have the credit rating to do that, we tried before! Our credit rating is like -99% unfortunetly.

The slex xchange i use every day until this message appeared from paypal that does all the slex transactions:


Dear pat haydon,



You recently attempted to transfer funds from your bank account.

Your bank has declined the funds transfer.

We have charged your credit card to cover your payment to [email]paypal@slexchange.com[/email].





-----------------------------------
Transaction Details
-----------------------------------


Transaction Type: Instant Bank Transfer payment to [email]paypal@slexchange.com[/email]
Transaction ID: 37205447AB892553T
Transaction Date: 26 Apr. 2008
Transaction Amount: £16.05 GBP
Reason:
The bank is disputing the Direct Debit Instruction (DDI).




Thank you for using PayPal!


The day after we got another one that said it took the account out of paypal: below is the actual wording:



On 26 Apr. 2008, we attempted to transfer 16.05 GBP from your bank account, ending in 0779. This transfer was returned by your bank on 7 May 2008 for the reason below:

The bank is disputing the Direct Debit Instruction (DDI).


As a result, this bank account has been removed from your PayPal account. Please contact your bank for more information or add a new bank account. Please do not contact PayPal because this is entirely an issue between the account holder and their bank.


Yours sincerely,
PayPal

mike )

Mike - a prepaid credit card does not have any impact on your credit rating at all. It's like a gift card. pay for it at the grocery store with cash, and you can use it anywhere that takes credit cards, including online. Problem solved. In the meantime, change banks and get the card situation sorted out.

I have just finished printing the letter to the bank, but I have never seen prepaid visa cards in the uk before?? Havent a clue where to appy for one, most /prepaid /debit stuff/ credit cards are not normally available in the uk. i cant change banks I/we dont have have the nessary ID or income, they need a passport or driving license, the new photo one, i only have the old paper one, which they dont accept, banks dont take bus passes or medical cards now as ID of who your are....it has to be a passport or driving license backed by 2 utility bills. then you have to have a certain amount coming into the account, to be able to get the visa card your all talking about, They do basic accounts for payments of social security payments, but only gets u an ATM card, no debit or credit cards or overdarft facilities!

Hope some one has contacted one or two of my important friends for me? they could then get in touch here if they wish....!!!

thanx so much
(

Mike

Hi Michaelatv, remember me?, if you can fund your paypal account, I'll gladly trade you RL currency for L$ at the same rate you can buy L$ from LL, however we'll have to work out what the charge for me to accept your funds and add that to the PP.

And folks, I know normally you would cow on about someone offering to do this but, Michaelatv is my resident, and I beleive we trust each other enough.
IM me if you need Micheala

It doesn't have to be Visa. Check this site:

http://www.what-prepaid-card.co.uk/pay-as-you-go/no-monthly-prepaid-cards.html

Can't say for the UK, but here pre paid Visa's are available in just about every supermarket, Convenience Store, Walmart and KMart, etc. Also, if you do have a paper driver's license, why can't you just exchange it for a photo license. When we switched over a few years ago here, that's what we did.