billing cycles

i have a question about billing dates. Are they the last day of the passing billing cycle? Or are they the first day for the next billing cycle?

In other words... If i ter up on my miling date, will I pay more for the passing cycle? Or will it start on the upcomming new billing cycle. I'm about to buy land So i was wondering

any info apreciated sometimes this forum works faster than the LL email help

~Lefty

last day of the previous cycle.

if you are set to 1/2 sim tier, and in the last month you only used 1/8 of sim max at anytime, then you are charged only for 1/8 sim tier fees.

so if i tier up ON the day of the quoted billing cycle. I'm charged the increased fee just for that day then, huh?

~Lefty

Land Fees

Land Use Fees are monthly recurring charges for the peak amount of Second Life land held during the previous 30 days, minus the land allocation you received as part of your Premium membership plan. Please choose the ownership tier that best reflects the amount you want to be charged each month for land use fees.

When you indicate in Second Life that you want to add to your land holdings, you will be alerted if the new acquisition moves you into a higher tier requiring a greater monthly land use fee. The new amount is indicated below. If you choose not to move into the higher cost tier, simply choose not to complete the land acquisition.

if it falls in the billing period, you're charged for the max tier you use.
if you use 1/2 sim tier for one day. that's what you get charged with.
if at no time you use no more than 1/8 sim tier then you only get charged 1/8 sim tier, even if you were set to use up to 1/2 sim tier.

eh, nevermind... i give up

Sigh... I understand what you're asking Lefty.

I believe, technically, the date is the last day of the last cycle. I'm not entirely sure though. Anytime I've changed tier level near my bill date, I've just played it safe and did it a day or two before or after, depending on which way I'm going.

Yes, that is the LAST day of your billing cycle. If you buy more land on that day, you will be charge the higher tier. Trust me on this one, I know for experiance. I really wish LL would make that a little clearer.

THANK YOU dante i'm glad somebody finally replied to my question rather than quoting from the wiki!

~Lefty

Yes Dnate is correct as I know from experience, too.

And let me mention one other thing. When that last day of the tier billing cycle hits, you might be finding yourself having to tier down, sometimes by just some small amount because what happens, sometimes sales occur or you just decide you want to go to the next lower level, which might be quite a jump. So you might be seeing yourself with, say, only a 512 or 1024 amount that puts you just a little bit above the tier level (or even 16m for that matter if you happened to have land chopped up).

So as you know, even if you are just that little bit over, the system will still bill you up to the next highest level. You have to be sure to look on your account in "group" land to see all the grouped land because under "my land" it could say "you have no land" and you might mistakenly think, oh, I did manage to unload that piece.

Usually the system will tell you "you have X meters to acquire" which is a sign that you could be going down to the next tier level. If you have a message that says "you have X meter to acquire" that is a whole level down, the system will only bill you for what you actually own *when it is individually owned*. It "knows" not to overbill you.

But if you have that land as group land, it will *not* bill at the lower level. So if you have group land that has 1024 open to acquire, you need to manually go in there and undo that contribution to lower your tier bill or the system will not know to not bill you. Hope that makes sense.

Another aspect of the billing system: it hits at midnight California time -- or so it seems. So you might think, oh, I have until midnight to dump this land before the tier bill hits. HOWEVER, sometimes it hits at 11:43 p.m. if somebody at LL just wants to go home early or something LOL. So beware that if you think you have that window until midnight, it works most days but sometimes doesn't so it pays to off-tier way before then.

Thanx for the detailed info-- there were a couple of points there I was curious about myself.

Its always good to see the more experienced players helping out those of us who've not had occasion to get burned....

Don't forget, If you donate land to a group it counts just as if you bought land, even if you didn't. I tiered up once three days before my billing cycle was over and I wasn't going to buy land untill the next billing cycle. Without understaning it all, I added my tier to a group that had no land, thinking i wouldn't get charged until I bought land. Then I got charged at the higher tier level, even though the group didnt even own land. I still don't think the instructions are clear about this, and alot of people don't understand it. I think it is still an unfair billing practice and something should be done about it. When you donate land to a group, SL should warn you that you are going to be charged at a higher tier rate at that time and ask you if you are sure. Something like "This transaction put you in the next land Tier at $45 a month, do you agree to these terms?"


What do you all think?