Difference Between Premium and Basic Account

The only difference I see is that a Premium account:

1. Costs $US9.95 a month

and

2. allows one to own land.

* * *

A basic account:

1. Is free.

2. Can't own land.

Owning land is the only benefit mentioned on secondlife.com for having a premium account.
Is there anything else?

-infrared

a weekly stipend of 300L$ for the Premiums..

You can enter to exclusives "Pay info used" land.... if any....

If you buy lindens you get the same honor. The biggest differences are the weekly stipend and the 512 of tier free mainland.

dont forget the snob factor!

a lot of premiums are snobby about it.

Interestingly very few charter members are - they seem to be quiet about it.

When the grid is overloaded, residents will 'supposedly' get unrestricted logins where as the freeloaders will be restricted

If you subscribe on an annual basis, the weekly stipend offsets over half of your cost.

You can then buy land, and if you don't choose to use that option, you can donate 512m of tier to a group of your choosing.

premium accounts also get special hats with funny earflaps. you don't see them because we only wear them to our secret parties.

perhaps i've said too much.

o.0

the first rule about funny earflaps is that there are no funny earflaps...

At least you didn't mention the Secret Handshake Anim that appears in our Inventory.

I think its time to call in "The Cleaner"

to take care of a few loose ends...

I have an Older "Paid For" Basic account, I paid a One time $10.00 fee, and I still get a small Stipend. It was also required my account be verified, so I'm not Blocked out of anywhere.

So, the Only difference for me is Not being able to own Land.

Angel.

Premium accounts can own mainland parcels. But any account can own land on private islands, and the land there is better managed.

Premium accounts get a weekly stipend, currently L$300 per week. If you add up all the L$ you get from that, plus your sign-up bonus, it would be cheaper to buy L$ on Lindex, when and if you need them, and remain Basic.

Premium accounts get free monthly tier on the first 512 <2 of land that they buy on the mainland. So you could have a 512 M2 parcel, and it costs you nothing to maintain, after the initial purchase. But 512 M2 isn't enough to do anything much with, so you end up buying more mainland to add to it, and paying more tier to LL each month, over and above your membership dues. I compared that to what I pay right now for a lovely parcel on a well-managed private island sim, and anyone holding over 4096 M2 of land on the private island pays LESS per month in maintenance than the mainland does, even afte factoring in the mainland owner getting free tier on the first 512 M2. Basic wins again.

IF, and it is a HUGE IF, LL ever decides to give "priority access" or other perks to Premium account hoilders, then going Premium might be a benefit. But as it stands, it costs more to go Premium than to stay Basic and buy L$. The only benefit of being Premium is if you really like owning property amid the anarchy of the mainland.

And that even assumes you actually PAY for each Basic account, at $9.95 USD each one-time fee, rather than stealing additional 'free' accounts by withholding payment info and lying on registration forms. You only legally get ONE "FREE" Basic account.

For me, the choice is clear. It's far better to remain Basic. I have payment info on file, and I show up as "Payment Info Used", just like Premium users do. No difference. The only thing I can't do is buy mainland, which I do not want!

Well I went Premium, bought a 512m piece of land, plopped a little Japanese house on it and I"m stoked. It feels good to have a home in SL.

Appreciate all the responses to this thread.

-infrared

The first thing I did when I went Premium was plop a little japanese house on my newly purchased 512m plot of land. I miss those quiet days in the Zen Gardens of Achemon. Thanks for your post. BTW, you have a kick-ass avatar name.

300 L$ per week is worth about $4.65 US per month (based on 276:1 net sale value).

With an annual subscription at $6 per month, that means it is costing you $1.34 per month to have 512m2 to call your own and make a little home/store on.

IF you're lucky enough to be getting L$500 per week, you're in profit on an annual sub to about $1.75 per month *plus* the 512m2 tier, so that's why people went premium back then. Even when L$ were only worth 330:1 or so, it was still a pretty good deal- not far from the 300/week now in value. Paying $10 per month isn't a good deal, though. That $72 annual cost isn't out of scale with having to buy a box to even just install most MMO games/etc, though.

Your figures are a bit off there Ace....

If you are working on L$276 to $1 (US) then L$300 is only actually worth $1.09 (unless the first 276 are worth $1 and the last L$24 are worth $3.65!!)

So using an annual subscription you are actually paying $4.91 to have 512m2 land.

300 * 4.3 (weeks in a month) / 276 is actually us$4.67.

Sorry.... misread.... and forgot about the month bit... my bad... ignore me!

it's alright, me correcting math is very rare so i had to jump to get that one in

When I joined SL as a basic I was able to use this forum for a short time then it stopped me. Since I became premium I have never had any difficulty in using the forum.

Does this mean that only premium accounts get full use of the forum or was I affected by a technical problem?

You have to be verified to use the forums. Having a CC on file I think is enough to use the forums.

and you showed us why it is so rare with calculations like those. Hehe

You dont need to be premium to see the forums, i am basic but have payment info on file.