Expiration of Basic Accounts

I'm trying to upgrade to premium, but because I am unwilling to give Linden my credit card details (not because of concerns about fraud, but because i worked for the billing disputes department of a credit card company for three years and am wary of problems that can be caused by continuous authority debits) it is made incredibly difficult. I have a paypal account which is linked to my bank account, however Paypal also want my card details so my paypal account can have "Verified" status (which Linden Labs demand).

While I am trying to sort this out, I noticed that my Basic account has an expiration date on it. I was unaware that a basic account could actually expire, but it gets worse. The date says "Dec-0". Can someone please tell me what the hell this means? December what year? Do I only have a month to get my upgrade sorted out?

What's going on!?

When you add a credit card as payment method, you do not commit to a continuous payment agreement. Basic accounts no longer expire. That's why the expiry date isn't valid.

When did Basic accounts expire previously, out of curiosity?

there was a time when all AVs had a 2 week free trial. At the end of that trial you had the choice to become either premium or a 9.95 paid basic.

That changed with the advent of the your first AV is free system.

I've heard that it was a 6 month trial. It seems to make sense if previously they expired that an expiry date field was built into the account data base. I'm a software engineer in RL, so it comes as no suprise to me that LL have chosen not to remove this field, as it would require them to rebuild most of the database system (a costly enterprise if ever there was one). It looks like they've instead just filled these fields with dummy data. Thanks Walker, you've allayed my fears on this.

However, regarding the credit card - it most certainly is a continuous authority debit, unless you opt to pay the $72 for the year upfront, otherwise they have to bill you monthly - which is precisely what a continuous authority debit is; where you have given a company permission to bill you on a regular basis. Otherwise you would need to log on and give your card details every month for each individual payment.

I don't mean to suggest that I doubt Linden's honesty, but I have seen too many cases where honest, legitimate companies have, through sheer incompetence rather than dishonesty, failed to cancel a continuous authority debit when requested by the customer. I don't know about Amex, but Visa and Mastercard regulations mean that the merchant (Linden in this case) is the only one who can cancel a continous authority debit - the customer can't and the credit card issuer is obliged to pay (Visa and Mastercard regulations are aimed pretty much at protecting retailers, not customers are card issuers).

This can result in several months worth of payments being taken, along with numerous phonecalls on the part of the customer (me) while they try to get it sorted out. There is a Chargeback proceedure, but Visa and Mastercard demand that the retailer (Linden) be given a grace period to sort it out themselves before any dispute proceedure can be enacted.

That's why I am wary about giving out my card details

Wow, very interesting Conan.

Thanks for the insight

Some sites will create a deal where the system automatically draws from your account once every month/year/whatnot. This goes through PayPal itself so cancelling the subscription is just a matter of click, confirm, done.

The way SL has it now might be easier for them though, I don't know.

My original trial was the Fourteen day Free trial, Once i got over the Initial shock comparing SL to what i had endured in TSO (That took almost the whole two weeks) i couldn't wait to pay my $9.95 fast enough to Join.

I Understand your concerns Conan, But they come from being exposed to the worst case scenarios of the Credit Industry on a Daily basis where persons Not employed the same way you are may only encounter a Hand Full of times the same problems in the course of their lives. You might be Just a touch Jaded.
I've been reading these, and other Forums regarding SL, and have heard complaint after complaint about everything from Teens to script bugs. If you want to hear Bellyaching, this is the place to be, but i don't even once recall Reading of any serious problems with Billing other than slow Paypal, or certain overseas cards not being accepted. I Grant you i haven't read EVERYTHING that has ever been posted in All the SL forums everywhere, But i've seen a Large slice, and i think if this ever was an issue with SL, i would have read it by Now. Still, I respect your choice, and obviously so does LL, because it HAS chosen to allow accounts without CC verification. When I signed on, I didn't have the Choice. If i had,, I'm just paranoid enough to perhaps eschew using CC info myself.

Angel.

You're probably right. It's just not convenient financially for me to pay using my credit card either. I'll inevitably end up giving paypal my credit card details to verify my paypal account and still pay from my bank account. Being from the UK, it's just a little more complicated for me to upgrade. It's possible though, but it will take time to sort out. My main concern was that my account would expire before I got the chance. Glad to hear that's not going to happen.

As long as you can get payment info on file it is possible to upgrade to premium without ever charging anything to your CC or Paypal. When I went premium I did it by selling L$ I had earned in world then paying the $72 from my US$ balance on my account.

OK, you're right. To an extent. Just adding a credit card as a payment method doesn't put a continuous payment method in place. Setting up a premium account however, would. There is no difference between annual, quarterly or monthly though. They are all automatically renewing unless you cancel.

I question how much of this information about cancelling continous authority payments is UK specific and down to urban myths propagated by the credit card industry. I say that because I once had problems with my ISP continuing to take money despite contract cancellation. The Visa company customer services robots were adamant that it was down to the merchant to stop taking the payments and all I could do was dispute them each month until they stopped. Trading Standards on the other hand advised that I merely had to give formal written notice to the credit card company that the continous authority contract had been terminated and also written notice to the supplier. Any further attempt to charge my card would not only be invalid after that, but unlawful.

The ISP immediately stopped taking my money. The CC company apologised and resolved the mess from their end.