UK Credit Card policies - never gonna work with SL ?

Hey Guys,

Was trying to go premium, so trying to add my UK Mastercard to the account, but always get :

Sorry, your payment failed. Please try another payment method

Then it occured to me, its too long since I registered with SL, but pretty sure they don't have my address, and maybe mistaken, but do they actually have my real name ?

The credit card entry page has checkbox for 'authorise LL' / card number / expiry date ...not even a field for the 'security part' - the bit where you always enter the last 3 numbers on the back of the card ...

So really this is always gonna fail purely due to the fact that there is no way Mastercard can verify who I am ????

Am i missing something here ?

thanks Adec..

(As to paypal ...well tried to verify the account, but it now wants a direct debit setup to fully verify ?? .. ehhm no thanks unless you can set one up for $0 a month)

I don't use my credit card with SL, so can't comment on whether it works for us UK users. I do use a verified PayPal account though. Direct Debit doesn't mean they take an amount monthly from your account, it's not a Standing Order. Direct Debit means they can take monies due, so unless you owe anything, nothing will be paid.

I have used PayPal for years, works very well for internet purchasing

I had no problems registering my UK mastercard 2 weeks ago.

Try deleting the payment information and create it again.


Cheers

..well due to all the above re lack of authentication when using the card i'm kinda heading towards the paypal approach for now ... it'll take an extra 3-5 days to setup, but more secure with LLs present setup...

I have my SL account linked to my UK Matercard. Iy took a while for it to work it's way through the channels but that might have been due to me doing things on a busy day.

I managed to get through by phone to LL's billing geek recently. Seemed they needed to hack something in their network before it could re-accept my cc details.

Billing Geek!!
Thats not a very nice thing to call some one who tried to help you!!

I think it much worse than a "phone weasel".

The Merriam-Webster dictionary defines the word geek as " A carnival performer often billed as a wild man whose act usually includes biting the head off a live chicken or snake "

there are other definitions, but this is the first one it lists.

Sounds kind of harsh but if a billing geek can bite the head off a phone weasle then I'd rather be a geek.

-Atashi

i have had no problems with signing up with my debit card from the uk - its all gone through fine - except my bank charges me £1.50 per lindon transaction - which is a bummer but ahhh well buy in bulk thats what i have learned.......

I, for one, welcome our new geeky overlords.

That's been a problem for at least a week .

You can see what RL name/payment info LL has on file for you at: https://secondlife.com/account/manage_balance.php

Put $25 and click Next (you can still cancel out on the next page ), it's at the bottom of the page, then just close your browser to cancel the credit.

The people who were having trouble just had a blank name on file, which would keep any credit card processor from accepting the charge.

I'm not in the UK and I think this is the exact problem I'm having. Clicking the update button erases the information..including I am supposing your real name, and naturally the credit card processor has nothing with which to verify new card information - so, unless I get a card issued in my SL name, I guess I am SOL for updating and continuing the friggin game. Beautiful job LL.

yes you need an international card and your card may not be international. I'm told this never happens by people in SL yet I have seen it enough to know it does hehe to know that having a credit card and having one that will work outside your country are two different issues. Mastercard is the worste though. Call up mastercard and see if they will replace your non international card with an international one. I ended up just using visa all the time because it came to me as an international card, but I also have a mastercard that is not usable in the US so two solutions. Beg mastercard for a different card or apply for a visa from scratch

that's the solution. Not sure if paypal will require you to have an international card or not to open an account and if you ever intend to remove Lindens from the game or rent estate land you might want to consider starting the process in setting up your paypal now so you dont get caught unable to get what you want when you want it

Anyhow good luck

p.s. even if you can get Linden labs to accept your mastercard its likely that your going to run into this problem a lot if you do any amount of purchasing on the net so might as well work in getting an international card so as to avoid heachaces in the future ...

They aren't new.

ah Kitty ..its never shown my RL name under Billing Info on File ..guess its a blank name... excellent ...well at least i know why now .. lol

(recently it was showing Mastercard but the old credit card numbers - so billing wiped all the old CC data so I could add this card from scratch... but it never showed a RL name.. )

**Wilhelm ...yeah its an international card really, I use it on business trips all the time.

oh dear. i had lots of private estate land and a mainland 512 parcel until november/december, when estate price increases and personal billing issues saw me selling the lot and more or less dropping off the face of second life for a few months. thing is, *because* of the billing issues, i changed my name on my account to prevent LL *wrongfully* taking an amount they had scheduled.

when i say "changed my name", i mean, i removed the last letter of my first name (eg. walke) because i knew that would be enough for my credit card company to reject any payment requests from LL.

but now i'm increasing my use of sl, looking forward to sculptie prims, and on the verge of buying lots of land for building projects again...and i can't change my real name back to my exact cardholder name via the website. i'm assuming i have to email somebody at LL, but who exactly? i will not be able to buy anything via my SL account (Lindens, etc.) until my name reads correctly.

I updated my UK Mastercard info on my account during some time when billing wasn't messed up. It seemed ok...

which part of the website are you using to try to change your real name ? i think i'm being blonde and cant see it under My Account

naw, my lengthy waffling probably confused you. At the end of last year it was definitely possible to change the real name on your SL account. As stated above, I deliberately changed my name to prevent a wrongful credit card transaction by LL. I'm fairly sure your real name was updated with your card details, but that's no longer possible so it appears we're in limbo until LL fix it.

You would think that as they have now moved the billing section of SL to the UK, your card wouldn't be an issue . Fortunately I signed up over 3 years ago and used a Visa card.

well I signed up (went premium) with a Visa card, but it's no longer usable because i changed my name at the end of last year. do i still write to [email]billing@lindenlab.com[/email] with issues like this? do they respond to emails nowadays?

Would seem the sensible thing to do, however as in most cases (paypal being one, and banks even) changing names/credit cards, is never easy, Paypal had me fax them details and then they had to phone me (part of the process apparently) to actually speak to a human, and ask me questions about all the details I had sent, before they would alter a typo I made. 5 weeks later, all was sorted.

oh, i don't mean I changed my name with my bank, paypal or CC company. SL simply had the correct cardholder name, but because they wouldn't let me remove my CC details or change my card number during a crisis, i changed the cardholder name they had for me instead (changed it to a false name, that is). as it stands, mismatched cardholder name/card number details are enough to prevent a UK credit card transaction being approved, so when LL applied for the money, it was rejected.

..after that, I got an OMG you owe us money and your account will be terminated in x days email, but eventually I managed to speak to somebody in San Francisco over the phone and she recognised the tier mistake and apologised. if only i'd asked her to fix my cardholder name details back then too.

Edit: OK, I've changed my payment method from credit card (which i started out with one year ago and used many times) to Paypal, and I'm able to buy L$ dollars again. LL really need to explicitly request cardholder name information like they did before, if they want to avoid problems with CC holders in the UK.