Negative USD balance but credit card on file

Hi everyone, I have probably been here long enough to know, but I just noticed something on my account summary page.

I have a red -$5 showing on my account, and yet my credit card details are the same as they have always been. How could this happen?. I have a premium account and I am worried I could lose my plot of land?

Has anyone else got this? I am curious to know before I contact the Lindens. Thanks

They give you at least a day to sell off Lindens and charge your USD account before billing your credit card/paypal. If it's gone like that longer than a day that might be worth looking into. Check your account history.

Yep, lots of people are asking about this.

The important thing to understand is that just because your card has always worked in the past does not mean it will work now.

Before doing anything else, go right now and re-enter your payment information. If it doesn't accept it, you need to contact your credit card company (not LL) to find out why the didn't accept the authorization.

If it does accept the payment information, go back to your account page and go the to "Increase Your Credit" link in the right-side menu. On that page you can manually add money to your balance so it won't be negative It's a minimum payment of $25, so if you owe less than that, you will now have a positive balance that be used to buy lindens, or just left there for next month's bill.

If the "Increase Your Credit" charge fails, call your credit card company to find out why they rejected the charge. It only takes a few minutes, and it way easier and more effective than trying to get an answer from Linden Lab.




My accounts always get billed right away, so I don't the "give you a day" thing is standard.

Yes, thankyou Ava that seemed to do the trick, although I have to say I have been here a little over a year and I have never had to do that before. I didnt even need to update my card details, just increased my USD limit and my account summary page looks fine now.

I will have to keep a closer eye on my account page hehe I nearly had a heart attack when I saw the red balance.

Thanks to both of you for replying so quickly, I can go to work now, safe in the knowledge that my 512 wont get reposessed ;P

Thanks for letting us know what worked, Oh. I guarantee you we will get asked this same question again, so it's useful to get feedback.

The red negative dollar balance has happened to me often since I've signed up for a premium account. At first I was concerned but then I realized that LL was just late every month charging me. It has always self-corrected after a day or two and I was in the black again. Though its still something I keep my eye on.

Yes, thanks for that Plato, I will definately be keeping a closer eye on my account, must have gotten a bit too lazy and complacent, hehe that will teach me

I usually just cash out enough Lindens to cover tier the night before it's due...then I don't have to worry about it being negative, even temporarily.

If you already have an adequate USD balance, yes, they take it right away. But before I was an SL business person I always saw my island fees debited in my account history (negative USD balance) a full day before my credit card was charged. And every time they billed successfully and my balance went back to zero.

No, I meant I have a $0 USD balance, and plenty of lindens, but that it still billed my credit card right away.

Or so it seemed to me... I checked my account history, and the payment actually happened 39 minutes after the billing, so there was a short time in the middle of the night where I had a neg balance.

And now that you mention it, I realize this is the first time I've had a monthly tier payment (my memberships are annual) but did NOT have a positive USD balance to cover it. So this one time actually getting billed is the sum total of my experience, and clearly not a statistically significant sample.

Considering all that, I would guess that any delay is not actually intentional on LL's part, but just a byproduct of how scheduling works in their billing software. Kind of like how some people get their stipends promptly, while others wait until the end of the day, maybe?