Running a business - managing money

Hello fellow residents,

I'm running a business in SL and these days I'm even making some money off it. The question is - where to keep it safest? I'm not American. I've read that non-US citizens can ask to be sent checks in the mail - is that really the only way to get one's earnings? I would rather have it deposited into an account.

Then, also - where do my fellow business owners store their money? It is not enough money to warrant my taking out a check very regularly. Is it safest to keep it as one's avatars Linden dollars, for weeks or months on end, or for instance to put it in one's SLX account?

I haven't been able to find information about this topic.

Thanks in advance for your help,

Xylo

For my first withdrawl I revieved a cheque from LL by mail. It's nice as a souvenir, but it's very expensive to cash in. First you pay 15 USD to LL for the transaction costs, and then about 15 Euros to my own bank in Europe. Transaction time at least two weeks or more.

Now I do withdrawls through PayPall. First convert L$ to USD on the linden-site, then transfer it to your PayPal account. From PayPal it gets transferred to my European bank account. All takes about 10 days or less. Total costs: 1 USD.

About where to save your L$: I just keep it in my regular avatar account and do withdrawls when cash gets too much. I never had problems with it. Sometimes, when sl is fucked up again, I don't see my money. But then there is still the normal webpage transaction history or other pages on the LL website. When sl is good again, the money reappears.

Many of us like to exchange Lindens for US$$ and then hold that money in our SL account, keeping at least 3 months of tier in reserve to cover slow periods. If you have a nice reserve, it makes you far less panicky when you have a slow month - which does happen. I personally keep 6 months tier in reserve, but I'm more cautious than many.

I do what Isablan does, keep it as a US$ balance on my account so the tier is always there with several month's worth as a reserve, and I can withdraw as I need to (which I do via paypal).

I haven't done this myself but Paypal is the cheapest to process but then you have to work out whether the cut paypal take from you still makes it cheaper overall.

Is it not possible if you pay by Visa or Mastercard or other accepted card to have that re-credited or is Paypal and Cheque for overseas the only option.

I remember reading a similar post some time ago that someone claimed they received payments back through their cards.

Can anyone confirm if this is true?

No it is not true, at least not for overseas transactions. Only cheque or PayPal.

Ah, so one can convert one's Lindens into Dollars and yet keep that in one's SL account? I'm not sure how that works.

If you go to your Account page, you'll see 2 balances; one in L$ for inworld use, and one in USD for outworld use. The USD balance can be used to pay tier, premium member dues, or it can be cashed out using the "Process Credit" button. This will send the USD to PayPal (easiest, fastest, and cheapest) or write you a check.

Just think of it as have TWO accounts; one for L$ only, and one for USD only. To convert L$ to USD, click on the SELL L$ option on the left of your account screen.

When you sell you L$ on the Lindex, the proceeds are credited to your account as US$. If you have a US$ balance, tier or any other fees will be deducted from that when they come up, before they take it from your credit card or whatever payment method you use. So basically, you can keep the US$ balance in your account to take care of tier, in addition to being able to withdraw from it to Paypal.

I give all my Linden money earned in SL to my girlfriend so she can buy more "stuff". I'm sooo glad it's Lindens and not US dollars.

Thanks, Paul, Oryx, Fade and others - will try that. So PayPal it must be! I used to have a PayPal account, but you get scammed a lot with people who pretend to be PayPal. Used to get several emails a week from them, and though you can just not respond to them, it's hard to tell the difference with real PP messages. But I guess for us non-US citizens it's the only reasonable way to go.

Thanks again, all.

Xylo

Hiya Xylo,

I use PayPal exclusively. It's always been very secure. Re: false emails from "PayPal"; if you're not sure of the source, you can forward it to their spoof address (it's listed on the PayPal website.)

Also, if you're deciding to start taking money out into RL from SL, I'd start a set of accounting books for your company. You never know when your country might start taxing SL income...

?? "The cut Paypal takes" ??

I have never had them take a cut out of funds I transfer from LL. I transfer payments from LL several times a month to Paypal, then from Paypal into my RL bank account for free. I can also spend my Paypal balance using a Paypal debit card, no charge there either.

Paypal does take a cut out of payments I recieve from other individuals.

HI, i'm planning to buy some sims when SL is a little more stable (gambling and so).

What's the best (cheapest) way to bring in money ?
I live in Europe.

Really? I thought they charged something like 3.4%, they do in the UK when I use ebay. Haven't used it for a few months but they used to take a cut anyway. Surely that's how they make their money?

Ah the payments from individuals, I see. Like I said I haven't done it, I was just assuming I'd have to pay the Paypal fee as I'm so used to doing it. I guess the transfer from LL must fall under the normal "Adding funds to the account method" which is free.

Hmm looking at the Paypal site again I'm not sure it would be free for me. I get charged a fee for accepting transfers from other paypal accounts because I've got a business account. If I had a personal account this would be free but I could only do it twice a year unless Skype is involved. What the heck has Skype got to do with it?

Hi Zoha, bringing in money is not a problem and ther is no fees to do so, if your going to buy a sim directly from LL then you should have a credit card on file, or a paypal account with enough money to cover say 1700 USD, you can use L$ in certian circumstances when you are purchasing islands from individuals in SL, but do beware ... make sure the sale is for both simland and rights, and that the transfer process is legit, read the section about transfering sims in the knowledge base

You may want to keep the bulk of your L$ on an alternate account. As you go about doing your day-to-day business in SL, you are frequently required to give objects permission to take money from you. Just on the chance one of those objects is a hack designed to clean you out, you don't want all your money in your main account.

Ciaran, payments from Linden Lab come through their "mass pay" system apparently. They don't count against personal limits.

One potential downside of paypal is their chosen exchange rate for non-US currency, though apparently you can choose to hold your money in USD.

Drat - I was all set to create a (new) PayPal account, when I come across the site http://www.paypalsucks.com/
That is material for some serious misgivings....
I'll start a new thread about it, see if other people in SL have had problems with PayPal.

I never had any problems with them unless you count forgetting my password and getting it locked. But, I wouldn't use it again. Basically, they have no CS and over-react to potential fraud problems tieing up your money indefinitely. Most of the time you will probably be okay, but you really need to be able to speak to a human being when something goes wrong.