Going Premium without a Credit Card... is this possible?

Greetings! We've got a customer at SL Exchange that would like to get a Premium account, but they don't have a Credit Card. They're having problems even though they do have a PayPal account.

I'd suggested they post here to see if any of you have been through similar experiences and if so, how you overcame them. Of course, Lucero Zuhal quickly reminded me that they can't post here because they have an account newer than June and do not have the neccesary CC info on-file to be allowed in these forums.

So, I thought I'd try to get an answer for them... hence this post.

If any of you have any information about how Lucero might be able to go Premium, we'd greatly appreciate it. You can post your answsers directly in Lucero's thread on SLX or you can post them here and I'll convey them over, which ever is easier for y'all.

Thank you in advance for any assistance you may be able to provide.

Doesn't LL have prepaid gifts that you can just keep reupping?
And he does have paypal, it's trivial to link it to a bank account.

By "problems even though they do have a PayPal account", I'd guess this person is having issues because his/her Paypal account is unverified. It sounds like he/she probably does not have a bank account. If he/she did, it would be simple enough to get a debit card drawn from it or to link it to the Paypal account.

In that case, how about a pre-paid debit card? Here is a list of tons of financial institutions that offer them. I can't vouch for any of them since I've never done this myself, but it seems like a sound idea to me.

Dearly Darlings,

Some tiome back i gave my RL/SL assisant a gifte certificate here. She had to give CC info in order to use it. I'm curious my self.

I belong to an in-world charity that gives out a premium membership every month...the correct protocol would be handy to know.

Ever Yours,

Mrs. Showdog Tiger

As a follow-up to Chosen Few's post which included a link to pre-paid debit cards here's another link to e-gold exchange services, a number of which offer stored-value cards:

http://www.e-gold.com/unsecure/links.htm#marketmaker

Fundamentally, all you need is a credit, debit, pre-paid, or stored value card number to place in the appropriate field of your SL account information.

Unfortunately, there is no way to go premium without some sort of 16 digit card. I'd suggest getting a pre-paid card and link it to paypal for ease. This way, you can not only pay with paypal but put money back on the card from there. (At least, I used to be able to pay back to a pre-paid, haven't used pre-paid in a few years.)

There are also pre-paid 'gaming' cards out there, but I'm not sure if they are compatible with SL or not.

Seems to me there is a basic assumption that everyone is American. In many countries of the world Debit Visa or Prepaid Visa just does not exist.

Paypal is impossible to verify also in many countries, because Payal asks you to link it to a US Bank Account........which of course every non-US resident can easily get.....NOT.
We are not talking small semi third world countries here, but some pretty major western countries.

Until roughly a year ago (maybe a bit more) it was this situation in Australia. Yes there was the basic credit card, but not everyone wants one, or is eligible for one. I spent my first 6 months in SL playing a basic account alt a US-based friend gave me as a gift, simply because it was the only way I could join.

I beleave you can run your Paypal Account as payment Method, adn just sell enough L every month to acover land fees, Other than that, id say youll need a card,

Well, considering the vast majority of players are American, it's a semi safe assumption.

Paypal does NOT have to be verified through a bank account only. And LL will take unverified paypal accounts as their 'verification'. You needn't have pp verified to use.

Also, as for the Austrailia link, you are not speaking just on that country's behalf, many Americans don't qualify for credit cards either. Heck, even some bank accounts require huge deposits and all that jazz based on a credit report. Pre-paid Visa exists to anyone with an address and an internet connection. Many of the pre-paid cards can be sent from the US, just as if you lived here naturally.

What you've described is just about EVERYONE in ANY country can possibly go through. It's not US-exempted.

Many of my 'foreign' friends have credit cards they linked it from and Visa really is worldwide. You just have to look for it. Just as if you are in the US. Credit cards don't land in people's laps.

Not according to the last townhall:

Robin Linden: We are now more than 50% international - about 6,000 to 7000 people a day are coming from outside the US

Here in australia if you are 18 years and over (at most banks) you can open a normal everyday savings account and have a visa stamp applied, It's not a credit card but you can use it for online transactions



As for paypal it works for australians with australian bank accounts, I've been with paypal for well over a 2 years, The only thing was paypal used to charge to convert about $5AUD to convert the money into us, Now they only charge $1AUD

Please name two, with links. I find, after careful search - NONE. Social Security Number appears to be essential. Something to do with the Patriot Act.

So, if you are not just inventing facts to support your argument, Seola (a widespread practice) PLEASE TELL US. Just two of your "many". With links.

If you mean that a US resident could purchase them over the counter anonymously, and post them outside the US - are you volunteering ? Might be highly illegal. Particularly if they are "reloadable" which is what everyone needs.

Thank you for the replies. Unfortunately, since Lucero is Dutch, many of these good suggestions are not feasible, but I appreciate you taking the time to discuss it anyway.

However I did see mention of a Gift Certificate. Does anyone know if it is possible to sign up with a Gift Certificate and not have a Credit Card to put on file? I see Mrs. Showdog Tiger's reply about her assistant (thank you, ma'am) and that leads me to believe it's not possible but I'm hoping against hope I can hear from someone who was able to go Premium without having to supply CC info.

I haven't tried getting my two friends who are overseas to up their accounts, since in their case it isn't possible for them to get a CC or even a prepaid CC of any sort.

It does seem kind of silly that they removed the verification process, but didn't set up other means of allowing non-US and non-CC using people to pay. I believe I read a post though from one of the Lindens concerning it and that they'd be more than willing to take suggestions on other forms of payment.

After looking at some of the past posts, I'd think Jill Linden may be the person to contact on this.

Jill Linden on Paypal Payments

That post might not answer the person's question, but it should point to who in world to chat with.

That's quite optimistic if you ask me. Since in one argument of a thread, a 30 day average was 5300 right after verification was lifted. And to be totally honest.... I don't trust ANY new accounts numbers. For all we know, 3000 people from overseas are signing up alts. Also, that seems to be slacking off quite a bit as well.



The looks of ease with this first one:

http://www.ivcdebitcard.com/

http://www.offshore-services.biz/offshore-credit-card/

http://giftcard.deluxe.com/ (Gifting to yourself of course)

There's your two plus one. I found TONS, and that was just Visa.
Set your parameters to Visa, Pre-paid, International, then run another with the dash taken out. Same thing with Mastercard. I could run 30 different parameters and come up with tons more. Of course, it'd be up to the user to do the detective work on making sure the companies are legit.

I'm not sure your experiences with cards, but there are MANY ways, and quite a few 'reloadable' debit cards do NOT require a social security number because they do that and there is no way to go over your limit, because you will be instantly denied if your purchase will exceed the amount left on it.

Your search cannot have been 'too' careful. What parameters did you use to find no results?

As for Tigress, many Dutch that I've spoken with in game and discussed this topic are using the 'gift' debit cards, one is paying an American friend in Lindens to load the card, another used a gift card to get the account and makes enough to sell L to put into his actual money holding account to pay for premium and tier.

He's Dutch and has problems with PayPal? Is he using Paypal.com or Paypal.nl?

I'm German (mostly in the USA tho) and I use Paypal.com for finanical things in the US and Paypal.de for overseas matters. I have no problem at all linking a CC and German bank accounts (checking accounts) to my German Paypal account. And as far as I can tell from looking at the Dutch site, he should be able to do just that. Unless he doesn't have a bank account, which is unlikely for somebody in Europe who has a job, life, computer etc. If you could tell us what exactly the problems are, we might be able to help more.

Since apparently it is possible to pay one's premium account charges using accumulated USD on their account, i wonder if it would be doable for the basic member to sell some L$ on LindeX, and then use USD gained this way to pay for their premium account without the need to provide some 'physical' payment info? o.O;

Unfortunately, you still need to get verified before receiving a premium account.

That looks grand doesnt it. But this always seems to happen. More than a cursory glance tells you that the first of your links is not offering cards at all, but the chance to sign an NDA which might allow you to become a card dealer when they become available in Jan 2005.

The second of your links is based in Panama, and requires you to send a copy of your passport - go figure.

Your third link is to a fixed value non-reloadable gift card. These do work, but cannot be used for paypal verification, or to withdraw funds from SL. Indeed, doesn't LL offer such gift cards itself ?

Every link I find always evaporates like this. Has ANYONE found a reloadable card available outside the US which works properly in conjunction with SL, and doesn't have the appearance of unacceptable security risk ?

Ah, but look deeper, grasshopper. That site gives out more info to contact a vendor. Many will do that online. Also, if you searched for that topic through google.com, then it brings up a plethura of vendors.

The second site, which I'm sure you noted, DID say passport..... OR ID. Of course it does, your name would be on it.



Don't research it halfway and skew it to your argument.

As for the 3rd option, you load it with 1 year's worth of quarterly premium accounts pay and a few dollars extra to play with. Then you'd buy all the L you can with it, sell it and have the money ready in your account when bill time comes due. This way if you don't do a year, you can still withdraw fund to any paypal account verified or not, and if you do, the money is there. If this person plans on selling anything, then can keep depositing L in it, or in a year, order another. Once a year seems hardly a bother.

Barmovic, it seems your searching is skewed to see what you want to see to seem hopeless. You still haven't told me what you used for search parameters. I showed you mine, now show me yours.

In either case, if you want to throw out the first one, there is still 2 valid links to be able to use. This question was about ANY way to do it. Not specific reloading pre-paids. Although that's the main option.

ETA: Missed a bracket... oopsers.

P.S. What does based in Panama have to do with anything?

Well, maybe you are right, Seola, and I am being too conservative. I guess it just has to be accepted that for some reason these cards are readily available to US residents from highly respected main-stream providers, but elsewhere the reloadable ones have a "dodgy" flavor.

The real test is whether we can find an SL resident to put up his/her hand and recommend one that she/he has tried, and is successfully using. I haven't seen this yet.

I'll go back and search the website for your first link to see if it IS actually offering cards. I looked hard and couldn't find it, which is odd - but maybe you are right, and it is hidden away there somewhere.

It is not an easy subject - almost certainly some of the offerings are scams and sorting the wheat from the chaff is not simple.

Again, thank you for the input. I wish I had more to share with you regarding his specifics, but as I'm doing this third hand, I really do not know all the answers to these good questions that have been brought up. If any of you find you have a moment or two to spare, I am sure Lucero Zuhal would sincerely appreciate an IM.

I am passing along the information found in this thread. And one last time, thank you for your time and your help.

that sounds likea potential business oppurtunity there, maybe somebody in SL who has easy access to cards could provide them for people to SL with for a L$ fee.

Person pays L$
vendor takes money and gets a prepaid
vendor gives customer the info
and there you have it

wonder if that is legal though.

I've done it and if someone contacts me, they are more than welcome to do that, I can't be hurt in a reloadable cause you can't spend more than what's on it and it isn't attached with a name in some cases, so I'm safe.

/shrug

Jill Linden was kind enough to post a reply over on SL Exchange. Thank you Jill!

Basically, the answer to my original question is no -- it is not possible to go Premium without a Credit Card. However, they are working on improvements, so there may be hope for our CCless Residents in the future.