It’s been a busy and exciting 2021 for Second Life with several significant improvements, most notably our recent transition to Amazon’s cloud servers. Our team is excited to continue to bring better performance and ongoing enhancements to make Second Life even better.

Our goal is simple: enhance the enjoyment of current Residents by making things faster, smoother, and more interesting. We are seeing an increase in activity in-world, so we are hoping these investments are starting to pay off for you. At present we are:

• Investing in our infrastructure to further improve speed and cadence of updates 
• Overhauling the onboarding experience for the newest Residents
• UI cleanup 
• Developing new marketing initiatives and entertainment partnerships to fuel growth
• Preparing for SL18B 
• Less glamorous but no less crucial is our ongoing and growing work to ensure compliance with multiple regulatory requirements

We’ve spent time looking at ways to manage these costs in a way that minimizes the overall burden on our Residents. We decided to absorb many of the costs and to distribute some by making a change to Linden Dollar "buy fees." 

Effective April 22, the current flat buy fee rate of $1.49 will be replaced by a 7.5% buy fee (capped at $9.99) applied to the total amount of Linden Dollars purchased in each transaction. The $1.49 minimum still applies.

This impacts the least number of transactions and still allows us to offset some of the costs for upgrades to our world.  

Please see the FAQ below for more information and context about this change. For further questions, please join the conversation in our community forums.

BUY FEE FAQ

Q: How will this impact the cost of my Linden Dollar purchases?

A: It depends on the size of your Linden Dollar purchase in each transaction. We worked to ensure that most casual purchases will see no change at all.

For example, smaller Linden Dollar purchases (roughly equivalent to about $20 USD or less*) will see no change in cost as the new $1.49 minimum charge is equivalent to the cost of the existing flat fee. 

As another example, a $40 USD purchase of approximately L$10,000*  would be charged a $3 “buy fee” (equal to 7.5% of $40). 

For larger Linden Dollar purchases (approximately $139 or higher*), the 7.5% fee will cap out at $9.99 maximum in a single transaction.

Q: How will I know the exact transaction fee that I’m charged before I make the purchase?

A: The transaction fee will be clearly visible at the point of sale on the Buy L$ page on the Secondlife.com website. The image below shows you an example of where to see the transaction fee before the purchase transaction is completed:

You will see the 7.5% transaction fee auto-calculate as you increase or decrease the amount of Linden Dollars you wish to purchase.

Q: Will the fee show up clearly on my transaction log or invoice?

A: Yes! You will see a dedicated line on both your invoice and transaction log for your “LindeX Buy Fee.”

Here is how it will look on your transaction log:

Here is how it will look on your invoice:

Q: When does the new buy fee rate take effect?

A: The new buy fee rate is effective April 22.

Q: Does this fee apply to selling Linden Dollars, too?

A: No. This change only applies to Linden Dollar purchase transactions -- there are no changes or new charges added to other Second Life transactions (such as selling Linden Dollars).

* Disclaimer: The actual dollar value may vary depending on the LindeX exchange rate, which automatically matches your order with the market rate at the time of the transaction. These estimates are accurate at the time of this blog post but are subject to change.