Putting Payment Info On File - How? (without going premium)

[Clever Ghost]

I was going to put payment info on file for an alt of mine but after having clicked every possible link when logged into the SL website I'm about to give up, all I can chose is to go premium which I don't want to for that alt, I simply want to add payment info.

I then tried to purchase a few L$ from inworld, hoping it would take me to the correct page, but the link provided gives me a 404 error.

Can anyone provide me with a correct link? I've spent an hour trying to figure it out but I'm giving up now.

Thanks a lot!

[Nyll Bergbahn]

You should be able to add Payment Info by buying LIndens from the Lindex link on your Dashboard. It will eventually bring you to a page where you add credit card details to buy the Lindens. Reports posted here suggest there may be delays in the information actually appearing inworld.

Nyll

[Clever Ghost]

Thanks Nyll, unfortunately that didn't work either.

When placing a L$2000 buy order (well within the stated trading limits) I was getting this:

"The cost will be charged from your account's US$ balance, which we've listed below"

Of course there is no US$ balance for that alt, but I continued anyway.

The next page gave me this error message:

"We are unable to complete your request.

• You can't buy L${$display_quantity}, your current USD balance is ${$display_buy_balance_sll}. Please click here if you wish to increase your USD balance.

When I clicked the link to increase my USD balance it told me I had to at least increase it by 25 USD which is something I simply don't need right now, so I didn't continue from there.

I remember when I first joined SL about 4 years ago it only took me a few minutes to put payment info on file, but this is just ridiculous. Making it so difficult for people to spend a few bucks first without going premium doesn't make sense to me at all ;-)

Well, I guess then I'll just leave that alt as is, I simply don't need more than one premium account right now!

[Nyll Bergbahn]

That's strange and yes, you're right. adding Payment Info used to very quick and simple.

I just ran through buying Lindens with my alt and without actually buying Lindens which I don't want to do at the moment, I see this comment.

Click on the Place Buy Order button to complete your order. Your payment method will be charged the actual cost to fulfill the order after applying any credits from your US$ account balance. A confirmation of this transaction will be sent to .

This indicates that the USD balance is merely used first and after that your chosen payment method.

I would suggest you phone Billing Support and ask them to sort it out.

Nyll

[Clever Ghost]

You getting a different comment than me made me try something else - instead of placing a limit buy order I placed a market buy order. This time I was taken to a page where I could enter CC info.

The buy order wasn't really completed though but instead it now shows the equivalent USD balance. I was able to associate the CC to "Buying L$ on the web" and "Increasing your US$ credit", but I can't associate it with "Buying L$ in the viewer". When trying to buy in the viewer my alt is still told that it doesn't have a payment method set, and the status in my alt's profile hasn't changed either (even though I know that this can take a bit).

Oh well, I'll just leave it at that but considering that most people don't seem to be happy with the current state of the SL economy it's rather strange that they would make it so difficult to easily buy a bit of spending money.

Edit: And to add more strangeness - when placing my L$ buy order the estimated amount was deducted from my trading limits balance again even though the order is already covered by my USD balance.  All this can't be good for retention numbers ;-)

[Clever Ghost]

Ok, here's a quick update to my former posts:

After having failed to add a payment method for inworld L$ purchases to an alt account (payment details couldn't be associated through the web interface even though I had added a payment method for web based L$ purchases which was troublesome enough), I tried again with viewer 2.x and I was given a clickable link that worked, but I had to buy L$ again for my payment method to be added to "Buying L$ in the viewer".

My alt's profile now says "Payment Info Used".

It seems that it's no longer possible to simply put payment info on file, which is actually all I had wanted, I needed none of the additional L$ that I had to purchase today.

In my opionion this clearly is a step backwards. Adding payment info should be an easy and intuitive process without having to try various things first just so you might be lucky and one of the countless buttons you click in the process might turn out to be the right one. I wonder how many people simply gave up and go the freebie route instead.

I will spare myself the trouble in the future ;-)

[Kei Zero]

Actually, you can.  Once you log in on the Second Life website, there should be links in a pane to the left on your account home page.  If you go to Billing Information (under the account tab) you should be able to add a credit card or a *verified* PayPal account.  Once you set that up, your profile will say "Payment Info on File".  Since you've already bought Linden it won't help you much now, but it's out there for any one else who may have problems.

 

Wish I could've helped out earlier, sorry. 

 

Message was edited by: Kei Zero, for more specific directions.

[Clever Ghost]

Thank you Kei - this is what it was like before and how I had done it previously, but there no longer was a possibility to just add payment info today under Billing Information. I'll upload 2 screenshots that I just took with this account (Clever Ghost), this is exaclty what it looked like earlier today, there no longer seems to be a way to simply add a credit card / paypal info.

[Kei Zero]

That is really strange.  I just looked and mine actually shows the buttons to add cc or PayPal and I stepped someone else through theirs a few days ago using the PP option with no issues, so I *know* it's possible, but why not for you?  Truly bizarre. Also, what's with the VAT ID?  Maybe something about that is causing it to not give you the option to add the payment info?

 

Edit:  OI, they've done crazy things for non-US residents as far as billing info. Not sure if it would explain much for you, you may have already seen it.

http://wiki.secondlife.com/wiki/Linden_Lab_Official:Local_Payments_FAQ#What_payment_methods_are_available.3F

 

Now I'm done being a stupid American.  -__--

 

Message was edited by: Kei Zero

[Clever Ghost]

Very strange indeed ;-)

VAT ID shouldn't be an issue - most countries in Europe are subject to paying VAT on all USD transactions, like tier, land store purchases and such.

When you are self-employed and your income exceeds a given amount (varies from country to country - in my country it's 17500 Euro / year) you need to pay VAT for the total in addition to income tax (which you only don't have to pay if your total yearly income, no matter if self-employed or employed or a combination of both doesn't exceed roughly 8000 Euro / year).

So if your income from self-employment exceeds the given amount it will be a good idea to register your VAT ID because this way you can deduct VAT paid for business expenses like tier payments from your total VAT bill. LL introduced this sometime around mid 2007, so it's been in place for a while and shouldn't be the reason for me to not see a button to add payment info ;-)

Edit:

Thanks for the link, I hadn't found that earlier! I guess this line does explain it:

Quote: "For security reasons, payment information can only be stored or changed when a payment is being processed"

Edit 2:

So each time I want to update payment info now like updating an expired credit card I will have to buy L$? Who came up with this "brilliant" idea... Very interesting link, thanks again for finding it!

[Nyll Bergbahn]

Kei Zero wrote:

 

That is really strange.  I just looked and mine actually shows the buttons to add cc or PayPal and I stepped someone else through theirs a few days ago using the PP option with no issues, so I *know* it's possible, but why not for you?  Truly bizarre. Also, what's with the VAT ID?  Maybe something about that is causing it to not give you the option to add the payment info?

Edit:  OI, they've done crazy things for non-US residents as far as billing info. Not sure if it would explain much for you, you may have already seen it.

http://wiki.secondlife.com/wiki/Linden_Lab_Official:Local_Payments_FAQ#What_payment_methods_are_available.3F

 

 

Thanks for that link Kei. I knew the system had changed but hadn't found where it was documented and didn't know that it only applied outside America.

Nyll