Premium Membership was a gift

[River Amethyst]

Last Year I was given a 1 year premium membership as a gift, The person that paid for it is no longer an acquaintance and I am not sure she would 

respond to me if i tried to contact her. I am worried about my premium account being locked out once this 1 year membership ends on Feb 18th.

I am not sure i am able to pay for another membership and i have been asking around for some advise on how to go back to being a standard  member.

ALSO How does the groups work? do they automatically decrease back to standard and i lose a lot of my paid groups, or do i get to pick and chose. before they decrease?

I will not have the gift givers email or account information that was put on my account in order to complete the gift so i do have some concerns on how to change everything back before it is too late.

 

I hope i am making sense

 

LadyTanee Resident

[Rolig Loon]

Yes, you are making sense.  Unless the person kindly registered her credit card with Linden Lab when she set up your account, the payment method is whatever you declared at the time. According to the TOS, which you agreed to, Linden Lab has authority to renew your membership automatically when the term is up, and to charge you for the renewal. So, yes, you should do something now.

The "something" is quite easy. See

Be sure to read all of the fine print, especially about any land that you may own on the Mainland. Don;t worry about land you are renting or land that you might own in  private estates, but do pay attention to tier that you may have donated to a group, as well as to your Linden Home.

No, you don't lose any of your groups when you convert to a Basic account, but you cannot add MORE groups, if that would put you above the total allowed for a Basic account.

[River Amethyst]

than you for responding so quickly - I am not sure what payment method is declared, I know it is on her credit card, im not sure if its auto renew - Since it was a gift i want to assume no its not, - I do have another question about payment methods.....do Pre Paid credit cards also work for our accounts - I am considering getting myself a prepaid MasteCcard or visa and using it to pay for a second year if that is allowed -- I did TRY and message the person who gifted this account, --- keeps fingers crossed that she responds. I do not know if i will need to confirm email addresses and such in order to remove her information

[LittleMe Jewell]

19 minutes ago, LadyTanee said:

  - I do have another question about payment methods.....do Pre Paid credit cards also work for our accounts - I am considering getting myself a prepaid MasteCcard or visa and using it to pay for a second year if that is allowed -- I did TRY and message the person who gifted this account, --- keeps fingers crossed that she responds. I do not know if i will need to confirm email addresses and such in order to remove her information

Unfortunately, no.  The only thing that works is a real credit card and Verified PayPayl or Skrill accounts.

Make sure your own email info is correct on your account, then you simply remove her payment info, adding your own if you want.

[River Amethyst]

thank you

[Chic Aeon]

If you own land you will likely be charged (or they will try and charge the gift giver) with the cost of the land (even $5 if it is a 512) since land is charged for the month PRECEEDING. So hopefully there is no land :D.  

 

I read somewhere here on the forums that the groups stayed until you left them, you just couldn't add any more --- BUT rules change ALL the time and we don't know so personally I would pick out the groups I need to or want to be in and keep those with one or two to spare since you might want a new one in the future. 

It is tricky downgrading and even more so when it isn't on your account. IF you have lindens you can cash them in and use the funds for another month or another year and they will be used FIRST to pay for your premium membership (before a credit card). But that may not be an option.  TYPICALLY (no guarantees) you will get an email from Linden Lab stating that your membership is up and you need to pay and giving you a few more days to do so. This doesn't solve the charge on any land you might own. AND your email of course needs to be a good one. 

 

So as Rolig said, get everything you can get done, done. A good plan. 

 

[River Amethyst]

i dont own land, im not concerned about that, my sl home, i rarely use, and i don't take advantage of the premium locations like i thought i would,  Full sim access isn't actually a real thing, sims are full, premiums are suppose to be able to still get in...not the case most times as far as the groups go, ya its nice to have more but over rated - im not going to miss having a premium account, i was just worried i might get locked out due to payment complications

 

[Rolig Loon]

If the registered payment method is actually your friend's credit card, then you will never see the charge for renewal.  As I said above, renewal is automatic unless you cancel or downgrade the account.  So, if your friend put the whole thing on her credit card, you are a Premium member until she says that you are not.  And she probably has no idea about any of this. 

As others have already said, no, you may not use a prepaid card of any kind, or a debit card.  You may use a real credit card or a PayPal account.  If you set up a PayPal account, you may feed it with a prepaid credit card, of course, but you have to at least start by verifying it (that is, verify to PayPal) by backing it up with a bank account or a real credit card.

[Lindal Kidd]

This is an unfortunate situation.

Linden Lab does not recognize "gift" subscriptions.  If your friend used her credit card as the payment method for your Premium account then the card will be billed by LL again automatically when your subscription is up for renewal.  You can find out, by going to My Account/Billing Information.  This should show what is being used to pay for your Premium account.

If the payment method is her credit card, then one of two things will happen.  Either the card will be successfully billed, and your friend will be charged for another year's Premium subscription, or, if the card is expired or she has stopped payments to LL, it will be declined.  In that case, your account will be in arrears.  If LL is not able to get payment, then after a while they will give up, and will cancel your account.  They won't drop you back to Basic status, they will erase your account completely.

If the payment method shown in My Account/Billing Information is YOUR credit card or PayPal account, then that's what will be charged when your membership comes up for renewal.  No problem, unless as you say, you don't care to be a Premium member any longer.

To avoid a) your friend paying for a second year or b) LL canceling your account because they can't get paid or c) paying for another year on your credit card, you'll want to downgrade to Basic before your account billing date.  First, go to your Linden Home, remove your things, then go to World/Parcel Details and Abandon the Linden Home.  If you have donated any land tier to a group, open that group's info window, and remove your donation from the Land and $ tab of that window.  Then go to your Dashboard page and click Account/Premium Membership.  Scroll to the bottom of that page and change "Premium" to "Basic".

As others have said, you won't lose any of your groups.  But you will not be able to join any new groups until you leave enough groups to get under the 42 group total of a Basic account.

A final note:  As I said, LL doesn't recognize or offer a path to give a Premium membership to someone as a gift.  That means that at some point, either your friend gave you her credit card information (bad idea, but not dangerous for you, only her)...or you gave her access to your account so that she could log in as "you" and pay your Premium subscription.  This is bad...it means that she has your password.  CHANGE IT!  This is no reflection on her honesty or trustworthiness, it's just basic online security.  NEVER give anyone else your password.

[ChinRey]

I'm not sure if you got clear answers to your questions yet, so:

12 hours ago, LadyTanee said:

I am worried about my premium account being locked out once this 1 year membership ends on Feb 18th.

Change the account back to basic before that date and everything will be fine.

 

12 hours ago, LadyTanee said:

ALSO How does the groups work? do they automatically decrease back to standard and i lose a lot of my paid groups, or do i get to pick and chose. before they decrease?

You can keep all your current groups but you will not be able to join any new groups until the number has been reduced below the limit for basic accounts.