A brief note on pricing changes, which ran long.

[Polymath Snuggler]

16 hours ago, amyalka said:

@Linden.@lindenlab.com One idea for the future, perhaps it can be heard somehow lol. Right now we can only take money into PayPal and Skrill, it would be good in the future to be able to take money directly to our bank accounts. WHY? Because the rate PayPal is exchanging the Dollar to Euro it is A BIG MESS! From 480$ all I got is 413 Euro, there's a huge gap because of Paypal, and I think if we could take the money directly to our bank we would've gain much more from the money we extract. Especially if you're not in US.. 

480$ USD converts to  424 Euro .  That's called an exchange rate.  The euro is more valuable than the dollar.  ( at the time of writing this it's presently 1.13 USD to 1 Euro )

Much the same way that 480$ USD converts to 8234 Mexican Pesos, as the Peso is less valuable than the dollar.

The fact that you're only getting 413 instead of 424 makes it sound like you have a HUGE GAP-BIG MESS of a 3.5% processing fee.  Which I very much doubt that LL would be able to negotiate a better deal on that an international finance exchange like Paypal.

 

Edit: I'm going to just point out~ that if I go to a currency exchange website because I'm traveling and need to have Euros instead of dollars, If I hand them 480 USD ~ they'll give me a whopping 388.80 Euros.  What's even better is they justify that by using the most expensive exchange rate that it's been in the last few months ~ claiming it's 7% different than it actually is...

Edited June 10, 2019 by polysail

[Fox Wijaya]

6 minutes ago, polysail said:

Which I very much doubt that LL would be able to negotiate a better deal on that an international finance exchange like Paypal.

and with all the ideas, here and in the merchant forums to go to direct banking... people love to forget, or put their heads in the sand, that banks also take their exchange fees, ánd transferfees from USA to Europe or any other continent/land/state.

[Ingrid Ingersoll]

A 30% increase = 10 more group slots.

Edited June 10, 2019 by Ingrid Ingersoll

[Mollymews]

7 hours ago, polysail said:

Edit: I'm going to just point out~ that if I go to a currency exchange website because I'm traveling and need to have Euros instead of dollars, If I hand them 480 USD ~ they'll give me a whopping 388.80 Euros.  What's even better is they justify that by using the most expensive exchange rate that it's been in the last few months ~ claiming it's 7% different than it actually is...

i stay away from the Bureau Exchanges found in the airports as well, when converting cash from one country's currency to another.  I find a retail bank on the street and change my cash there, as the banks typically do the exchange at that days rate plus a smaller fee. Other thing I do is preload debit cards supplied by my own bank with the destination currency before I go. Works out a lot better 

[Polymath Snuggler]

18 minutes ago, Mollymews said:

I find a retail bank on the street and change my cash there, as the banks typically do the exchange at that days rate plus a smaller fee.

Yep yep ! ~ I know there's better options than online currency converters ~  but I was simply pointing out that Paypal's international conversion fee plan is hardly a "BIG MESS" that warrants LL providing a better alternative to ~ like currency conversion websites actually are ~

https://www.paypal.com/us/webapps/mpp/paypal-fees

It's about what you'd expect from any other financial service ~ for that amount of money.  It's also neatly laid out and explained ~  hardly a money-swallowing black box.

 

Edit:

In fact it actually provides a bit better context to the entire conversation that we've been having on this thread about processing and transaction fees.

It's 2.9% + a flat fee to transfer from one currency into another, as per Paypal policy.  Making smaller transactions have an effectively much higher fee than larger ones.

It makes the 5% LL has opted to go with seem a tad steep initially ~ but it might actually be lower for monthly "pay checks" for the average creator.  Of course international people still get doubly hit with the Paypal fees on top of that, which really sucks~  but that's back to geopolitical debate, none of which we can rationally expect LL to compensate for.

Edited June 10, 2019 by polysail

[Mollymews]

@polysail

yes is certainly a lot worse options than Paypal and Skrill as you say

was chatting to @Elvina Ewing in the 5% thread about alternatives and Elvina told me about the US Community Federal Savings bank which I never knew about

seemed to me this could be an alternative option for LL to consider if they ever were to look at a 3rd alternative for at least US residents. And for those outside the US who might be able to get an account with that bank. Elvina mentioned that they would put it in as a JIRA suggestion. Maybe LL will give it some thought

[Polymath Snuggler]

1 minute ago, Mollymews said:

@polysail

yes is certainly a lot worse options than Paypal and Skrill as you say

was chatting to @Elvina Ewing in the 5% thread about alternatives and Elvina told me about the US Community Federal Savings bank which I never knew about

seemed to me this could be an alternative option for LL to consider if they ever were to look at a 3rd alternative for at least US residents. And for those outside the US who might be able to get an account with that bank. Elvina mentioned that they would put it in as a JIRA suggestion. Maybe LL will give it some thought

 

I know very little about the finer details of international monetary transfers.  But at face value~ a more geographically equal way of cashing out sounds amazing.  But ~  It's not my area of expertise ~ I'm just a girl with a keyboard and a google search engine.  I know some of the underpinning problems ~ like having to deal with compliance for money laundering and ~ anti-fraud measures, but an expert, I am not.

JIRA is a great place for suggestions though ~ making them on the forums, in dead threads is definitely not a good way to get them noticed.  Always always file a JIRA!

[Grumpity Linden]

Thank you all so much for these last 55 pages of feedback (!).  I've made a valiant effort to read through as much as possible, and answer where I could.  

A couple of notes. 

1) We've decided we are able to continue offering Quarterly premium payment options to new signups for several more months, until we are ready to unveil the new SuperDuperPremium plan.  

2) We are going to have several Meet the Lindens events during the SL16B celebration, where a number of themes repeatedly brought up in this thread (and elsewhere of course) will be discussed.