My money's not good enough for Linden Labs???

[Honehe Loudwater]

I have been on SL for more than two years, I've bought lindens in the past.  Now, because I've gone through some serious and difficult lifestyle changes, all I have is a pre-paid credit card. That's not good enough for second life tho. Nevermind that it's essentially a DEBIT card, secured by amount of money paid into the thing.  That is absolutely ridiculous. I've been looking forward to buying some lindens so I could A: Pay my land rent. B: Surprise my girlfriend with some gifts. C: I was actually going to take out a premium membership, but I can't.  Because my pre-paid card, with my entire salary charged on it isn't good enough for Linden Labs. It's almost discriminatory. Of course, I didn't find this out until after two seperate calls to billing support, and several failed tries to buy lindens. Shouldn't this be posted somewhere obvious..like on the submit billing info page????

I am inches away from cancelling my account entirely and waging a web-wide anti SL campaign. Again I say, this is one of the most ridiculous things I've ever heard of. I can use that card to buy online tobacco, alcohol, computer equipment, subscribe to WoW, DDO, Rift, LOTRO, nearly every other MMO out there, and even pornography if I were so inclined, but not to subscribe to Second Life or buy in-game money.

[Josh Susanto]

It's because you don't trust Linden Labs enough.

Look deep inside yourself for any remaining doubts about the infallibility of the Lindens.

When you have read and repeated the mantras shown in official LL texts long enough, these doubts will melt away, and you will be ready to use the same card, and it will work.

[Griffin Ceawlin]

I've hear rumor of some pre-paid cards that actually do work. But, to ask the obvious... Why not just open a bank account and get an actual debit card that will be accepted?

[justen Mathy]

well  thats not all bad  we payand lindens are very good about fixing billing problems  but when we cant stay on or our land is unusable   its kind of a wast to give them money  

[Honehe Loudwater]

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Griffin Ceawlin wrote:

I've hear rumor of some pre-paid cards that actually do work. But, to ask the obvious... Why not just open a bank account and get an actual debit card that will be accepted?

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Life changes. Not for discussion on a public forum.

And I shouldn't have to. Money is money. Period.

 

[Claireschen Hesten]

why not try the L$ marketplace http://wiki.secondlife.com/wiki/Linden_Dollar_Marketplace i'm sure some of the third party exchanges will accept your pre-paid card it's got to be worth a try

[Tarius Auxarmes]

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Honehe Loudwater wrote:

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Griffin Ceawlin wrote:

I've hear rumor of some pre-paid cards that actually do work. But, to ask the obvious... Why not just open a bank account and get an actual debit card that will be accepted?

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Life changes. Not for discussion on a public forum.

And I shouldn't have to. Money is money. Period.

 

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While I usually dont question much on why people decide to do one thing or another, I have to agree with this question. Even people who live from paycheck to paycheck have a bank account they can use, whether they just put a specific amount of money in it for purchases or all the money they own. So I too have to wonder what "life changes" would prevent you or someone who can represent you from owning a bank account. In the case of simply not liking banks because they like screwing people over, yea I can understand that.

[Honehe Loudwater]

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Tarius Auxarmes wrote:

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Honehe Loudwater wrote:

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Griffin Ceawlin wrote:

I've hear rumor of some pre-paid cards that actually do work. But, to ask the obvious... Why not just open a bank account and get an actual debit card that will be accepted?

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Life changes. Not for discussion on a public forum.

And I shouldn't have to. Money is money. Period.

 

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While I usually dont question much on why people decide to do one thing or another, I have to agree with this question. Even people who live from paycheck to paycheck have a bank account they can use, whether they just put a specific amount of money in it for purchases or all the money they own. So I too have to wonder what "life changes" would prevent you or someone who can represent you from owning a bank account. In the case of simply not liking banks because they like screwing people over, yea I can understand that.

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What part of not for discussion on a public forum is hard to understand?

Banks screwing me over is in fact part of it, but otherwise I have my reasons, and I shouldn't have to explain them to anyone I'm trying to pay for a service. End of that part of the discussion.

[Medhue Simoni]

What you can do is use that prepaid card to open up a PayPal account. PP will treat your card as a bank account, which you need to verify your PP acount. You then just connect your PP acound to SL.

[Canoro Philipp]

i dont have a bank account either, i simply dont trust bankers to handle my money.

dont discuss your private life here, you are on your right to have your privacy at the level you want.

maybe you could try another brand of pre-paid cards, this one you got, you can use it to buy something else, try another brands and you may find one that you can use here easely.

[Honehe Loudwater]

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Chris Norse wrote:

The Green Dot card sold as a Wal Mart Money card works.   I have used one for 3 years now.  It is a prepay card.

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Funny. It is a Green Dot card, just not a Wal Mart Money card. How does -that- make sense?

[Josh Susanto]

I would just find someone in RL who has an SL account and pay them cash to throw you some LIndens.

There might be an exchange rate issue, but a lot of people will do something like this once just to be nice.

[CharlesMockingbird Blogger]

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Honehe Loudwater wrote:

I am inches away from cancelling my account entirely and waging a web-wide anti SL campaign. 

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"Web-wide anti SL campaign" = you starting a blog that nobody reads? Or are you planning on crying to one of the interns at Wired? 

 

[PeterCanessa Oh]

It's always amusing to hear from people that think things that are easy for them must be easy for everyone else.  That's the way the world works, isn't it? - ask any idiot at LL that thinks only one system exists in the world.  (not to say you are an idiot, just an invitation to ask one)

Different countries, legal systems, banking systems and regulators around the world mean that bank accounts, let alone debit cards or even *horror* credit cards are simply not as easy to get depending on your circumstances.

As an illustration I would like to know what your suggestion would be to a person in the UK living on disability allowance of (approx) £300/US$600 per month.  The first question a bank asks if you want to open an account is, "Will you be paying-in more than £500 per month?" (because they won't give accounts to people on benefits).  No account -> no debit card -> no credit card => cash economy.

And no, those aren't my circumstances.  I have a whole other set of reasons for not being able to meet LL's payment restrictions.  My money is good enough almost everywhere else though, so I just don't pay anything to LL.  Who loses?

[Honehe Loudwater]

Thank you all those who posted relevant and useful replies, and those of you who understand that not everyone has a simple or easy solution to whatever issues they may have.  It's very frustrating, and makes LL seem like they either have a high-and-mighty attitude, or simply don't care about the people who are paying their bills/salaries. What makes it more frustrating is that I've been using that card nearly everywhere else on the web, why is SL any different??

[Knowl Paine]

I think that security or lack of it is the reason why a card type may or may not be approved for use in Second Life.

Would be nice to have an option to Mail a payment. In order to uniform the process LL could send a payment envelope required to submit a payment. International Money Orders or United States Postal Money Orders Only. Minimum payment could be $100 usd. Any credit or over-payment would remain in the account for current use and or future monthly revolving tier fees.

There are other places to purchase Linden Dollars, maybe one of those places accepts your card. 

[Jo Yardley]

I don't have or want a credit card, so I use paypal to sort out the SL stuff.

Or get your SL activities to pay you enough to pay your tier, membership, etc.

[Brayla Ravenhurst]

What makes it more frustrating is that I've been using that card nearly everywhere else on the web, why is SL any different??

 

Probably because they are too lazy to program a good authorization system that can accept all cards.

I'm not going to ask what is going on on your RL, but I'd advise you to check out creditboards.com.  Its a super valuable resource for credit and checking account issues.