Premium account?? Am I wasting my money??

[Sharron Schuman]

I am coming up on my 6th rez day in May. I have been paying for a premium account since my first week in SL. I don't own a sim or need concierge service.

Can anyone give me any good reasons to continue with a premium account? Over the years there has been discussion about log in priority and other technical goodies that seem to never happen.  I have had no reason to accept the home land and toy offers given to premium account holders.  I just don't see any real value in continuing to pay for the same service that I can get for free.

I am happy to continue to pay if I can be shown there is some real benefit and value received compared to a free member.

[wiked Anton]

premium membership allows you to buy land and exchange in lindens, otherwise there is no real value in it. if i didnt have a sim, i would be free

[Randall Ahren]

Aren't you grandfathered in under the old policy of receiving L$500/wk instead of L$300/wk? If so, LL is paying you to be a premium member.

[Sharron Schuman]

you are right, I get $L500 a week. so my actual cost is about $700.00 Lindens a month. I didn't think of the stipend

thank you

[WolfBaginski Bearsfoot]

Even with the L$300 stipend, it works out pretty well when you allow for the Tier on a 512 sq. m. parcel

Stipend, converted at $1 = L$250  $1.20 pw = $62.40 pa

Tier for 512 sq, m,  $5,00 pcm = $60.00 pa

Total return from Premium membership = $120.40

So if you pay on a quarterly or annual basis, you come out ahead. Monthly payments, I get hit with VAT, and that makes them a loss for me. There's a very slight gain otherwise.

The value assigned to Tier may seem on the high side. I don't know what sort of rates land rentals can be obtained at, but a couple of years ago they were higher.

And if you don't want that free land, it's not really of any value. I sometimes wonder if my patch of free land is really worth having. Not because of the location, but whether I get anything useful out of having it.

Conclusion: LL gets its income from Tier payments, not Premium Membership. 

 

 

 

[Emma Krokus]

Just wondering - so you get land without tier for premium membership:

once you found some, can you rent it out and make more money from being a premium member in that way?

Emma  

[Ceka Cianci]

i'm at 400 a week myself in stripen..i went premium right away..

the thing i love about it right now is we have those private sandboxes as well..

i don't care about the premium gifts we get really..although who knows ..they may really have some good ones down the road that will be really nice hehehe

but the sandboxes are from what i have seen so far very empty ..there is nothing like going to one and having all 15,000 prims all to yourself..you can rezz anything there..you can break out that superbike that you can't ride anywhere else and tear up the grass!! \o/ lol

that and if it keeps going the way it's going..we may be getting even more perks as premium soon..

that whole game they just had for the linden realms was onyl open to premiums until recently..so who knows what else may be around the corner..to me it seems like this new CEO really wants to make being premium a difference..

either way..there is more to premium now than when i first started..so i think i'm gonna stick it out..my luck i'll go basic and then something really wild will happen that you had to be an existing premium member to get lol

like sim cost or teir reduction or something like that..thats my luck though..that would never happen unless i went basic lol

[Ceka Cianci]

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Emma Krokus wrote:

Just wondering - so you get land without tier for premium membership:

once you found some, can you rent it out and make more money from being a premium member in that way?

Emma

 

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land would come out of your stripen and i think even the free homes come out of your stripen..but i never got mine so i can't be sure about the free linden homes..i'm sure someone will tell us on that..but if i remember right it does take your stripen..

the way it used to work is you could get a 512 lot for your stripen on mainland..there was a first land thing going on way back when ever..

[Emma Krokus]

I am pretty sure you can't rent out the free Linden homes to anyone.. but can you do it with your free land allowance once you bought your 512 plot?

 

Emma  

[Ceka Cianci]

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Emma Krokus wrote:

I am pretty sure you can't rent out the free Linden homes to anyone.. but can you do it with your free land allowance once you bought your 512 plot?

 

Emma

 

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ya the land you would buy anywhere you could rent out..but the linden homes no..those are only open to premium accounts and we all could get one if we wanted..

i was more going on about if the linden homes took your stripen or not..i don't believe you get both..but never getting a linden home i can't be sure if they do take that stripen or not..

i use my stripen on one of my lots i have..so it does give me one lot for free which is nice hehehe

i could rent any of my lots out ..even the one i pay for with my stripen..

[Pamela Galli]

If you are not premium and need support for something, I think you are pretty much out of luck -- plus Premium has access to Live Chat (not that that is any big deal anymore, since their answer to most problems is "file a ticket").

The downside is that if you get behind on your Premium payments, you don't get bumped down to basic -- you get your account canceled!

[Orca Flotta]

You can EITHER take a Linden home OR buy a 512 m² parcel, not both. The 512 won't get assigned to you by LL, you gotta find and buy a parcel by yourself.

It won't take the tier from your stipend. Your Linden home or your first 512 m² are TIER FREE.

If you don't have a use for a 512 parcel yourself, why don't you just contribute it to a friend or a group you like? With your deed you might enable your fave RP or your bestest buddy to buy more land.

 

 

 

[Ceka Cianci]

---

Orca Flotta wrote:

You can

EITHER

take a Linden home

OR

buy a 512 m² parcel, not both. The 512 won't get assigned to you by LL, you gotta find and buy a parcel by yourself.

It won't take the tier from your stipend. Your Linden home or your first 512 m² are

TIER FREE

.

If you don't have a use for a 512 parcel yourself, why don't you just contribute it to a friend or a group you like? With your deed you might enable your fave RP or your bestest buddy to buy more land.

 

 

 

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so those of us that are premium and never bought a 512 lot on mainland can go get one for free?

thats cool if we can hehehe

[Ceka Cianci]

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Pamela Galli wrote:

If you are not premium and need support for something, I think you are pretty much out of luck -- plus Premium has access to Live Chat (not that that is any big deal anymore, since their answer to most problems is "file a ticket").

The downside is that if you get behind on your Premium payments, you don't get bumped down to basic -- you get your account canceled!

---

it doesn't get canceled right away..you have a pretty good grace period if i remember right..isn't it like 60 days or something like that to make up the behind payment before it gets deleted?

[Pamela Galli]

There is a grace period, don't know how long -- but if you get hit by a bus, you may be out of luck. And if your account is worth a great deal of money, you may not want to risk it.

I am not Premium, since I have Concierge level support (which is about the same as Premium, as far as I can tell). If I did not own sims, then I think I would sign up for Premium only if I really needed support for some problem, and then cancel it -- but it has been such a long time since I got any help from support other than "clear cache", I don't know if I would bother. 

It's the same with Concierge -- once you buy a sim, your account can be canceled if you get behind on tier. That's LL's way of encouraging Premium and sim buying.

 

[Ceka Cianci]

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Pamela Galli wrote:

There is a grace period, don't know how long -- but if you get hit by a bus, you may be out of luck. And if your account is worth a great deal of money, you may not want to risk it.

I am not Premium, since I have Concierge level support (which is about the same as Premium, as far as I can tell). If I did not own sims, then I think I would sign up for Premium only if I really needed support for some problem, and then cancel it -- but it has been such a long time since I got any help from support other than "clear cache", I don't know if I would bother. 

It's the same with Concierge -- once you buy a sim, your account can be canceled if you get behind on tier. That's LL's way of encouraging Premium and sim buying.

 

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i agree they should just drop you to basic as a worst case..deleting an account is a bit extreme i think no matter what..

that was always one of the most dumbest things i ever heard about premium..i used to always say that when i went to basic for awhile..

really i don't even remember why i went back to premium..i think it was just being curious if i would still get the same stripen that i did before..lol

i think there was a thread about it and some said you did and some said you didn't..i think it was that i just had to know for sure.. lol

so in the end i just decided to stay premium and then all this neat things they just started giving us seemed  nice..

i just do it in quarters rather than monthly or yearly..

plus now my husband is here ..so i sneak in and grab his stripen also..because he doesn't even know we get anything like that..grabbed his sign up bonus also..cause he is the provider and i am the spender!! \o/ hehehehehe *ebil laugh*

[Cabbage Acanthus]

That's a good question.

 

I recently went premium because I wanted a small parcel in order to park a few prims.  Owning a parcel was a bit more stable than renting and the move made sense for me.

 

In my opinion, "owning" "land" here in SL is the only reason to go premium that makes any sense.

 

The premium sandboxes are nice though.

 

 

[Maryanne Solo]

I think it's certainly worth it. It's my only online subscription and very cheap entertainment.

The reason you need Sharron is to have a look at your friends list, then make a decision.

I know that hasnt a thing to do with it, but LL deserve support for the best 3d chat world.

Just my opinion.