Jump to content

Kahlie Niven

Resident
  • Posts

    26
  • Joined

  • Last visited

Everything posted by Kahlie Niven

  1. Xavi Farstrider wrote: so unless LL pulls its finger out i cant cash out, fantastic There is another solution, if there are some friends that you can trust (that will require you to cash back your USD into L$ though). You send your L$ to your friend, who, in exchange sends you some USD (through wire transfer or through any online micropayment systems). Of course that requires your friend to be able to cash out the L$ on their side. Twisted method, but I know some people who already do it.
  2. Eddy Bouvier wrote: Well, not me - that's for sure. Unlike some others, i don't earn a 4-figure USD monthly income out of SecondLife. And the little amount that i do earn on a yearly basis isn't enough to go sue someone over. It's just a pain in the butt, this whole TOS change. And in the end. WHY? Within a few months, the people they are trying to hit (the ones that use SL for money laundering and other illegal practices) will find some kind of loophole and be right back to their old business. So the only one that got hurt was the people that have used the TPEs in the past and were happy with their service, exchanging a few hundred dollars worth of lindens they earned the honest way. Hi Eddy, As you mentionned, yes, money launderers will find some new ways to use SL to wash money from crime (and some loopholes came up into my mind about it). About merchants, well...they grumble then they adapt to the new situation, as usual (and I'm one of them I agree). PS: That's cool to see you're still one of my customers after 3 years, and with 20,700 L$ spent for my services ^^
  3. Jadeclaw Denfu wrote: ... To the resident losing US$900,-- due to the Lab's slow payout: Talk to your bank. Try to get agreed overdraft established as a fall back, as that would be much cheaper. Here in Germany, agreed overdraft is standard on most bank accounts, e.g. the equivalent of US$2500,-- cost me US$20,-- in interest per month. It works automatically and no extra fees are incurred. If you have a good relationship with your bank and a good credit rating, something should be possible. Unless it's the Bank of America. In that case, run for your life. that's what did. I got a 500 € agreed overdraft (that can last a month) + a 2400 € revolving credit yet fully available in case of urgency.
  4. Sybil Hallison wrote: Ok, maybe it's not 20% but I don't know if I am missing something here, or if I missunderstood any conditions, since I haven't made yet any LindeX exchange to try it out. I read on the LindeX Fee page: "Sellers of Linden™ dollars pay a fee of 3.5% per transaction. Proceeds will be credited to your US$ account balance." Then on the paypal page: "with our simple and transparent pricing of 3.4% + $0.30 per transaction, you won't be surprised by hidden fees." and: "The retail exchange rate is our wholesale cost of foreign currency (determined by an outside financial institution) plus a currency conversion fee." And If again I understand it right, I can then withdraw my euros for free on my bank account, but with a remittance fee of 3-4 euros that is applied from my bank, or any other bank in my country from my research. That is if we go with the paypal way. Depending on the amount of money transferred, and if my math is good, these fees may be up to 9-10% of the whole sum? And now compare that to the 2.73% exchange fee of virwox + 1euro withdraw fee + 3-4 euros remittance fee. And I don't even mention the speed of the whole process... Well, calculation isn't done like this... Madeliefste Oh stated it to me and I received confirmation after I received my money xfer to paypal. Paypal commission is paid by the sender, not by the receiver, which means here Linden Labs. As they trade a huge amount of USD, they have a very low commission rate, so LL finally included it into Lindex 3.5% commision. When you sell L$ to USD through Lindex, you pay a 3.5% commission. When you xfer USD from Lindex to your paypal, you pay 1USD whatever the amount. When you convert USD to EUR through paypal, paypal takes 4 cents as commission based on the EUR/USD value. (that means that if EUR/USD is worth 1.29, you'll get 1€ for 1,33 USD) Now maybe your bank has better currencies exchange rates and then it could be interesting to open a bank account in USD, and do the exchange directly at your bank. About CC cashing out fees, normally rates are very slow, if not equal to 0 at some banks (though I know for example neteller prepaid card is interesting to pay merchants , but has insane comissions when you try to get cash with it). Main issue still remains delay yes.
  5. Amethyst Jetaime wrote: It is always easier to point fingers than it is to accept the consequences of your choices LL did not cause you to lose money from dealing with Ginko's, Ginko's did. They were shut down by LL because they couldn't/wouldn't fulfill the promises they made to their customers. You are also partly responsible for investing money in a shady operation that wasn't a RL bank, but just another resident that had no business running a bank as they were totally unqualified to do so. You have not lost any money now either. You can cash out through the Lindex by obtaining a PayPal account which is available in all countries (193 to be exact) other than a few rogue nations. You don't need a verified PayPal account to do this. Just open a regular PayPal account and when you cash out you tell LL which account to send it to. If PayPal is not available to you, you can request a wire transfer to your bank. Of course since LL doesn't buy your L's but just facilitates the sale to another resident, you will be responsible for paying any fees, just like I am responsible for paying them when I cash out or when I order things from Euro businesses that don't accept USD's or charge a conversion fee if they do accept them. It is the way international commerce works. LL can not subsidize this for you as they would have to pay more than the proceeds of the sale of L's out of their own pocket. It is hardly fair to other customers to do that for you but not pay an equivalent amount to everyone. If you don't want to do this you can hold on to your L's and cash them out in the future. LL has made this statement on their blog: "We know that users are also concerned about the length of the LindeX’s cashout process and the limited choice of currencies when selling L$. We’re currently investigating ways to improve that experience for users while still providing superior fraud protections, and hope to hasten the cashout process and offer new currency options in the future." I suspect that they are working as quickly as they can to do this as it is in their best interest from a business standpoint. Of course you don't have to do this either. But choosing not to is your choice. Relying on TPE's was always done at your own risk and LL offered no guarantee that they would be allowed or able to continue business. LL has not control over the law either, they must follow it or face serious consequences. - About Ginko .. of course, back in 2007, Ginko had to be blamed (and maybe my greediness at that time too) ... What I was stating is that LL provoked the panick that made all those SL banks fail at a single time (which was the prelude to subprime crisis, ..interesting how SL can pre-empt fashions), by forbidding gambling. That said, at that time I only thought "well, I took risks to earn insane interests and I lost" .. normal, and not really subject to rant, but still happened. - About losing money, yes I did, providing LL won't change its policy about withdrawal and sticks us to paypal..as it slows down the move of money...it creates a liquidity crisis, which is a loss as long as the business goes on (postponed income)...not really a thievery, excepted that money stays longer in LL's hands instead in our hands (so they earn interests on it, and we lose some). - About Paypal, don't worry, I already have a verified account since 2009. (was originally using Lindex + paypal, then virwox + paypal, then virwox+skrill, when paypal changed their rules in 2011). - About TPEs, I'll only refer to term 1 of the TOS and the 30 days delay that wasn't respected here.
  6. Innula Zenovka wrote: I think the practicality -- possibly the wisdom too -- of keeping a three month tier reserve in your account rather depends on how much land you have. Obviously it's a good idea if you can afford it but once you start thinking in terms of sims, not all of can afford to tie up $900 US a sim as reserves. I more believe she meant 3 months of accounting liquidity reserve, otherwise it's nonsense as my business has nothing to do with lands nor estates. Though, to have 3 months of liquidity, it has to be built up (and to be honest, I did, though, mostly through short and mid term credit authorization, which costs interests). But the point is: LL has generated a small liquidity crisis in SL...and they urgently rushed to solve half of it...because they didn't respect the 1st rule of their TOS (and they could be sued for it).
  7. Lindal Kidd wrote: ...haven't you read the TOS lately? Actually, all of us are responsible for what happens to us, in both SL and RL. It's just harder to ignore it in SL. I already did, thanks. We may have no rights as resident, overall, though, we still ha a right : the 30 days delay. Quoting : 1. CHANGES TO THIS AGREEMENT This Agreement may be changed by Linden Lab effective immediately by notifying you as provided in Section 13.4 below; provided that Material Changes will become effective thirty (30) days after such notification. By continuing to access or use Second Life after the effective date of any such change, you agree to be bound by the modified Terms of Service. A "Material Change" is a change to this Agreement which reduces your contractual rights or increases your responsibilities under this Agreement in a significant manner.
  8. Xavi Farstrider wrote: i used to buy and sell lindens on virwox before, so im a little disapointed that i can no longer quickly cash out but its better than nothing, id still prefer it if lindex offered european options however Agreed. There are a bunch of Paypal competitors all over the world, and all provide the required API to implement them to any online game (as of an Example : Neteller, Skrill, etc) As said on their blog : "We know that users are also concerned about the length of the LindeX’s cashout process and the limited choice of currencies when selling L$. We’re currently investigating ways to improve that experience for users while still providing superior fraud protections, and hope to hasten the cashout process and offer new currency options in the future." LL has promised some alternative ways to cash out L$ since 2005, and is yet again promising.
  9. Welcome to SL's paradise. That so strongly reminds me how SL provoked the fall of Ginko's bank some years ago (and as a side effect made me lose 60,000 l$). This time that's more about 700€.
  10. All merchants and currency exchangers have, since LL didn't follow the 30 days rule about change in TOS. Aside from the joke, for you particular case, I guess LL would need some more proofs (maybe some chat logs or some screenshots with location and time, to help them to better figure out), especially since there is a difference between account name and display name.
  11. Sybil Hallison wrote: ... With all these fees, and a 15-20% loss, I don't know if it is even worth the trouble... Any european merchants out there with any solutions?? Is there a simpler way?? Hello Sybil, given LL charges 3.5 % and paypal 40 pips (about 3% to euro at actual rate) .. that makes a total of 6.5 % ...that would mean your CC bank eats up to 9% of commission when you cash out ... my advice would be to change bank, definitely.
  12. Amethyst Jetaime wrote: LL is not responsible for your overdraft fees and interest charges. You shouldn't have written a check for money you didn't have yet. Indirectly, yes, LL is responsible for it. Delay to cash out incomes jumped from a single day to more than 10 days, while I was working with enough liquidity to cover a week of liabilities. when the change in TOS happened, without any warning, I had to sundenly face 10 days of liabilities, with liquidity for 7 days...The 3 missing days represent the overdraft. LL didn't even respect it's own TOS, as they were supposed to let a month to everyone to comply with new rules, as written on the TOS (which would have allowed people to adapt, to increase account liquidity and so on). And btw, no, I didn't write down any check yet...overdraft was caused by automatic monthly payments (including those required for my SL business : 12 dedicated servers over the world).
  13. Gordon Wendt wrote: I truly believe that it is only a matter of time until LL stops L$ to USD sales on the Lindex and makes it so that people can only buy L$ (from them). In the meantime, since the only way for Virwox et al. to get Lindens is from LL, they're only going to be worthwhile to people who for whatever reason can't use the Lindex and they're going to be a penalty for that privilege in the form of higher fees and a worse rate of exchange. Yup, not interesting at all unless you can't buy L$ from Lindex. And for merchants who need to cash out their income, well, they're just F*** up. Thanks to the LL who made me lose 900 usd because of the added delay (have now to pay interests from my fresh new overdraft on bank account).
  14. 2013-05-17: VirWoX is now Authorized Linden Dollar Reseller We are proud to announce that VirWoX has been awarded the status are of an officially Authorized Linden Dollar Reseller by Linden Lab. As a result, we can continue to offer the residents of Second Life a wide range of payment options to buy Linden Dollars with. However, please note that under the new terms of service we are no longer allowed to take back your Linden Dollars from Second Life and let you "cash out". Our in-world terminals will therefore no longer accept Linden Dollar deposits. The VirWoX Partner Network and the Currency Shop Program will continue as before. About 5.5 million Linden Dollars have already been paid to our partners in the first 4 months of 2013. So basically nothing changed for outside US merchants.
  15. 2013-05-17: VirWoX is now Authorized Linden Dollar Reseller We are proud to announce that VirWoX has been awarded the status are of an officially Authorized Linden Dollar Reseller by Linden Lab. As a result, we can continue to offer the residents of Second Life a wide range of payment options to buy Linden Dollars with. However, please note that under the new terms of service we are no longer allowed to take back your Linden Dollars from Second Life and let you "cash out". Our in-world terminals will therefore no longer accept Linden Dollar deposits. The VirWoX Partner Network and the Currency Shop Program will continue as before. About 5.5 million Linden Dollars have already been paid to our partners in the first 4 months of 2013. In other words, third-party exchangers are now only allowed to buy L$...cashing-out is now totally forbidden.
  16. mmh now that you say this, I start to doubt...if so, then it would mean LL already includes their paypal tax into the lindex commission... (which eventually concerns a difference of 40 € on the final result..(2036 instead of 1996).. That would still make 3.5% to LL + 3% to paypal for currency exchange. Il have to wait some few days to make sure (that's long..soo long !)
  17. geez, sorry, the link didn't work -.- use this link : https://www.paypal.com/fr/cgi-bin/webscr?cmd=_display-xborder-fees-outside&countries=
  18. Madeliefste Oh wrote: Thanks for explaining, Kahlie. So VirWox mainly profits from being able to cut out the exchange commission from Paypal, as far as I understand. And you profit from Virwox refund as a high volumne trader. Interesting to know, though it is too late now to make use of it. Also interesting to see that PP charge different rates for different people, probably depending on the country where you live. When I had to cash out 700k, at Lindex, I would put them for sale for 247. (It will take about 4 days to sell them at this rate.) Then, after payment of the exchange fee, I end up with 2731 usd at my account. I transfer them to Paypal - 1 dollar transfer costs, charged by LL. (This proces can take 3 to 10 days). In paypal I exchange to euro's, at the current exchange rate (1 USD = 0,751 EUR), and I end up with 2050, that goes to my bank account. Still a difference of 60 euro compared to your deal. Yes, sadly it's a matter of incoming country and currency (as of information, I live in France...nobody's perfect hehe) : International paypal pricings About your exchange rate (USD/EUR = 0.751) that makes EUR/USD = 1,332, while official exchange rate is actually 1,297 ... which makes a difference of .. 35 pips. 0,035/1,297 = 2,7% charged as commission. (but it's probably not accurate as you maybe did the conversion when official rate was different). You're also right about the way how I took profit of it : fewer commissions and high volumes
  19. Pips Fetid wrote: ... I'm wondering if, maybe, LL couldn't work out some sort of system where either people who regularly cash out to the same email address are processed faster when sent to that email address... This was the existing method before the change of TOS. Linden Labs had a secure API, and every currency exchangers had to use it to secure transactions against frauds. Initial transactions were taking longer and had to be manually checked, but with time, the trust in you grows, and transactions get faster, until some of the L$ you traded caused some problems, then your transactions were slown down, if not totally forbidden for the time the problem to be solved. But as LL has deleted the API .. Second Life RISK API wiki
  20. Madeliefste Oh wrote: Paypal never charged me 5%. Paypal charges 1 dollar, at the moment I transfer my money from my SL account to Paypal. When you cash out 50 dollar then the charge is indeed 5%, but when you cash out 1000 dollar, the charge is only 0,1 % Paypal Europe - and especially in eurozone - has different rules. They charge 1.4% to 3.4% of incoming amounts that don't come from your linked bank account, commission depends on monthly volume...count 2% for volume between 2500€ and 10,000€. Plus 40 pips of conversion fee, from usd to € (meaning 3% of the amount at 1,30 rate) .... that makes a total of 5% fee, whatever the ammunt (and 6,4 % below 2,500 €), this is pure thievery.
  21. Kahlie Niven wrote: Madeliefste Oh wrote: ... Which exchange service gave a higher price for your L$ and was still able to make a profit? That desserves an explanation, thats right. As currency exchanger, I was using VirWox, and as intermediary to my bank account, I was using Skrill. Let's consider these data (based on my last transactions) : Amount to cash-out in a month : 700,000 L$, assuming it's done on a single shot per month. EUR/USD rate : 1,31 Xfer from lindex to paypal europe costs me 2% of the amount+0,25€ (+ 1 usd to LL) Paypal then charges 40 pips (4%) of commission on currency exchange from USD to EUR. Xfer from Paypal to bank account is free of charge (happily). ==> A net worth of ~ 2016 € after 10 days (2x5days). VirWox option : VirVox charges 3.9% of commission minus a refund that depends on volume, with 700,000 L$ traded monthly I benefit(ed) a 40% refund. Xfer from VirWox to Skrill costs 1 €. Xfer from Skrill to my bank account costs 1,80€, whatever the amount. ==> a net worth of ~ 2110 € after some few hours. oops, sorry ... 40 pips with 1,31 rate makes 3% and not 4%. I was a bit too fast when writing the comment, ..I also forgot to apply the 2% of commission from paypal, so basically you should remove a total of 1 % to the 2016€ ... so net worth through lindex would more be ~ 1996 €.
  22. Madeliefste Oh wrote: ... Which exchange service gave a higher price for your L$ and was still able to make a profit? That desserves an explanation, thats right. As currency exchanger, I was using VirWox, and as intermediary to my bank account, I was using Skrill. Let's consider these data (based on my last transactions) : Amount to cash-out in a month : 700,000 L$, assuming it's done on a single shot per month. EUR/USD rate : 1,31 USD/SLL rate on Lindex : 248 EUR/SLL rate on VirWox : 326 Lindex option : Lindex charges 3.5% of commission on SLL to USD. Xfer from lindex to paypal europe costs me 2% of the amount+0,25€ (+ 1 usd to LL) Paypal then charges 40 pips (4%) of commission on currency exchange from USD to EUR. Xfer from Paypal to bank account is free of charge (happily). ==> A net worth of ~ 2016 € after 10 days (2x5days). VirWox option : VirVox charges 3.9% of commission minus a refund that depends on volume, with 700,000 L$ traded monthly I benefit(ed) a 40% refund. Xfer from VirWox to Skrill costs 1 €. Xfer from Skrill to my bank account costs 1,80€, whatever the amount. ==> a net worth of ~ 2110 € after some few hours.
  23. Madeliefste Oh wrote: You don't want to wait maybe, but waiting is not something that is going to kill your business, it's just a matter of planning more in front. When you pay about 100 € per month in fee, and let's say the fees are 10% (which is way too high, it shall be more around 7% but still let's take that 10% as an amount to calculate with), Then your income must be around 1000 euro a month. Your costs are 500 € + 100 € a month, so you still have a profit of € 400 euro a month (520 usd). That might be a bit lower then you were use to, but it is not killing your business. No, you're wrong about the amounts : My income in sl is about 700,000 - 900,000 l$ per month ... that means about 2,100 € (~ 2,750 usd) As the job is official (meaning, it's subject to taxes) I have to pay 25% of the income into social security contributions (yeah guess my country -.-), so : 525 € Then my costs : 500 € Remaining a net profit : 1,075 € per month .. for a full time job ... and believe me at this level, 100 € more or 100 € less makes a big difference, so if you can save them, then you do. I didn't say it will kill my business...I said it may kill it inworld (I'll move it elsewhere, to a place where L$ won't be involved). About planning it more in front, yes, this is what I urgently had to do today, as my next large bills will take place the 18th, 19th and 20th. And it won't even be enough, so I'll run short of money and my bank will be very happy. At least, Linden Lab could have done it in two steps, with a month of delay, to allow merchants to adapt to the new rules...the way how they did it is just rude toward their customers, toward the community base; toward the people that make SL alive.... I'm now not even astonished when I've heard that avination has noticed a boom of newcomers. As I said... LL has been killing itself for years, they now just wanted to accelerate the process.
  24. Arken Soothsayer wrote: ... Are there ANY remaining ways to sell your lindens without LL service? Answer is "No" (sadly..)
  25. Pretty simple, 2 example of advantages provided by third party like virwox : - It was allowing me to exchange my L$ to Euro over neteller and skrill, instantaneously, didn't have to wait weeks for this..and when your business on SL forces you to pay 500 € of bills monthly, believe me, you don't want to wait for your income for weeks. - Secondly, because of all the fees : LL's fee, Paypal's fee, currency exchange fee... overall, all of these fees cost me about 100 € per month. If I can avoid them then I will (with direct payments overt the web for example).
×
×
  • Create New...