Mainland pricing for premium account holders make no sense!

[Shhy]

According to SL as a premium account holder I can get a 512 parcel for 0 a month. At 512 normally cost $5 a month. But if I want to double it to a 1024 I would have to pay $8 a month? The price of 1024 is normally $8 a month and I have a 512 credit which is normally $5 a month why am I not paying $3 a month for the 1024?

[BarcodeBrian]

You are not given a $5/month credit or bonus as a premium account holder. You are given an allowance of 512 m parcel, tier-free for being a premium account holder. The difference is your understanding of what your premium bonus is.

If you want a total of 1024 m, you are still given the first 512m tier-free; you only have to pay tier on the remaining 512m.

[Shhy]

So if I'm getting a 512 credit on a 1024, I would pay $5 a month for a 1024? If I'm getting a 512 credit that would mean I'm only paying for a 512 which is $5 a month not $8.

[BarcodeBrian]

That is correct. If you have a 1024, you pay only $5/month because the first 512m is credited free of tier.

[BarcodeBrian]

In short, the land prices you see are charges for land you hold in addition to (beyond) the first tier-free 512m.

[Shhy]

Well that whould make sense, but this is what im seeing.

Example One.

You hold 512 sqm of land -- or donate 512 sqm of tier to a group. Your Monthly Land Use Fee is US$0. You will need to buy the land, however.

Example Two.

You hold 1024 sqm of land and donate 512 sqm to a group. Subtract your 512 sqm bonus lease. Your Monthly Land Use fee is US$8 .https://secondlife.com/land/pricing.php

[BarcodeBrian]

That example is wonderful example of confusing explanations. It assumes you are donating tier allowance to a group and hold all of the 1024 square meters of land yourself, outside of the group.

[Qie Niangao]

Those are confusing examples because, from #1 to #2, not ony the numbers change but also the "or" changes to an "and", masking the fact that Example 2 is really talking about a total of 1536 sq.m. of land -- of which 512 would be the free Premium bonus and the remaining 1024 would be paid-for tier costing US$ 8 /mo.

In the specific case of wanting just 1024sq.m. total, yeah, it costs US$ 5/mo for that 512sq.m. of tier in excess of the free 512 Premium bonus.

[BarcodeBrian]

I think the missing information that should have been explained beforehand is adding to that confusion.

The amount you are charged for tier is determined by a setting in your dashboard under Land Manager -> Land Use Fees.

You can owe and be charged a tier rate without holding land. This setting determines your rate regardless of how much land you actually own. It will include any land tier you have donated to groups, which is what allows group ownership.

You can adjust this manually - it will not lower automatically. It WILL rise automatically if you purchase land without it set high enough. If you see the warning that your tier will be adjusted accordingly when you try to buy land, this is a red flag if you thought your settings were already sufficient.

That example is a weak attempt to show how your land use fees are a combination of what you own personally in addition to what you have donated to a group. When you sell land, you need to manually change the settings in your dashboard to prevent still being charged tier for land you do not hold. To reclaim tier donated to a group, you also need to do this manually from the group's land tab.

Better published explanations have been needed for a long time and there isn't a soul who has not been mystified at least to begin with. You are doing good to ask here to try to understand details.