Worst decision by SE ever

[geekgirl101]

Heard that SE stopped accepting PayPal and UltimatePay as payments. I've not heard of the latter, but PayPal? It's the most common method used by almost every company since not everyone has access to a bank card. Why was this stopped? Some of my friends had to ultimately quit playing FFXI because they have no other means to pay to play. I don't understand SE's game here.

[Roja323]

You are so late to this party

[Olor]

The ultimate pay was what people were using to access paypal. Convoluted. Yes... but yeah this happened months ago...

[Alhanelem]

Heard that SE stopped accepting PayPal and UltimatePay as payments. I've not heard of the latter, but PayPal? It's the most common method used by almost every company since not everyone has access to a bank card. Why was this stopped? Some of my friends had to ultimately quit playing FFXI because they have no other means to pay to play. I don't understand SE's game here.

This wasn't an SE decision. UltimatePay is becoming no longer a thing- not just for XI, but for anything.

I don't understand people not having the means to get a card though. There are prepaid cards you can just buy at any major store, no credit rquired. I got a debit card on my checking account the day I turned 18. I got my first credit card (with a pathetic limit but a card nonetheless) not long after- it's not hard to get one, you just go to a bank and apply or ask. Either is far safer than cash, especially for me as someone who tends to... lose things. It depends a lot on your country though, to be fair. Some countries have plastic so prevalent that they may even be eliminating physical money in the next 20-30 years. Other countries love their cash and checking accounts and cards aren't so common.

While I do use paypal for a few things like Ebay (since you're basically forced to), Paypal is a really crappy (for lack of a better term) company- They are able to act much like a financial institution without all of the same regulations and I find their customer service to be worse than SEs and I really don't want to use paypal unless they don't take anything else- And, even when I use paypal, my credit card is the funding source for my paypal account. So it's really no different than just using my card.

[Camiie]

You do understand that people are using full fledged, bank backed credit cards and still being rejected by SE (and SE only) right?

[bungiefanNA]

This wasn't an SE decision. UltimatePay is becoming no longer a thing- not just for XI, but for anything.

I don't understand people not having the means to get a card though. There are prepaid cards you can just buy at any major store, no credit rquired. I got a debit card on my checking account the day I turned 18. I got my first credit card (with a pathetic limit but a card nonetheless) not long after- it's not hard to get one, you just go to a bank and apply or ask. Either is far safer than cash, especially for me as someone who tends to... lose things. It depends a lot on your country though, to be fair. Some countries have plastic so prevalent that they may even be eliminating physical money in the next 20-30 years. Other countries love their cash and checking accounts and cards aren't so common.

While I do use paypal for a few things like Ebay (since you're basically forced to), Paypal is a really crappy (for lack of a better term) company- They are able to act much like a financial institution without all of the same regulations and I find their customer service to be worse than SEs and I really don't want to use paypal unless they don't take anything else- And, even when I use paypal, my credit card is the funding source for my paypal account. So it's really no different than just using my card.

PayPal was a way to get around the 401 and 601 errors that some cards get when being used to pay the monthly fee. PayPal wouldn't reject the card, but something about SE's payment system doesn't like cards from some banks. Prepaid VISA and MasterCard cards are a bit of a pain too because they cost at least $5 per card, so your monthly fee is actually costing more than if your normal card was just accepted.

If you get a 401 error, you're locked out from using other cards for 1-30 days, depending on how many times you got the 401 error while your account was locked. PayPal avoided this.

[Alhanelem]

You do understand that people are using full fledged, bank backed credit cards and still being rejected by SE (and SE only) right?

Yeah, i know about the errors some people have had, and I'm not trying to suggest they don't need to offer some kind of alternative. Just saying, there are options available. I was reacting more to the "not everyone has a bank card' comment (add the words "that works" and I guess it makes perfect sense at that point).

It's true what I said though - Paypal really is an awful company and I have a few nasty stories from dealing with them.

[Stompa]

Jeanna reported using pre-paid cards and that caused Errors too. She tried using multiple CC, prepaid cards etc. and was unable to pay. She is now no longer playing FFXI as far as I'm aware.

I don't want to argue about this, but I will say that I have used PAYPAL for many many years and I have never had any problems at all. I don't actually shop on Ebay much, but I do use Paypal on a lot of other sites, and it has always been swift, secure and easy for me. I have heard negative reports about Paypal, but it is the worlds largest billing system so you will inevitably get people with negative stories. The vast majority of people use Paypal and do not experience problems with it.

SE have said they will look into adding a Paypal option, and I certainly hope they do.

I paid for FFXI using the same bank card/bank account from 2004-2011, every month, and had no problems at all. Then the C&B incident, and after the bank card option was restored, I started getting Error and Lockout problems while using the exact same UK bank account as I had used for the years 04-11. I don't want to buy pre-paid cards, when other players have reported getting payment Errors and lockouts from using those cards too. And SEAMS does not accept my bank account cards, even though they were perfectly good from years 04-11.

So if a Paypal option is not added, I will leave FFXI when my UltimateGameCard crysta runs out which will be early 2015. I will join the legions of loyal customers who have been banished from FFXI by this random and broken and quite frankly amateurish payment system.

[Roja323]

Paypal is trash honestly, it takes 5-6 days to clear a transaction, and in that time people can do what is essentially a charge back and dispute the transaction. Then you lose the money and they get the item for free. It is very risky to be a seller and rely on paypal.

I have had to deal with it to many times, and know its just not worth it if i can avoid it.

The bigger concern shouldn't be the lack of paypal, as most mmo dont use paypal, the real issue, should be that SE/PoL have issues with peoples legit credit cards/bank cards/prepaid cards. There is zero reason for a legit bank card to be declined, and if it is being declined because SE's bank is in JP and its flagging the transaction as 'possibly' fraudulent, then it is upon the company to work with banks and get this solved.

[Stompa]

Paypal is trash honestly, it takes 5-6 days to clear a transaction, and in that time people can do what is essentially a charge back and dispute the transaction. Then you lose the money and they get the item for free. It is very risky to be a seller and rely on paypal.

I have had to deal with it to many times, and know its just not worth it if i can avoid it.

The bigger concern shouldn't be the lack of paypal, as most mmo dont use paypal, the real issue, should be that SE/PoL have issues with peoples legit credit cards/bank cards/prepaid cards. There is zero reason for a legit bank card to be declined, and if it is being declined because SE's bank is in JP and its flagging the transaction as 'possibly' fraudulent, then it is upon the company to work with banks and get this solved.

You are mistaken, in regards to Paypal for buying game credits. I bought Ultimate Game Cards with Paypal, the card was paid for in under a minute. Not 5~6 days. I would enter my Paypal details into the UGC shop, and have the crysta up on SEAMS within a few minutes. Very fast, and very secure.

Paypal is used for many gaming facilities. It is not the rare and unpopular service you are making it out to be. Many people use it for gaming services, and find it quick and easy and secure.

SE do need to fix the bank card /check system, that should be a priority for them.

But they should also add a Paypal option, for people who like to use Paypal. You two in this thread do not like Paypal, thats fine, you don't have to use it. But stop making it out to be an Ogre just because you had issues with some Ebay buyers/sellers. Game credits are not Ebay items that are posted in the mail and might arrive broken or not arrive at all. Buying game credits with Paypal is instant, secure and there is no question about the seller not posting your credits. This would be even more true if Paypal were directly dealing with SE, as there is no Game Card third party, its just your Bank-->Paypal-->SE. There is really no reason to start making issues where they don't exist.