The "Best" ways to pay for FFXI

[Ashiee]

I know a lot of people (I'm not saying all) are not happy about the new changes being made to Billing System of FFXI, including myself, but I haven't seen anywhere were people have been discussing the better ways to pay for the services, so I decided to start this~ (well people have been discussing it, but its inbetween a bunch of raging of people for and against this new setup)

When I mean the best ways, I mean the most hassle free, least shady, and cheapest ways there are. I know this may vary depending on where you are located, so lets start hearing them!

For example the UGC in my state has a 9.5% tax on it so I were to go that route I would be paying 2-3$ more a month, but there may be an online seller that's reliable with free shipping and no taxes that someone else knows about. I would like to know things like this :D

[Ravenmore]

If your going the crysta route then paypal is better then ordering UGCs or I think you can buy the points right off playspan web site so that gets around the sales tax. Not 100% on that ;last haven't looked into ordering them on online.

[Ziyyigo-Tipyigo]

You can buy UGC with PayPal if you already have an account, keeping the entire transaction electronic, but you might want to make sure that your state really does charge sales tax on the card itself (I know from experience that mine doesn't).

I'd start by asking one of the stores that sells them if sales tax is collected on it, or seeing if there's an easy way you can ask your state tax office about it.

[RAIST]

Unfortunately, you pretty much have two options outside JP: Click & Buy and deal withthe potential hassles, or Crysta.

IF the option is available for you and you won't get hit by currency exchange fees, C&B SHOULD win in the short-term for cost, but there is the questionable reliablility and consistency that keeps cropping up in the threads. Unfortunately, they aren't an option for me as they are blocked by my CC processor I use specifically for online. I'm not giving them accces to other cards with upwards of 12k limits on them.

The real catch is going to be finding a good, cheap source for your crysta if you go that route. ATM, all 'I know about is getting crysta thorugh Ultimate Points (PlaySpan), C&B, or WebMoney. Think some other people had listed some other services on the forums where you can buy it...will see if I can find some more names and add them later.

Lots of people deal with Ultima Game Cards, but you have the issue with the cost of aquisition. First tirck is finding out how much Crysta you'll need to pay for as long as you intend to play. If you pay a lot per month, you may quickly hit the point where your crysta use catches up to what you would pay with directpay options (or really close), so it may be virtually the same for some. In my case at 12.95 a month, it would take over 8 years for it to balance 100%--otherwise it works out to 64.75 fees against 65.00 worth of crysta in 5 months. Kinda close, but not optimal--but I could probly manage it at $15/$10 rotations on a month to month basis and keep it within a few bucks month-to-month. If I had mules, it may balance faster...but still, you likely will be paying extra per cycle with crysta for a while.

The trick is where to get your points cheapest for confvverting it to crysta...locally bought cards are generally going to hit you harder because of local taxes. If looking to buy them online, double check their tax policy--you may be charged taxes online also with some vendors depending on where you live.

[Doombringer]

simple test... go buy a 20$ card and see if it costs you anything more than 20$. here in MA it cost me 21 and change.

of course NOW ultimatepay takes my paypal so i'll be doing that from now on. that or clickandbuy seem most convenient, but the internet scuttlebutt is to not trust clickandbuy. (i have no details, don't bother asking me)

the way i look at it.. even IF you end up paying taxes on your paypal... what's your time worth? i'm only willing to try SO hard to perform a questionably legal tax dodge that saves me 75 cents a month.. yah know? (though i suppose it's EQUALLY laughable that such minor "tax evasion" could ever come back to bite you)

[RAIST]

eh... looks like the simplest way to get the crysta may in fact be thorugh playspan. Looks like you have to create an account with them to gain access to all their payment options, but they claim to haver 85 ways to pay...including Visa/MC/Discover, Paypal, etc.

Haven't done the transfer myself yet...holding out for them to fix the directpay debaucle or I'll just time out eventually and IF I decide it's worth the hassle to come back when new content is added, probly just do the crysta thing then if they don't have directpay integrated at that point. But, if you set up the account, you can get the $10/$20 cards (guessing they just give you the code to redeem online as if you had a physical card from a store), or you can buy the points directly in a wider variety of increments under ultimatepay.

http://www.playspan.com/Ultimate_Points
(link to the cards in the left-hand panel)

[Ziyyigo-Tipyigo]

a questionably legal tax dodge

A web search for the name of your state and the phrase "use tax" will probably answer any lingering questions about that.

[Malamasala]

I'd prefer the old way.

Failing that, I'd prefer to pay exact by paypal automatically.

But that choice doesn't seem to exist without click an buy, so then I'd like to buy crysta exactly by paypal manually.

And again, can't buy exact amounts of crysta. So in the end I'll probably have to settle for the 4th best choice, which is buying too much crysta with paypal.

I just wish I didn't have to settle for less 4 times before SE takes my money. Did they have to make the new system so much worse than the old? In fact I'm having troubles thinking of a worse system. Perhaps if they forced me to send the money by mail.

[Panthera]

I'd prefer the old way.

Failing that, I'd prefer to pay exact by paypal automatically.

But that choice doesn't seem to exist without click an buy, so then I'd like to buy crysta exactly by paypal manually.

And again, can't buy exact amounts of crysta. So in the end I'll probably have to settle for the 4th best choice, which is buying too much crysta with paypal.

I just wish I didn't have to settle for less 4 times before SE takes my money. Did they have to make the new system so much worse than the old? In fact I'm having troubles thinking of a worse system. Perhaps if they forced me to send the money by mail.

I agree, Chrysta via Clickandbuy via PayPal seems like lesser evil. Somehow "lesser evil" is poor, inadequate salesmanship.

[Meyi]

Best way would be for them to just take my card number and directly pull from that.

It seems Crysta is the best option we have for now though.

[Rosina]

simple test... go buy a 20$ card and see if it costs you anything more than 20$. here in MA it cost me 21 and change.

of course NOW ultimatepay takes my paypal so i'll be doing that from now on. that or clickandbuy seem most convenient, but the internet scuttlebutt is to not trust clickandbuy. (i have no details, don't bother asking me)

the way i look at it.. even IF you end up paying taxes on your paypal... what's your time worth? i'm only willing to try SO hard to perform a questionably legal tax dodge that saves me 75 cents a month.. yah know? (though i suppose it's EQUALLY laughable that such minor "tax evasion" could ever come back to bite you)

thats taxachusettes for ya. But that is the sales tax not really the card itself.
honesatly i'm no stranger to point cards and raist is off by his "math" tbh. But what he doesn't get or understand is time/point cards are a good option for those who do not have a credit or debit card. Like myself.

[Rosina]

Alot of people perfer time cards or point cards to pay for mmo. Since there has been a lot of account hacking, e-mail hacking etc. To people it is safer. Since you are not puuting your debit or credit card on the internet. Which is infact not all that safe. ID theft has been a growing issue since people freely give out their cards out of convience.

If I had a say I would perfer SE have time cards for ffxi and ffxiv Much like WoW and offer multi mnth cards for a bit cheaper. Like $25 for 60 days.

raist honestly sometimes it is best to not over think things :) And i say this out of kindness. You might infact be wrong about the crysta cards.
And SE has no control on sales tax. That is seperate from the card.

[RAIST]

thats taxachusettes for ya. But that is the sales tax not really the card itself.
honesatly i'm no stranger to point cards and raist is off by his "math" tbh. But what he doesn't get or understand is time/point cards are a good option for those who do not have a credit or debit card. Like myself.

OK.. you say I'm off on my math... what math, and what is wrong with it.

Don't go slinging accusations like that without backing it up.

Edit:
Well, since this is the only math I did in that post, I guess this is what you are talking about:

In my case at 12.95 a month, it would take over 8 years for it to balance 100%--otherwise it works out to 64.75 fees against 65.00 worth of crysta in 5 months.

That math is correct. Sit down with a calculator and add it up my friend.

Punch in 12.95 X 5 and what to you get? 64.75.
What is the least amount of crysta you can by that covers this? 65.00.
Find the LCD between 12.95 and 5.00...what is it? 1295.
If you don't believe the LCD is indeed 1295, just start at zero and keep adding 12.95. Everytime it hits a .00 deicmal value, check to see if the result is a multiple of 5.00.

That is 100 billing cycles. How long is a billing cycle? 30 days.
How many days is that? 3000 days.
365 days in a year. How many years is that? 8.2191780821917808...
So, how long would it take for me to completely use all the crysta I purchase just to cover FFXI subscriptions under the current system? At least 8 years.

So again....where is the math wrong?

[RAIST]

Alot of people perfer time cards or point cards to pay for mmo. Since there has been a lot of account hacking, e-mail hacking etc. To people it is safer. Since you are not puuting your debit or credit card on the internet. Which is infact not all that safe. ID theft has been a growing issue since people freely give out their cards out of convience.

If I had a say I would perfer SE have time cards for ffxi and ffxiv Much like WoW and offer multi mnth cards for a bit cheaper. Like $25 for 60 days.

raist honestly sometimes it is best to not over think things :) And i say this out of kindness. You might infact be wrong about the crysta cards.
And SE has no control on sales tax. That is seperate from the card.

Beginning to wonder if you even digest what you read in these posts...

The OP even brought up local taxation as an issue. this is something that has to get factored into your budget when you are trying to get a real budget together. Especially when that user is looking at nearly a 10% shift to the cost. In my case, it is 6%. That can still have an impact if things are tight.

And about the OP... these are the criteria for evaluation:

When I mean the best ways, I mean the most hassle free, least shady, and cheapest ways there are. I know this may vary depending on where you are located, so lets start hearing them!
As far as I've been able to determine, a PlaySpan account seems to provide a very reasonable balance of all these criteria. With them already linking to SE for Crysta purchases, and having a multitude of payment options, the OP may well have a strong chance of finding a payment/delivery to meet all these criteria in one centralized location without having to bounce around all over the place researching everybody under the sun. If someone has found a better source for themselves than PlaySpan, they can counter this by providing that information.

As for Crysta Cards... the only place I've seen those have been through WebMoney through 7-11's in Japan at a Kiosk as a Virtual card...don't recall seeing any physical cards for them anywhere when looking into this stuff--so I didn't even MENTION THEM... so how could I be wrong about them?

[Ziyyigo-Tipyigo]

FGSFDS

/blist and move on with your life already. Or do I really have to start /blisting people who insist on responding to other people I've already /blsited?

[Asiren]

For me, the best way would to pay with Crysta with my credit card (which does not have 3-D Secure). As I mentioned in another post (http://forum.square-enix.com/ffxi/threads/12120-Petition-clickandbuy-the-only-way-no-thanks.?p=158782&viewfull=1#post158782), the only way to do this would be to buy the UlimatePay gamer cards at retail stores.

ClickandBuy requires a 3-D Secure credit card in order to even open a new account.

Paying via PlaySpan with a Paypal account forces you to pay with the bank account linked to your Paypal account.

I paid via Paypal for the next pay cycle. I might choose to buy a gamer card from retail stores in future cycles because when I pay by Paypal, I want to use my credit card, not my bank account. -_-

[Aver]

For me, the best way would to pay with Crysta with my credit card (which does not have 3-D Secure). As I mentioned in another post (http://forum.square-enix.com/ffxi/threads/12120-Petition-clickandbuy-the-only-way-no-thanks.?p=158782&viewfull=1#post158782), the only way to do this would be to buy the UlimatePay gamer cards at retail stores.

ClickandBuy requires a 3-D Secure credit card in order to even open a new account.

Paying via PlaySpan with a Paypal account forces you to pay with the bank account linked to your Paypal account.

I paid via Paypal for the next pay cycle. I might choose to buy a gamer card from retail stores in future cycles because when I pay by Paypal, I want to use my credit card, not my bank account. -_-

I managed to pay with a CC linked to my paypal account (giving SE the benefit of the doubt and buying crysta for this month, else KMA.) Just hit the "Change payment method" link. It's intentionally made obscure, but I promise you it's there.

I use my CC for rewards, so if I can avoid using my paypal-linked bank account I do, even if it's another step in the already convoluted payment method.

edit: Change payment method link on the paypal window, when you finally get there.

[Asiren]

I managed to pay with a CC linked to my paypal account (giving SE the benefit of the doubt and buying crysta for this month, else KMA.) Just hit the "Change payment method" link. It's intentionally made obscure, but I promise you it's there.

I use my CC for rewards, so if I can avoid using my paypal-linked bank account I do, even if it's another step in the already convoluted payment method.

edit: Change payment method link on the paypal window, when you finally get there.

I did click the "Change payment" method link. Several times. The page simply reloaded itself for me. If you were able to do it, that's great for you! For me, I had to pay with my bank account. ;_; I had NO choice.

This is the first time I've ever paid via Paypal with my bank account. I've always paid with a credit card via Paypal before.

[Aver]

I did click the "Change payment" method link. Several times. The page simply reloaded itself for me. If you were able to do it, that's great for you! For me, I had to pay with my bank account. ;_; I had NO choice.

This is the first time I've ever paid via Paypal with my bank account. I've always paid with a credit card via Paypal before.

x.x I'm sorry to hear that! Could it have been a noscript/browser issue? You should try again (you can always cancel out before pressing confirm) with plugins disabled/cleared cache (yes, I know, durrr - but I have to suggest it)

Also, you have your CC linked to your paypal account right?

[Asiren]

x.x I'm sorry to hear that! Could it have been a noscript/browser issue? You should try again (you can always cancel out before pressing confirm) with plugins disabled/cleared cache (yes, I know, durrr - but I have to suggest it)

Also, you have your CC linked to your paypal account right?

I enabled all scripting while on that Paypal payment page. So unless I have to enable scripts before logging into my Paypal account, I really don't know what the issue could be. I guess I could try again for the next month. >_>; I just want it to work without having to worry about my computer's security.

Yes, my credit card is linked to my Paypal account as well. The only issue I can think of is that I don't use Paypal very often (I go for months without using them), so maybe Paypal feels the need to check to see if the bank account linked with my Paypal account is actually mine and still active. >_> Now I'm wondering if it's an issue with Paypal itself and not PlaySpan. I can't really tell.

[Aver]

Bah. I don't even know then.

If in doubt, bug tech support, I guess. They can't be any less helpful than CnB >.>

[Asiren]

Ok, I tried adding Crysta with all scripts enabled BEFORE moving to the Paypal payment page. No good. I'm stuck with paying with my bank account through Paypal rather than with my credit card. Maybe there's some weird security issue involved, but this really sucks. :/

[Ziyyigo-Tipyigo]

Log into PayPal proper and make sure your credit card is all good with them, e.g. that the expiration date is up-to-date.

[Asiren]

Log into PayPal proper and make sure your credit card is all good with them, e.g. that the expiration date is up-to-date.

My credit card information is up-to-date. It doesn't expire until 2013.

[RAIST]

FGSFDS

/blist and move on with your life already. Or do I really have to start /blisting people who insist on responding to other people I've already /blsited?

By this mentality you would have to /blist the mods themselves....

Sorry, but I just have to call someone out if they are going to accuse me of something without backing it up. Sometimes it's hard to pass up a teachable moment.

And lets face it....some people just simply need an intervention from A-Pimp-Named-Slickback:

A Pimp Named Slickback: You tell her what you want her to do. If she say no, hit the bitch! Simple.
Tom Dubois: But I couldn't hit Sarah. I couldn't hit *any* woman.
A Pimp Named Slickback: Has *not* hitting the bitch been working? I mean, scientifically speaking, has not hitting the bitch achieved the desired result?


The Pimp's Prayer: "Let us pray the Pimp's Prayer. Lord, please pray for the soul of this bitch and guide my pimp hand and make it strong, Lord, so that she might learn a ho's place. Amen."

[Ziyyigo-Tipyigo]

By this mentality you would have to /blist the mods themselves....


The mods don't do "internet debates," they delete and banhammer.

/goodbye

[RAIST]

My credit card information is up-to-date. It doesn't expire until 2013. Seem to recall there was a way to verify or validate (forget the wording) your credit card or something with PayPal. Forget the details...that's going back to like 1998 or something for me. Could be something with that. Might even be worth contacting PayPal about not being able to change the payment method to your card for a transaction to see if they have any pointers. I hate to see you be forced to go locally for cards--you may pay more in local taxes then you do in interest for the short time the charges are on your card.

[Panthera]

FGSFDS

/blist and move on with your life already. Or do I really have to start /blisting people who insist on responding to other people I've already /blsited?
^ ^ ^

Can we make a petition to ban a particular troll who shall remain nameless?

[Asiren]

Seem to recall there was a way to verify or validate (forget the wording) your credit card or something with PayPal. Forget the details...that's going back to like 1998 or something for me. Could be something with that. Might even be worth contacting PayPal about not being able to change the payment method to your card for a transaction to see if they have any pointers. I hate to see you be forced to go locally for cards--you may pay more in local taxes then you do in interest for the short time the charges are on your card.

As much as I appreciate the suggestions, I think I'm pretty much done with trying to pay with a credit card via Paypal. The credit card linked with my Paypal account was linked before my bank account was linked to it. If there's any validation process I missed for my credit card, they could have done it years ago when I first created my Paypal account.

If SE adds a new way to pay for FFXI, I will definitely consider it. However, I don't feel like wasting time that could be spent on something more productive. Thanks for the help. :)

[RAIST]

The mods don't do "internet debates," they delete and banhammer.

/goodbye

Actually, that IS by definition a response to the post. And they DO post in these threads. You're a good bit over 100 posts already...I'm sure you've seen a few mod posts. Pick any thread with a crown on it--those are threads that mods have posted in.