UltimatePay will offer you a variety of options.
If you have not tried that, I would suggest you look into it (it's what I use to pay for my Crysta-nonsense).
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Again, Ultimate Game Card Code is the most reliable method for getting your Crysta. Be that from a physical card you buy from Gamestop, Walmart, CVS, etc. or directly from Playspan.com. Punch in the code and you have your Crysta. Done.
http://store.playspan.com/ultimate-game-card
They claim to have 85 methods of payment. Pick one, get your code, get your Crysta.
At the bottom of the page is a banner ad about where to get a physical card--graphic shows Walmart, CVS, Riteaid, 7-Eleven, etc. If you click the banner, it takes you to a page where you can enter your US zipcode and it will pull up a map marking stores where you can find the cards locally. You might have to adjust the zoom level to see the markers, depending on how many stores are in your area. Mine has about 12 of them all over town, so the zoom level was really high and I had to zoom in to start seeing the pins on the map.
If you aren't in the US, click the "Where to Buy" link up top, and under the new map there are links to Canada, Brazil, Hong Kong, other areas. I'll even save you the trouble of going through all the pages, here's the main "Where to Buy" page:
http://ultimategamecard.playspan.com/ugcstores
I may try that...getting an actual game card in-store, that is. I still don't understand why my Visa isn't working while everyone else's in the same house is working, but I've tried everything else to get around it, and Crysta might be my only option. I'm just confused by it all :(
It seems no matter what the solution is, I'm not jumping through any less hoops just to give SE my money...
Just someone else's set of hoops.
IMHO, SE is being very selective on which cards are able to be authorized for payments, and it seems to be getting harder to even pay them for service, which is beyond me. :confused:
To be “fair”, it's not SqEX who decides on them cards etc., not any longer at least methinks. ^^;
You're probably right, lol. It's this "Global Pay Inc." or GPI or whatever the name of the company is, that handles the online authorizations, maybe.
Granted, I won't have FFXI tied to my bank account with Crysta, but it's still a hassle :o
But as long as UP or UGC do not surcharge me, I won't complain.
Glad to see I am not the only one who is having this issue. Mine was supposed to be set up on autopay every 30 days. This is the 2nd month in a row that SE has just decided not to run the card on file and my account is deactived. I don't get it. It worked for the first 2 or 3 months. Now all the sudden, no more.
At that point, I just went with ultimatepay since i was having issues with direct CC/paypal. UP works perfectly if it's a available to you and you don't mind paying a few cents extra a month (since if you don't specify exact amount of crysta, you can end up with some left over.)