question about Crysta

I am curious about something, people are complaining about spending extra on crysta....

does SE charge a fee for it?

while yes I know it doesn't come in the exact amount you would pay for FFXI ...I was under the impression you get the amount you pay for

Isn't crysta a third party? So don't you have to pay some kind of usage fee? If not, I'm suspicious how it remains free to use. Honestly I never even knew it existed until this whole account swap thing came up. Which is why I'm asking.

really? I was under the impression it was from SE themselves...I have nothing to base this on except SE is the first and only company I have heard of using it

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does SE charge a fee for it?

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No. 100 Crysta = 1.00 units of your region's currency, and the price you pay in crysta is equal to the price you pay in that currency.

e.g. if you're in the US, the subscription fee is 1295 crysta, which is equal to 12.95 USD. 100 Crysta = $1.00
If you're in Japan, 100 crysta = 100 yen, and goes toward the Japanese subscription price (dont know what it is offhand)
... and so on.

In the US, you can only put on up to a maximum of $100 worth of Crysta on your account; I'd assume the limit is 10k yen's worth in Japan, and 100 euros in most of Europe and 100 GBP in the UK.

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Isn't crysta a third party?

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Crysta is not a third party. Crysta is SE's own Points, like microsoft points or wii points or tutti fruiti points.

You may be thinking of the generic Ultimate Game Cards that can be used to purchase them, or PayPal which can also be used to purchase them. But the Crysta system is SE's system.

@Alhanelem; thank you for clearing that up, I suspected this was the case but was not sure

Really, the only drawback with crysta is the leftover balance you end up with due to not being able to put exactly $12.95 worth of crysta on. You can pay for several months in advance this way, and some people like that idea.

This MIGHT (though I doubt) also open up the possibility of multi-month discounts which are available for FFXIV (or rather, would be available if they were charging for it at this time)

multi month discounts would be nice, I would like to see this

is FFXIV pay to play again? last I heart is was still free till it was "good enough for the players" but I haven't heard anything recently about it

FFXIV is still free to play. I'm guessing SE has some sort of contractual obligation to Ultimate Play and Click and Buy, despite not actually using their services. It makes sense that they would put FFXI under this system just so that they can get some sort of value for whatever it is they are paying, if nothing else. On one hand it sucks, as it forces (some) FFXI players to jump through more hoops in order to play, on the other hand it's a sign that FFXIV probably won't go pay to play any time in the foreseeable future. I guess both of those are bad, actually. Oh well.

true but according to the way I understood it we don't have to use them, I suggest paypal for those that don't have a 3D secure CC, then just buy crysta with it, I don't know many people that would end up going over $15 a month so they could buy crysta in implements of $20, then $10 or buy $30 every 2 months

The question that comes to mind for me is that no longer will the fee be taken directly fromm my account, that I'll have to physically make the payment each month?

Regardless of which method you choose (Ultimate Play or Click and Buy) you will always end up with 5 Crysta left over every billing cycle. It takes almost 5 years to end up with enough to pay for one month's subscription. SE themselves do not sell Crysta. The way I read Camate's FAQ SE will still accept VbV and SC credit cards in certain regions. If that happens to be you, great. All you need to do is transfer your account(s). Anybody who does not have vBv or SC will be stuck using UP or CnB.

Crysta is set up so you can only buy blocks on money, so if you pay £12.95 you have to get £13.00 ( i think?), this means you paid 5p too much (you still have that 5p balance but you can't get it back either).

The next month you owe £12.90 (-5p from last month) but you can still only buy blocks so again you buy £13.00 and now you have 10p excess, and on and on. You can eventually pay less when it's saved up enough but most people forget to do this or they quit before it happens and in essence it's a sneaky way to gouge a little extra money out of a lot of people.

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Originally Posted by erevan

The question that comes to mind for me is that no longer will the fee be taken directly fromm my account, that I'll have to physically make the payment each month?

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if you pay with a 3D secure card it will be taken directly from your account, I think click n buy also(but I don't suggest you use them unless you have no other alternatives)
again if you cant use 3D secure for direct payments I suggest paypal to recharge your crysta balance, that way you are not paying anyone but SE, with no hidden fees

note: you could think of crysta like a rechargeable credit card because in a way that is what you are doing, recharging a balance to be used on SE purchases, there are no hidden fees

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Originally Posted by TybudX

Regardless of which method you choose (Ultimate Play or Click and Buy) you will always end up with 5 Crysta left over every billing cycle. It takes almost 5 years to end up with enough to pay for one month's subscription. SE themselves do not sell Crysta. The way I read Camate's FAQ SE will still accept VbV and SC credit cards in certain regions. If that happens to be you, great. All you need to do is transfer your account(s). Anybody who does not have vBv or SC will be stuck using UP or CnB.

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SE does sell crysta, if you buy with paypal, if not you use click n buy to purchase it or you use a ultimate gaming card to convert to crysta balance

I suspect they will sell it with 3D secure CCs after the change as well but some people will see that as pointless

So 5 * (# of subscribers) = What?
It suddenly feels like this is all a plan by SE to nickle and dime us out of more money.

from what I have seen, none of the gaming companies sell their points in odd numbers, xbox live points dont come in the exact points for any game or service you can buy with them, I think its the same with sony and whatever points they use for PSN, but I don't know. SE could change this to make it more convenient for us, but then it might become too much of a hassle for them to offer crysta in the future

Increments of $5 means you will always have left overs.

For example you could get $15 for the first month which means you have $2.05 left over. So the 2nd month you have to buy another $15 of Crysta so now you have $4.10 left over. However on the 3rd month you have to only buy $10 worth and you will have $1.10 left over.

If you buy the minimum amount each month you will always have some leftover Crysta on your account but its never over $5.

This is what people don't really like not being able to buy the exact amount needed to pay for your sub fees.

And don't forget, Crysta have an expiry date. If you don't use them long enough, they are lost.

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they are lost.

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And by lost you mean free money to square, cheer!

Crysta do not expire. Who told you this?

There is nothing on the crysta info pages or in the support center or anywhere that says they expire.

The closest thing they have to you losing your money is, they just said they reserve the right to do away with Crysta system whenever they want and you will not get a refund. Infact they will never give you a refund on Crysta unless required by law.

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Originally Posted by Alhanelem

Crysta do not expire. Who told you this?

There is nothing on the crysta info pages or in the support center or anywhere that says they expire.

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One of SE's Crysta information pages told me: ttp://www.square-enix.com/eu/en/account/crysta/charge.html

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Originally Posted by Zumi

The closest thing they have to you losing your money is, they just said they reserve the right to do away with Crysta system whenever they want and you will not get a refund. Infact they will never give you a refund on Crysta unless required by law.

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so? Microsoft does this with their Xbox Live points, and I assume sony does it with their points for PSN as well, while its true they could do away with the crysta system but its more beneficial for them to keep it

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Originally Posted by Ilisidi

One of SE's Crysta information pages told me: ttp://www.square-enix.com/eu/en/account/crysta/charge.html

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okay their chart says 2 years, 2 years is quite a long time, and if you are buying regularly you will use up any older crysta long before it expires

they give an example and a chart

Crysta remain valid for two years from the date they were added, expiring at the end of the final month.
For example: If Crysta were added on May 10, 2010, they would expire on May 31, 2012.

http://www.square-enix.com/eu/en/acc...s/time_img.gif

I think its safe to assume those of you who will use only crysta to play FFXI will be safe from any expiration dates since your balance will be renewed(charged) often

note: the next post was a dupe, so I removed it

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Originally Posted by wildsprite

from what I have seen, none of the gaming companies sell their points in odd numbers, xbox live points dont come in the exact points for any game or service you can buy with them, I think its the same with sony and whatever points they use for PSN, but I don't know. SE could change this to make it more convenient for us, but then it might become too much of a hassle for them to offer crysta in the future

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Yes, but just because other companies do this doesn't mean we like it. I don't use any of those other point cards because I don't want to have the leftover points I can't exactly spend, and when I stop buying things, I can't get the money that's leftover back.

Remember, with thousands of customers doing this, SE gets a lot of money total, that they can invest or gain interest on. This makes them more profit at our expense. It's company money, and we're being locked into a company store that only takes that money. It's worthless to anyone else. I hear the song "Sixteen Tons" when I think of this situation.

http://www.square-enix.com/jp/accoun...ta/charge.html

Japan's payment there takes VISA/MasterCard/JCN cards (all secured now, Japan has joined us in the 3D Secured thing), as well as NTT Docomo phone payment and WebMoney. No Click&Buy or PlaySpan.

http://www.square-enix.com/na/accoun...ta/charge.html

http://www.square-enix.com/eu/en/acc...ta/charge.html

There's the American payment info and the English European payment info. Looks like Click&Buy and PlaySpan are in use there. There is no mention of PayPal unless those companies accept it.

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Originally Posted by Ilisidi

One of SE's Crysta information pages told me: ttp://www.square-enix.com/eu/en/account/crysta/charge.html

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The North American crysta page does not have that last section about expiration. Apparently, this varies by region. (just change eu/en to na in the URL)

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Japan has joined us in the 3D Secured thing)

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Japan pioneered it. Companies were requiring 3D secure in japan long before SE started doing it here. There's even some coalition of companies that formed around it or something. The thing is, In the US and elsewhere, it hasn't been widely adoped by companies, thus why it can be hard to find a card that's compatible with it. We're being forced to use it because it's widely used in Japan, even though that makes little sense here due to the lack of adoption. The point is to reduce credit card fraud; the reason it's a problem is because it's making it difficult for legitimate users to give them the money they're asking for. So they give us some alternative options, but those options have flaws of their own (e.g. pocket change of crysta you can't spend)

I have a 3D Secured card and I can't even use it because I don't know my password for it. When I try to reset it, it says the information I give isn't me, even though it's what my bank has registered to the card. My bank has no idea what VerifiedByVISA is and can't help me with it, even though they issue compatible cards, and VISA isn't responding to me.

you might have to contact visa themselves to have that information fixed