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

[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.