How many Retainers

[Silverbane]

:O how much do you pay each month?

$12/mo total for 6 extra retainers. That's 6 extra per character, account wide. Every alt gets 8 at that price.
Three alts, 24 retainers, still just $12/mo. + the $14/mo subscription. = $26/mo. total
Eight alts, 64 retainers, still just $12/mo. + the $14/mo subscription = $26/mo. total

And on a per-hour-played basis, that's not much. Probably about 20 cents an hour if not less.
And it's less per month that basic cable, which we don't bother with.

The challenge is that you cannot friend your alts. So you can only move items amongst them through a friend/spouse, the marketboard, or your FC chest. For this reason, my wife and I formed our own FC, currently populated by all our alts. We have a nice medium plot in the The Goblet, next to my wife's main's small house.