So about payment methods

[Majidah]

I'm confused as in what's the difference between buying crysta and paying directly.

They both offer the same payment methods.

Mandatory PS: Bring paypal.

[ShellQ8]

If you can use Crysta then I suggest you use it instead of C&B to avoid headaches. Since it will be much easier by using PayPal or Buying Ultimate Game Card from any online store.

[Sephrick]

The general explanation I've seen has been legal issues.

Every country has different laws about how a customer should be informed about changes to a service.

Crysta seems to allow them certain liberties as the customer is paying for the monopoly money and not directly for the service.

Also, it seems like a liability thing as this way SE doesn't have to safeguard any financial information.

[Majidah]

I see.

So I should use C&B to buy crysta and afterwards use that to pay for XIV?

[ninesunz]

You should use ultimate pay to buy crysta and not touch C&B at all.

[ShellQ8]

No, You either use C&B to pay subscription fee directly. Or use Crysta (by buying it directly from the site via PayPal / or by buying game cards)

[Majidah]

Bah, so I go and think okay, I'll pay for 90 days, save a little money off, be here for the job patch and see what's what.
I buy 2097 crystal = 3 month fee + payment for my only character.

But then I realize I did the math wrong. I should have multiplied the character fee by 3, one for each month I'm going to play... this is unnecessarily convoluted! Shouldn't your character service be included in the basic service? As far as I know you can't pay for just enabling your account without an active character, and if so there would be no logic to it, so why not avoid the unnecessary hassle and include the basic character fee in the basic fee price? God!

[Masamune1004]

Bah, so I go and think okay, I'll pay for 90 days, save a little money off, be here for the job patch and see what's what.
I buy 2097 crystal = 3 month fee + payment for my only character.

But then I realize I did the math wrong. I should have multiplied the character fee by 3, one for each month I'm going to play... this is unnecessarily convoluted! Shouldn't your character service be included in the basic service? As far as I know you can't pay for just enabling your account without an active character, and if so there would be no logic to it, so why not avoid the unnecessary hassle and include the basic character fee in the basic fee price? God!

SE: What is this "logic" you speak of? Never heard of it.

[ninesunz]

yes it is incredibly retarded that the separate the 1st character from the 'basic service fee'

it should be 9.99 for service 3.00 for each additional char
not
6.99 for service 3.00 for first char and 3.00 for additional <<<<< why for the love of mandies would you itemize it that way?

[Antipika]

Bah, so I go and think okay, I'll pay for 90 days, save a little money off, be here for the job patch and see what's what.
I buy 2097 crystal = 3 month fee + payment for my only character.

But then I realize I did the math wrong. I should have multiplied the character fee by 3, one for each month I'm going to play... this is unnecessarily convoluted! Shouldn't your character service be included in the basic service? As far as I know you can't pay for just enabling your account without an active character, and if so there would be no logic to it, so why not avoid the unnecessary hassle and include the basic character fee in the basic fee price? God!

It -should- be included, but when it comes to Marketing, SE never been bright, could it be on XI or XIV. Forcing your customers to do maths is just retarded. As for the "specify amount of crysta you want feature", SE should have made a simple script where the customer can just pick off a drop-down list the number of character he got and for how long he want to subscribe.

But yeah that would be too convenient! And remember convenient doesn't go with Square Enix. It's always more FUN to start calc.exe in order to know how many Crysta you should purchase.