After 2 hours on hold with SE phone support (as well as having to call repeatedly due to busy signal), I finally got through and had him look it up.

After 2 uses on a credit card and 2 on a debit card, they are locked down for a MONTH!

His suggestion was to go to Playspan, or to head down to the local Walmart/Target/Bestbuy/Gamestop, whatever to buy the Ultimate Game Card. They 'supposedly' don't have enough information thus far to tell if it's restricted to 1.0 players or not - so either that IS the case, or the newest generation off XIV players don't know what a forum is.

Guess I'll head down the street and grab a card, and more updates to follow.