Question about the price

[Nerotu]

Hey, well, I played the FFXI Beta for the XBox 360 a few months ago. I found it interesting, although slightly boring.
Anyway, I few of my friends are getting it so I have decided to get it also. But, I am only 16 years old.
How am I supposed to pay for it? I do not have a credit card or debit card (neither does my parents) but I do have a bank account with money coming in every week.
Are there any other ways to pay?

[neighbortaru]

Re: Question about the price

well, your only option is to apply (or have your parents apply) for a debit card. since you are in EU, take a look at e-passporte and see if you can apply.

unfortunately, FFXI is very limited in it's payment options.

[Nerotu]

Re: Question about the price

well, your only option is to apply (or have your parents apply) for a debit card. since you are in EU, take a look at e-passporte and see if you can apply.

unfortunately, FFXI is very limited in it's payment options.

how do they work? I haven't heard of them before
Does it work like a credit/debit card or...?

[Icemage]

Re: Question about the price

how do they work? I haven't heard of them before
Does it work like a credit/debit card or...?

e-Passporte works like a rechargeable gift card. You open an account, put money in it, and can use it as if it were a debit card (since that's basically in essence what it is). The only difference is that instead of drawing directly off of your bank account, it draws off of funds that you've supplied yourself to e-Passporte.


Icemage

[Nerotu]

Re: Question about the price

wow I did some research on e-passporte and it seems they have been stealing money from alot of people
Is there AT ALL any other way to pay for it?

[Icemage]

Re: Question about the price

wow I did some research on e-passporte and it seems they have been stealing money from alot of people
Is there AT ALL any other way to pay for it?

If you don't have your own debit/credit card... not that I know of.


Icemage

[Murphie]

Re: Question about the price

Any links to these reports of money stealing on the part of e-passporte?

[Nerotu]

Re: Question about the price

Any links to these reports of money stealing on the part of e-passporte?

http://www.sitepoint.com/forums/showthread.php?t=327468
well that's a forum about a few guys who said that e-passporte had stolen from them
I really don't want to take any chances
I could apply for a debit card, but there's a high chance I might not get it
I know that the first month is free, so do I need to put down my bank details before I can play?

[Murphie]

Re: Question about the price

Yes, you need to have a credit or debit card entered into the account for the free month to work.

[Kitalrez]

Re: Question about the price

Yeah, right now there are two methods for MMORPG charges. The old model is what FFXI and others are on, the Pay to Play model or P2P. In this model events are added, content is updated, and servers are maintained through subscriptions charged on a monthly or yearly basis. The advantage of this model is that should server populations ever drop, there is still an economic incentive for keeping the game running. For instance Ultima Online is over a decade old and still has servers up and running. Earlier this year, Everquest 1 finally got small enough they had to consolidate a few servers, but they still have the accounts and players to show no signs of ending the game.

The second model is known as the Pay Once model. This is exemplified by games such as GuildWars by Arenasoft. As of right now, it's an incredibly poorly executed model. The basic premise is that you pay a single fee to buy the game, and future purchases of the game fund the continuation and upkeep of the game. In this model, expansions and additional content are also supposed to be funded in this way. As I alluded to earlier, the model is not working. Guildwars was originally marketed as having free expansion content, etc. After a few expansions, game purchases began to decline to the point where this model was no longer economically feasible. As such, when Guildwars:Factions was released, they created it as a "Stand-alone new chapter" rather than an expansion. This way they could charge for the content in it and reinject capital into the operation to keep the game running. A variation of this model is being tried in the game Trixter. In that game, you pay to obtain money ingame, with the only other way to earn cash being to sell items to other players. There may still be a way to improve this model in future games so that it becomes economically viable for long periods of time, but as yet it's primarily a short-term strategy.

That said, you may want to look into establishing credit as well. The others here have given you info on getting a debit card. What you also might want to do is apply for a store credit card. In the US we have places like JC Penny's, Macy's, etc which all have their own in-store credit card. The application process for these cards is considerably easier than for normal credit cards, you can use them pretty much the same way as a normal card, they just have a lower limit and potentially higher fees if you carry a balance. If you do go this route, train yourself to become a Transaction Borrower, meaning you pay everything off in full each month as soon as you get the bill. This way, you avoid paying any financing charges on the card for carrying a balance. To apply for one of these, next time you shop at a department store and they ask if you have a store credit card, ask for an application and look it over at home. At 16, you're probably going to need a cosigner with credit, but once you get established, you can cancel this card and apply for a new one on your own. Matter of fact, I'd recommend doing this after a few months so you're on your own accounts if your local credit laws will allow this.

[Nerotu]

Re: Question about the price

That said, you may want to look into establishing credit as well. The others here have given you info on getting a debit card. What you also might want to do is apply for a store credit card. In the US we have places like JC Penny's, Macy's, etc which all have their own in-store credit card. The application process for these cards is considerably easier than for normal credit cards, you can use them pretty much the same way as a normal card, they just have a lower limit and potentially higher fees if you carry a balance. If you do go this route, train yourself to become a Transaction Borrower, meaning you pay everything off in full each month as soon as you get the bill. This way, you avoid paying any financing charges on the card for carrying a balance. To apply for one of these, next time you shop at a department store and they ask if you have a store credit card, ask for an application and look it over at home. At 16, you're probably going to need a cosigner with credit, but once you get established, you can cancel this card and apply for a new one on your own. Matter of fact, I'd recommend doing this after a few months so you're on your own accounts if your local credit laws will allow this.

I'm sorry but over here we don't have anything like that
I have never heard of "in-store" credit.
I suppose I could apply for a debit card, but I probably wouldn't get it.
Hopefuly one of my friends, or even one of my parents friends, are willing to let me use their cred/debit card, while I give them the money every month.

[Kitalrez]

Re: Question about the price

Really? Man, I need to move to your country, it sounds like. I've yet to make it out of a store with a pair of pants without being hassled at least 3 times to sign up for their credit card.

[Nerotu]

Re: Question about the price

Really? Man, I need to move to your country, it sounds like. I've yet to make it out of a store with a pair of pants without being hassled at least 3 times to sign up for their credit card.

Yeah we just go into a shop, buy what we want, pay for it then leave.

I really wanna get this game. I have the money to buy it and pay for the monthly charges, but I have no way of actually getting them the money

[bungiefan]

Re: Question about the price

There are places other than epassporte that provide the same idea. As of now, FFXI only accepts VISA and MasterCards outside of Japan. In the US< if you have a bank account, you can almost always get a VISA CheckCard tied to the bank account, which is essentially a debit card, but all computer systems see it as a credit card. You can get one as young as 14 years of age, and instead of having true credit, where you spend the money and then pay it back later with interest, you can only spend money that is in your bank account. Also, many malls here sell VISA and MasterCard gift cards, which are prepaid cards that you charge or recharge with cash, and then can use to pay for anything that requires a VISA or MasterCard, but can't spend more money than you already paid to put on the card. epassporte is just one company selling prepaid VISA cards, but is by no means the only option. You should be able to get that type of thing from other companies in Europe.

The big deal is that credit systems work differently in different countries. In the US, you can use one credit card to pay for another, which makes it really easy to get into a lot of debt. In Japan you can't, and FFXI reflects this in that you can't reactivate an FFXI account simply by just providing a new card number. You have to get a paper bill in the mail and pay it off at a Japanese convenience store or post office to clear off the bad charge and be able to begin using your old card again or switch over to a new one.

Canada doesn't have the option of VISA CheckCards in their banks. You pretty much get an ATM-only card with a bank account in Canada. I assume from what I've heard that European banks are similar to Canadian banks in this policy. That means you need to go the gift card route. What you care about is that the card you get has a VISA or MasterCard logo on it. It doesn't have to say anything about FFXI because there are no game-specific cards for FFXI. epassporte just happens to sell a gift card with an FFXI design on it, but it can still be used for things other than FFXI anywhere where you could pay with a VISA card.

[sevenpointflaw]

Re: Question about the price

In the US, most grocery stores and book stores (national chain stores usually) sell visa and mastercard gift cards. Can get them in 10, 25, 50, 100, etc., dollar incraments, call a toll-free number on the back to activate it, and from there on it acts exactly like a credit/debit card except that it is pre-paid.

You can usually get them off of the visa and mastercard websites, too, either as gifts cards or debit cards. I don't know if they offer anything like that in your area, but it might be worth looking into.

I would double check to make sure they work on-line (get like a $25 to see if it works, if not just use it at wherever instead - no harm no foul) before getting a big one.

visa euro pre-pay:
http://www.visaeurope.com/personal/c...yinadvance.jsp

visa euro debit:
http://www.visaeurope.com/personal/choosing/paynow.jsp

mastercard uk debit:
http://www.mastercard.com/uk/findacard/debit_card.html

Hope that puts you on the right track and good luck!