Help please!

Anthony14

I want to register a free account at second life, but my parents won't let me join because it needs a credit card or paypal. How can I convince them that second life isn't going to steal from us or something like that?

Anthony14

Turns out that they need a paypal account that is actually connected to money, and my parents won't let me do that. Why would it need to complete a transaction when I'm signing up for free? My parents think there is no real reason for this, so they believe they are trying to charge me something that they're not telling me about.

WazMeister

I wanted to get free account but once they said they want my credit card.. no way

Just don't like giving out my details incase they start charign my acident....

Anthony14

Also, is there any history of Second life bieng related to hidden fees, abuse of credit card numbers, or theft?

Zarinh

I've never had a problem with Linden Labs charging for no reason. If you buy more land, then yes, you would get charged. They make you use a credit card so you don't keep making accounts, as well as to 'try' and verfy you are 18 or older.

I know they opened teen grid, but not sure about what you need for it. But as long as you go with the free account and don't try and get land, you shouldn't have to worry about being charged.

Gwyneth

From what we have seen in the private forums of Second Life (around 480,000 posts or so), the only "problems" ever with cards being charged have always be a a result of people never reading the Terms of Service. Basically, when you buy virtual land, you are liable to be charged extra for holding it — even if you resell that virtual land immediately in the next microsecond. All it takes is for you to hold more virtual land than your current "tier" allows.

Many people misread these statements, or buy land that they never intended to buy (we all make silly mistakes), and then complain loudly about how "unfair" it is. But it's the same thing as complaining to your cellular phone company that you "didn't know that international calls were so expensive". Like your cellular company easily provides you with a detailed report of what you have done and why you were charged for it, Linden Lab does precisely the same. In some very obvious cases of user mistakes, they may refund your money, but don't expect miracles. When you do transactions in Second Life, you're supposed to know what you're doing with confidence.

Stay as a basic account, and you won't be charged Ever

So, from the past experience of over 53,000 users who have tried Second Life, Linden Lab has never commited a deliberate fraud.

The reason for the validation of a credit card (or a PayPal account tied to a bank account) is simple, provide Linden Lab with a means to know your age and send you to the adult grid (18 and above) or to the teen grid (ages 13-17). The latter is controlled as to certain kinds of content — you may assure your parents about that, there will be always Linden Lab employees overlooking everything.

Also, it gives Linden Lab the opportunity to limit the number of accounts you can have on the same credit card.

Anthony14

How can they determine your age with a credt card if you're a teen when a large amount of teens would have to use thier parent's credit card? Maybe they just assume that anyone using a credit card that doesn't belong to them and gave an age in the teens isn't lying. When I emailed them about it, they said it was just to verify the adress.

I recently got permission to link my old savings account (basically worthless, contains less than a dollar) to a Paypal account, and I will try to sign on with that in a couple of days when the verification process is complete. Once the Paypal account is linked to the savings account, registering should work.

Anthony14

Thanks for all your help. I was able to succsessfully sign up and test it out yesterday.