I hope this is the right place to ask this.

In your FAQ, you state that you accept the following payment options:


I was wondering if you had any plans to extent those to include extra services such as PayPal; the first reason being that I don't have any of those cards; the second reason being that I am English and don't like doing currency changes on credit cards - that's why I use PayPal for all my foreign transactions.

I really would like to try one of these VPS', the control panel and setup you have looks awesome, the only thing holding me back at the minute is being able to pay for them.

Any thoughts?

PayPal would definitely be a nice convenience, as I otherwise have funds in there I have to either transfer out or spend at other places.

I never transfer funds out of my PayPal account, it costs to do that. Instead I just leave them in there, I know it'll get spent pretty soon anyway.

And a heartfelt "I Love You" from Paypal.

James

...Until they close your account, keep the cash, and try to milk every account you ever told them about, then send debt collectors after you if they don't think they got enough.

You only have to search google to find hundreds of horror stories.

Pay with a credit card and you get insurance and peace of mind. That has to be worth a few percent in fees.

Some wise man said "Never ascribe to malice that which can be adequately explained by incompetence". The trouble is, PayPal are both incompetent and malicious - so you get screwed twice over.

_________________
/ Peter

Then how about Google Checkout instead?

They are regulated by the FSA (in the UK) which is the same organisation that regulates banks, building societies etc.

I assume they are also regulated by the FSAs equivalent in the US; I don't know as I can only see their UK site since they detect I have a UK IP.

I've used google checkout a few times and have never had any reason to mistrust them. Maybe I missed the option on their site but they don't seem to offer any more methods of payment then linode already takes.

Ah, looks like you are right. I just assumed they would accept Maestro there.

Looks like I need to go and find a bank that'll give me a Visa or Mastercard debit/credit card then.


This is actually the same problem I have with XBOX Live, they only accept those cards (probably because they are also American company and don't have a clue what a Maestro card is).

That said some UK companies (online) don't accept them either; the problem is that these cards used to have two distinct types "Solo/Maestro" and "Switch/Maestro", now on both those cards the Maestro part was designed to be used in mainland Europe, while the Switch and Solo parts were designed to be used in the UK.

The difference between them was that a Solo card could be held by anyone 16+ but a Switch card could only be held by anyone 18+. A year or so ago, the Switch and Solo parts were disbanded and now ALL these cards are just Maestro cards meaning that sellers no longer can guarantee that someone with one of these cards is 18+ and as such, some don't accept them as payment anymore.

Anyone in the UK got any suggestions for banks that give out Visa or Mastercard debit/credit cards?

I know in the United States, you can use the Paypal Toolbar, which issues Virtual Mastercard numbers linked to your PP account. You may need a Premier account, and this may only be US only.

Hmmm I thought you could select "Mastercard" for the Maestro chip-n-pin cards maybe not....

You could consider a pre-paid creditcard... http://what-prepaid-card.co.uk/features ... epaid.html has a fairly conprehensive list.

To be honest, I have never tried. I just assumed a Maestro card wouldn't work as a Mastercard.

It's the same network/company basically. Mastercard own Maestro, Visa own Plus (of course not all Maestro cards are built the same country-to-country) but it's worth a shot sometime. (Worst they can do is decline it!)

Edit: Don't try with a company that doesn't process live transactions