https://www.epassporte.com/secure/finalfantasy.cgi

According to this webpage on Play Online, you can get this ePassporte card to pay for stuff on Play Online by transferring funds from your bank account onto this account. And on the link to the page, which is on Play Online's home page, says to get that card if you don't have a credit card. So, i thought it was good as i havent got a credit card, but i will be able to pay for it with my cash card. When i was signing up to it, it says that i need to pay $5 to register an account, and i have to use a visa or mastercard to pay for that, and i need a visa or mastercard to put funds onto that account. So, what's the point in this, it's just a dodgy Play Online version of Pay Pal.

I have also been looking for FFXI game cards as a means of paying for this, but I haven't managed to find any. Does anyone know if they are available?

Well, if you have a bank account, most likely they can give you a debit check card or something. If not then uh... well, wouldn't just using this bring in unneeded middlemen into your money?

Firstly, reading the info on that site, payment on the ePassporte can be made through direct deposit (the bank details are listed when you register), however, it can only be made in the UK, leaving users in other countries with no choice but to use credit card payment.

However, there is an alternaltive to ePassporte. Visa offers a debit card at many banks which works like a credit card, except it isn't credit, as it's part of a normal savings account, the amount you spend is limited to what you have in the account, like a normal ATM/EFTPOS keycard. Therefore, if you can open a normal bank account, as long as the bank offers it, you can get a Visa Debit Card easily enough (as long as you're over 18). And, the best part of all, it's accepted by Square Enix as payment for FFXI.

It's actually how I pay for using FFXI, as I have a Visa Debit Card with an Australian bank called St George. I just put $15 a month into the account to cover the PlayOnline fee, and it's done.

No fuss. No problems. :)

I had to stop playing because of paying and costs, i'm only 14, i dont have a job and my allowance too low.

Paying for this piece of crap game makes it even worse.

Is there any way to pay in cash? I'd have my friend sign up so I could try to play it to see it's turning into Everquest.

Can I pay with Visa electron?

Sorry for hijacking a thread, but I really didn't want to bother creating a new one. Is it possible to create an account, decide in the 30-day trial that if I like game; buy a fully loaded 5 month plan type deal (or something like that) all in one shot? I don't necessarily like the pay per every 1st of the month plan.

And also if I decide to leave the game for a while, how till I have before my account is wiped?

Unfortunately, Square doesn't bill for FFXI like that. After the 30 day free trial is complete, they automatically bill your credit card/debit card on the first day of each month. You can't pay by, say, five-monthly installment plans or whatever, as they don't offer it. It's not too difficult to pay monthly, or at least, I don't find it difficult. But that's just me.

Secondly, you can easily stop being billed if you don't want to play the game for a while by simply cancelling your FFXI Content ID. This suspends your account for three months, after which your character data is archived and deleted off the server. Despite what is stated in the manual, it can be restored after this time though, but you have to contact PlayOnline's Customer Service in order to have your character data restored after deletion.

Whatever you do though, do NOT delete your seperate PlayOnline Account's Content ID though. As once this is deleted, after 3 months it basically null and voids your copy of the game, making it completely unplayable (and no, unlike the FFXI Content IDs, PoL Content IDs can NOT be restored once deleted), meaning if this happens to you and you want to play the game again in the future, you'll have to purchase a whole new copy of the game and sign up again for PlayOnline on a new account.

Keeping the PoL account active is free anyway, once your Content IDs for FFXI are cancelled, so there is no worry about being billed when it's not in use.

hello....i need to work out how to pay before i buy...im not wasting my cash....anyway.
so, people in the UK, can you use Maestro...cause its the debit form of mastercard isnt it....however...im not to sure.

Actually, no it isn't. Maestro branded cards do not work with PlayOnline (although the logos look similar, Maestro is not Mastercard), as Maestro is for bank ATM/EFTPOS transactions only - it's not a true debit card.

The only type of debit card accepted by Square Enix for payment of FFXI's monthly fees is one which has either a Visa or Mastercard logo, which are now offered by most banks. You do have to be over 18 to open an account with a debit card however.

I started FFXI before I was 18 and I used a form of payment called SOLO which works perfectly fine and with HSBC you can get it at a young age (pre-16 i think).

PS: been ages since ive been here and FFS has died violently @_@

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You know I've always said you're an moron? I understated it.

For the good of anyone else who might have been infected by his idiocy, he's entirely wrong. It's not a scam at all. In fact, it's the only way to keep games like that running since they require the ongoing attention of the entire development team. It continues to cost the devs massive amounts to keep updating the game, so they merely pass that cost along.

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How about so you can play with a different range of people?

I'm not saying all the money MMORPG's get per month go towards maintenance costs, alot of it goes to there pockets, but if your gonna moan about paying the fee per month you could argue the case why buy it from a shop when i can download it\buy it, rip it, return it for free.

In any case the longest i've ever played a mmorpg was a little over a year, and the cost for that wasn't even that great if you compare it to how many offline games i'd have to buy to satify me that long, but w.e thats just me.

I live in UK, London and I can't find those FFXI game cards anywhere, I'm not sure if its a good way to pay anyways, just get a debit card.