Livejournal: I did it!
I posted on the 15th about my attempts to acquire a prepaid debit card in order to pay LJ without using my bank debit card.
I first of all tried Pockit on the 10th but they're apparently still reviewing my details.
Then I tried FairFX on the 15th. I signed up for a card, loaded money onto it, and waited 5 business days for my card to arrive. As of today, they haven't taken the money and there's no sign of any card. Maybe I did something wrong? In any case, I've emailed them to cancel my account.
Both Pockit and FairFX charge £1.99 a month for their reusable Visa cards (assuming you ever actually get a card). I really didn't want to sign up for an ongoing account but I didn't know what else to do. £1.99 a month was the cheapest I'd found too.
Then I discovered PayPal do a Mastercard on their account. Yay! Oh, it's only for business accounts. No yay.
It finally occurred to me to try sending myself a gift Mastercard or Visa card and I found Their Perfect Gift on Saturday 22nd. The reviews were good, so I put £30 on the card, paid £3.99 for an e-card, and waited. Yesterday, I got an email acknowledging my order which said they'd send me (at a different email address) my gift Mastercard and activation code by close of business today.
It arrived and I paid LJ for another year's account at last. Yay! LJ's checkout broke the 16 digit code up in weird blocks of numbers but it went through okay, and LJ have emailed me the confirmation.
It didn't take up all the £30 (I have £11.80 left over), of course, but I wasn't sure of the exchange rate nor did I know if there'd be a charge for the different currancy. I didn't want to go through all that and not have enough money on the card that took me weeks and a ton of searches to acquire. I thought I'd use the rest for a few months' Dreamwidth account but DW's checkout process informed me the card doesn't support this type of purchase. I don't know why. At least it worked for LJ.
I first of all tried Pockit on the 10th but they're apparently still reviewing my details.
Then I tried FairFX on the 15th. I signed up for a card, loaded money onto it, and waited 5 business days for my card to arrive. As of today, they haven't taken the money and there's no sign of any card. Maybe I did something wrong? In any case, I've emailed them to cancel my account.
Both Pockit and FairFX charge £1.99 a month for their reusable Visa cards (assuming you ever actually get a card). I really didn't want to sign up for an ongoing account but I didn't know what else to do. £1.99 a month was the cheapest I'd found too.
Then I discovered PayPal do a Mastercard on their account. Yay! Oh, it's only for business accounts. No yay.
It finally occurred to me to try sending myself a gift Mastercard or Visa card and I found Their Perfect Gift on Saturday 22nd. The reviews were good, so I put £30 on the card, paid £3.99 for an e-card, and waited. Yesterday, I got an email acknowledging my order which said they'd send me (at a different email address) my gift Mastercard and activation code by close of business today.
It arrived and I paid LJ for another year's account at last. Yay! LJ's checkout broke the 16 digit code up in weird blocks of numbers but it went through okay, and LJ have emailed me the confirmation.
It didn't take up all the £30 (I have £11.80 left over), of course, but I wasn't sure of the exchange rate nor did I know if there'd be a charge for the different currancy. I didn't want to go through all that and not have enough money on the card that took me weeks and a ton of searches to acquire. I thought I'd use the rest for a few months' Dreamwidth account but DW's checkout process informed me the card doesn't support this type of purchase. I don't know why. At least it worked for LJ.