Virtual Gift Bank Account

[nyre1]

Title
Virtual Gift Bank Account

Short, concise description of the idea
Create a gift bank account that will allow the member to purchase virtual gifts with.

Full description of the ideaThe member can buy a Virtual Gift Bank Account that will create a balance allowing the member to purchase smaller virtual gift amounts (less than $5). The amount would

Comments

[boredinsomniac]

This basic idea was already suggested in February 2008, but I approved it because of the additional suggestion that the money could go toward purchases other than virtual gifts.

[lady_angelina]

I like the idea, because it is easier to make a single lump sum payment to carry over a balance for future purchases, not unlike PayPal.

However, an additional downside I can see is that, like PayPal, if someone were to hack into your account, they can siphon the funds away from your use (especially if this were implemented such that you can "withdraw" remaining balances back to your credit card or PayPal account).

Furthermore, there's the issue of handling excess funds that you don't want to use towards LiveJournal. For instance, say you deposited $50 but ended up only using $45 of them, then later decided that you wanted to have the remaining $5 refunded. Would there be a way to have that happen, or would you simply forfeit that balance if you couldn't find a way to spend it on LJ services/merchandise?

[thelittlevoice]

Not entirely familar with this so I'm not sure...but can one buy themself a gift certificate of a large denomination and use it whenever they need to or does the certificate need to all be used at once?

[lady_angelina]

Yeah, the GC is all-or-nothing "use it or lose it."

[andy]

Apparently, great minds think alike. This is going to be implemented almost the same some time soon, along with a major shop revamp. Watch news/lj_releases for updates.

[azurelunatic]

Duly marking as migrated.

[azurelunatic]

This is now implemented: you can see it in action at http://www.livejournal.com/shop/tokens.bml