Change payment method

[Edelgris]

How do I change my payment method from Steam Wallet to credit card? When I click "Change payment method" the only option shown is Steam Wallet. Why is there an option to change payment method if Steam Wallet is the only option? How do people who don't use Steam pay and why am I not offered that option?

[Sadpan]

This is not an EVE question so I doubt you'll find much help here, but you can't change it. If you have store credit on your account (seen in the top right), then Steam will always prioritize that over billing your credit card. Your credit card will only pay for the remainder of what your Steam wallet couldn't cover, and if you can't pay with credit card at all then your Steam wallet is sufficient to cover the full cost of the purchase.

[Edelgris]

Originally posted by Sadpan:

This is not an EVE question so I doubt you'll find much help here, but you can't change it. If you have store credit on your account (seen in the top right), then Steam will always prioritize that over billing your credit card. Your credit card will only pay for the remainder of what your Steam wallet couldn't cover, and if you can't pay with credit card at all then your Steam wallet is sufficient to cover the full cost of the purchase.

Thanks for replying. I don't understand why CCP chose this design. It feels like they actually aren't competent enough to build a more functional payment structure. It's just mind-bendingly ass-backwards.

My current Wallet balance is zero, btw. Paying by Wallet is very cumbersome compared to using a credit card. Instead of just logging in once and then having payments transfer automatically, I have to log into two different sites every time I want to update my clone status.

This reflects poorly on CCP. I have decided to stop playing Eve, at least until they fix this.

[Shotgun]

This has quite literally nothing to do with CCP or EVE. Valve, the owners of Steam, are responsible for how payment works on their platform.

If you want to play EVE, but Steam's payment structure isn't working for you, you can always get EVE directly from the EVE website, by making a normal account, and paying via whatever method you choose through EVE's account management section.

You even have the benefit of starting the game with a free 1,000,000 skill points if you do this by going through a referral link.

[Sadpan]

Originally posted by Edelgris:

Originally posted by Sadpan:

This is not an EVE question so I doubt you'll find much help here, but you can't change it. If you have store credit on your account (seen in the top right), then Steam will always prioritize that over billing your credit card. Your credit card will only pay for the remainder of what your Steam wallet couldn't cover, and if you can't pay with credit card at all then your Steam wallet is sufficient to cover the full cost of the purchase.

Thanks for replying. I don't understand why CCP chose this design. It feels like they actually aren't competent enough to build a more functional payment structure. It's just mind-bendingly ass-backwards.

My current Wallet balance is zero, btw. Paying by Wallet is very cumbersome compared to using a credit card. Instead of just logging in once and then having payments transfer automatically, I have to log into two different sites every time I want to update my clone status.

This reflects poorly on CCP. I have decided to stop playing Eve, at least until they fix this.

Again, this is literally not an EVE-related issue, like I said. I feel like you didn't even read what I said because I said this is wholly a Steam/Valve issue, it is entirely unrelated to EVE and CCP.

[Sadpan]

And if you decided to stop playing EVE because of this, I have a feeling it's not the payment method that influenced your decision...

[Edelgris]

Originally posted by Sadpan:

And if you decided to stop playing EVE because of this, I have a feeling it's not the payment method that influenced your decision...

Originally posted by Shotgun:

This has quite literally nothing to do with CCP or EVE. Valve, the owners of Steam, are responsible for how payment works on their platform.

If you want to play EVE, but Steam's payment structure isn't working for you, you can always get EVE directly from the EVE website, by making a normal account, and paying via whatever method you choose through EVE's account management section.

You even have the benefit of starting the game with a free 1,000,000 skill points if you do this by going through a referral link.

It has everything to do with EVE. I am literally trying to change my payment method in my user profile on CCP's website. And let me reiterate: The option to register a credit card is not even there. And yes, it IS the lacking payment infrastructure that is directly influencing my decision not to keep playing.

And by the way. It is actually an old account, registered on CCP's own website. I just happened to reinstall the game using Steam.

[Shotgun]

Originally posted by Edelgris:

Originally posted by Sadpan:

And if you decided to stop playing EVE because of this, I have a feeling it's not the payment method that influenced your decision...

Originally posted by Shotgun:

This has quite literally nothing to do with CCP or EVE. Valve, the owners of Steam, are responsible for how payment works on their platform.

If you want to play EVE, but Steam's payment structure isn't working for you, you can always get EVE directly from the EVE website, by making a normal account, and paying via whatever method you choose through EVE's account management section.

You even have the benefit of starting the game with a free 1,000,000 skill points if you do this by going through a referral link.

It has everything to do with EVE. I am literally trying to change my payment method in my user profile on CCP's website. And yes, it IS the lacking payment infrastructure that is directly influencing my decision not to keep playing.

You didn't specify this initially. You just mentioned paying through Steam, that's it.

It has always worked like this. Not just for EVE, but for other subscription-based games, too. They want you to have money in your wallet that can be billed, instead of an attached credit card which might not authorize a payment. Steam is just a pass-through mechanism in this regard, and uses cash for this purpose. It is still 100% a Steam limitation, and not an EVE limitation.

Originally posted by Edelgris:

And by the way. This is actually an old account, registered on CCP's own website. I just happened to reinstall the game using Steam.

Careful.

Your old account that you made on the EVE website has nothing to do with Steam, and whatever you purchase from Steam for EVE will not go to it.

Steam makes a special API-based account for every user. When you launch EVE from Steam, it's the one that looks like "STEAM::########", and anything you purchase on Steam will go into that account. You can actually "detach" this special account from Steam by clicking the "Create EVE Username" link on the bottom of the EVE account management page when you log into this special account by going through the Steam community login process.

For your old, non-Steam account, your only option is to pay normally through EVE's account management interface.

[Edelgris]

Originally posted by Shotgun:

Originally posted by Edelgris:

It has everything to do with EVE. I am literally trying to change my payment method in my user profile on CCP's website. And yes, it IS the lacking payment infrastructure that is directly influencing my decision not to keep playing.

You didn't specify this initially. You just mentioned paying through Steam, that's it.

It has always worked like this. Not just for EVE, but for other subscription-based games, too. They want you to have money in your wallet that can be billed, instead of an attached credit card which might not authorize a payment. Steam is just a pass-through mechanism in this regard, and uses cash for this purpose. It is still 100% a Steam limitation, and not an EVE limitation.

Originally posted by Edelgris:

And by the way. This is actually an old account, registered on CCP's own website. I just happened to reinstall the game using Steam.

Careful.

Your old account that you made on the EVE website has nothing to do with Steam, and whatever you purchase from Steam for EVE will not go to it.

Steam makes a special API-based account for every user. When you launch EVE from Steam, it's the one that looks like "STEAM::########", and anything you purchase on Steam will go into that account. You can actually "detach" this special account from Steam by clicking the "Create EVE Username" link on the bottom of the EVE account management page when you log into this special account by going through the Steam community login process.

For your old, non-Steam account, your only option is to pay normally through EVE's account management interface.

Sorry, but this makes no sense. I own several other subscription based games installed through Steam (such as Final Fantasy XIV) which allows me to pay via either credit card or other methods. There is no reason why I shouldn't be able to pay without using the Steam Wallet, beyond a badly designed payment structure. EVE is the ONLY game which doesn't let me do this.

What could possibly be the legit reason for not letting someone pay using a credit card? It boggles the mind... It's just a pointlessly obtuse prerequisite that leans on the user for some kind of slack jawed convenience. And to reiterate again: I AM using CCP's own web page for this payment and I AM using a non-Steam generated account which I added to my Steam client launcher (not that it should freaking matter, realistically speaking).

As for "detaching" my account, thanks for the tip. I will look into it. I really hope this doesn't mean I'll have to reinstall my game for this to work, though.

As far as I'm concerned, this looks like a very hamfisted migration to the Steam platform that nobody at CCP has bothered to fix. As said earlier, this reflects poorly on CCP. It doesn't promote confidence in giving CCP my money.

Edit: I looked at the EVE account management page and there is no option to "Create EVE username" for the account in question.

[Edelgris]

Originally posted by Shotgun:

Originally posted by Edelgris:

And by the way. This is actually an old account, registered on CCP's own website. I just happened to reinstall the game using Steam.

Careful.

Your old account that you made on the EVE website has nothing to do with Steam, and whatever you purchase from Steam for EVE will not go to it.

This is incorrect, by the way. I have already purchased one month of Omega game time for my old account by paying with the Steam Wallet. Needless to say, I don't feel like doing so again.

[Shotgun]

Originally posted by Edelgris:

Sorry, but this makes no sense. I own several other subscription based games installed through Steam (such as Final Fantasy XIV) which allows me to pay via either credit card or other methods. There is no reason why I shouldn't be able to pay without using the Steam Wallet, beyond a badly designed payment structure. EVE is the ONLY game which doesn't let me do this.

But those other things you pay for, are they specifically subscriptions, or just one-time payments? Because I've played other subscription-based games on Steam that functioned similarly to the way EVE functions on Steam.

Don't get me wrong, I think this is a pretty dumb system. I'm just saying that it's more Valve's fault than CCP's.

Originally posted by Edelgris:

And to reiterate again: I AM using CCP's own web page for this payment and I AM using a non-Steam generated account which I added to my Steam client launcher (not that it should freaking matter, realistically speaking).

The account that you added to the Steam EVE launcher isn't actually seen by Steam. You can log into as many accounts as you want using the launcher, but the only account that's actually interfaced with Steam directly is the one with the numbers in it. Just be aware of this. Many people here have bought stuff and then wondered where it went, and we had to explain to them that it went to this special Steam-based EVE account that's automatically created for them.

Originally posted by Edelgris:

As for "detaching" my account, thanks for the tip. I will look into it. I really hope this doesn't mean I'll have to reinstall my game for this to work, though.

Nah. like I said, you can log into as many accounts as you want.

Also, I have the standalone installation, and the Steam installation, and they're both using the same "shared cache" folder, so as long as you point the shared cache to the proper folder if you get a different type of installation, the extra download will be minimal.

Originally posted by Edelgris:

As far as I'm concerned, this looks like a very hamfisted migration to the Steam platform that nobody at CCP has bothered to fix. As said earlier, this reflects poorly on CCP. It doesn't promote confidence in giving CCP my money.

I agree, but keep in mind CCP is also limited by the Steam platform.

Also, if you actually like what EVE offers, choosing not to play it because of payment issues that you can get around with a different type of login is kind of unfair, both to EVE, and to you, since you'll be missing out on something you might enjoy.

Originally posted by Edelgris:

Edit: I looked at the EVE account management page and there is no option to "Create EVE username" for the account in question.

There wouldn't be for an account that's already a normal, non-Steam account.

In order to access your Steam EVE account, go to the EVE account management page, click log in, and click the green Steam icon on the bottom to be redirected to an API login through Steam. This will log you into the special Steam EVE account, on which any Steam EVE transactions will go.

Your current account has nothing to do with Steam, and can't interface with Steam in any manner, just to reiterate one more time.

[Shotgun]

Originally posted by Edelgris:

Originally posted by Shotgun:

Careful.

Your old account that you made on the EVE website has nothing to do with Steam, and whatever you purchase from Steam for EVE will not go to it.

This is incorrect, by the way. I have already purchased one month of Omega game time for my old account by paying with the Steam Wallet. Needless to say, I don't feel like doing so again.

I'm not sure how this is possible, because when I tested it, it went directly to my Steam EVE account. This was a few years ago.

If they changed the system to work this way now, then my information is out of date. I'll test again when it's time to re-sub an account.

[Edelgris]

Originally posted by Shotgun:

But those other things you pay for, are they specifically subscriptions, or just one-time payments? Because I've played other subscription-based games on Steam that functioned similarly to the way EVE functions on Steam.

Don't get me wrong, I think this is a pretty dumb system. I'm just saying that it's more Valve's fault than CCP's.

In the case of FFXIV I can pay for everything with a credit card. Subscription fees, microtransactions, services. Etc. Even with Square Enix's pretty atrociously bad website, it's a whole lot more convenient.

Originally posted by Shotgun:

Also, if you actually like what EVE offers, choosing not to play it because of payment issues that you can get around with a different type of login is kind of unfair, both to EVE, and to you, since you'll be missing out on something you might enjoy.

I do enjoy it, but I don't want to be part of promoting this kind of system. My game time just ran out and I don't feel like renewing if I can't do so conveniently. I have plenty of options for other things to do. I guess this is what's called 'voting with your wallet'.

It seems to me that the only plausible reason for forcing the use of the Steam Wallet is because of possible monetary kickbacks to Steam. However, both the Steam Wallet in itself and its integration with CCP's payment system is horribad.

CCP and Valve could have made this system so much more convenient for the user. We as users shouldn't have to jump through hoops to pay them money.

A) They could have arranged for monetary kickbacks regardless of what payment method were used.

or B) If Valve doesn't trust CCP to pay them without monitoring via the Wallet, there should be a feature in Steam that allows for making the relevant transactions entirely within the Steam client. This doesn't exactly seem like rocket science to me.

Currently you have to log into both Steam AND CCP's web pages to make a simple transaction, which is completely clownshoes.

[Shotgun]

Originally posted by Edelgris:

I do enjoy it, but I don't want to be part of promoting this kind of system. My game time just ran out and I don't feel like renewing if I can't do so conveniently. I have plenty of options for other things to do. I guess this is what's called 'voting with your wallet'.

If we're talking about your normal, non-Steam EVE account (the one for which you already have a name/pass combo), can you not just pay through the EVE account management website normally? It supports most major credit cards, PayPal, etc. Unless there's a cost difference between the two (such as due to regional pricing), does it matter how you pay?

[Edelgris]

Originally posted by Shotgun:

If we're talking about your normal, non-Steam EVE account (the one for which you already have a name/pass combo), can you not just pay through the EVE account management website normally? It supports most major credit cards, PayPal, etc. Unless there's a cost difference between the two (such as due to regional pricing), does it matter how you pay?

No. I might at some point. However, considering the inefficiency of what I've already witnessed, I'm half expecting my account to still be tied to Steam regardless of going back to the vanilla client.

[Shotgun]

Originally posted by Edelgris:

I'm half expecting my account to still be tied to Steam regardless of going back to the vanilla client.

It won't be, I can assure you of that. I am running multiple off-Steam accounts through the Steam EVE client without issue, and paying for them via CC and PayPal directly through account management.

Also, I guess you can keep playing for free? I don't know how invested you are into the game.