Are you an EU citizen without a credit card? Let's face it, the odds are pretty good. Credit cards aren't so common outside of North America. Without a profitable business, how are you going to get a hold of Linden Dollars to actually spend in Second Life?
Paypal is the answer for some, but not for everyone. Enter the oddly named Bulido. An otherwise ordinary-seeming Linden Dollar currency exchange, but in addition to the usual payment options, they also accept Ukash vouchers. Now, I'm not terribly familiar with Ukash myself, being on the other side of the world and all, but people I know in Europe tell me that (at least in some countries) Ukash can be readily obtained at newsagents, post-offices, shops, gas-stations, banks and so forth.
Ukash is operated by Smart Voucher PLC which is regulated by the UK Financial Services Authority (FSA) as an ELectronic Money Institution (ELMI), and has only apparently been around for three years, but apparently is expanding quite rapidly, filling a void left by the absence of ubiquitous credit card adoption.
Bulido itself, appears to be the work of Austrian developer Crafty Studios and has been going since July 2007.
Has anyone yet used Bulido, or found some other way to get Linden Dollars with Ukash? Let us know about your experiences.
1. Wonderful!
This sounds very interesting and it also explains one thing to me. The Austrian company closed it's earlier, similar service (paysafecard.com) for a short while and it seems they now have developed their services into Bulido. (I can't remember if it was called something else before).
Which means I can use two payment services here in Europe, Ukash and Paysafecard (http://www.paysafecardservice.com/en/bulido_homepage), both readily and easily available in banks in this country.
And for possible readers wondering why I don't use Paypal, it is simply that they and other similar US-based services do not have this country on their lists. Ok, list yes, but services, niet.
Thanks for the info, Tateru!
*add to cart*
Posted at 1:52AM on Oct 18th 2007 by Sin Trenton