I went to a US grocery store and got a prepaid MasterCard to renew for a month on SLR. I tried it will all payment providers that accept MasterCard : Epoch, PayPal by Epoch, Verotel, SecurionPay and all were declined. I read on the forum that it might be MasterCard is blocking Epoch so I went and got a prepaid Visa card at the grocery store that has a fixed amount of around $50 on it. I tried again and all providers declined it. Even when I use PayPal with no bank linked, and add the prepaid card to the PayPal account, it declines it.
I have tried the prepaid MasterCard/Visa cards on multiple other VR sites and they go through. Others they work on are NaughtyAmericaVR, BadoinkVR, VRCosplayX, POVR. I believe SLR and CzechVR are the only two they do not work on. I think it's because Epoch uses an overseas payment processor for SLR and CzechVR, but uses their US processor for the others. US prepaid cards can only be used with US payment processors, so if they are processing with their international bank/processor, it will decline them.
I think the solution might be to ask Epoch if they can use their US payment processor for these US prepaid cards and have the payment processed in US dollars. If this is not possible, another option would be to consider adding:
paygarden.com
I've seen a few VR websites that accept paygarden for membership. Basically what it lets you do is use any best buy, amazon, or related gift card balance and they convert it towards your membership cost. So you could go into a US based grocery store and get a Best Buy gift card, and use it to sign up. The downside is PayGarden charges a processing fee to do this, so some sites that offer it, offer it with a lower membership period to cover the processing fee. Instead of paying for a 30 day membership, you get 25 days or something like that. So they adjust the days down to compensate for any fees to use them. At least I think that's why they do it. It's still better than nothing and also I think it averages out because Visa Prepaid cards usually have a $5 or $6 fee just to buy one. Best Buy gift cards are sold with no fees. So if you buy a $25 card, it's $25 and not $31+ tax. You just pay the $25 for it. So even if you get less days, it probably averages out against a Visa prepaid card with a $5 activation fee. Or crypto that has usually around $5+ in gas fees. You can also buy a digital gift card and have it e-mailed to you, then use that digital card number to sign up through Paygarden so you don't even have to go to the store to get a prepaid card. So really PayGarden could be a really good solution.
The other options are:
Crypto
But to buy crypto on an exchange, you have to transfer fiat funds in to buy it and they put a hold of usually 5 business days until you can transfer the crypto out so your cash settles. There is also gas fees to send the funds. So it would average out to around what a prepaid visa card would be with the activation fee either way.
Privacy.com
But to use them, they ask for a lot of personal info like your ssn and it's a real hassle getting set up with them. And to my knowledge there is also a waiting period for them to review and activate your account.
I think if you could figure out adding either a US based payment processor and/or paygarden to accept general gift cards, it would increase member signups and revenue and that revenue could go towards creating even more awesome content.
