Account Upgrades

[Andy R]

You can help support our community and offset costs for new features development by upgrading your account to a Supporting Member. Keep in mind Cruisers Forum will always remain free to read and use but this optional upgrade will give your account many perks.

Some highlights of the account upgrades are:
Private Message Storage: 25,000 (Regular members get 50)
Avatar Size: 125x125 (more than 50% larger)
Signature (Max Characters): 1,000 (100% more)
Signature Pic: Yes (regular members cannot have one)
Profile Album Photos: 1,000 (regular members can post 25)
Change Your User Title: Yes (regular members cannot change this)
Recognition: Green Badge
Merchandise: Cost + Shipping
Introductory Price: $15.01/year (recurring annually)

Our plan is to find ways to bring value to upgrading. For example, if you are not upgraded, a burgee will cost you $50.01, if you upgrade that drops down to $25.01. You will save money by upgrading just to buy the burgee and get more account perks. With time we hope to have more merchandise such as t-shirts, hats, as well as other branded marine related goodies. We are also going to be starting a vendor program soon and will be asking our vendors to provide discounts to our upgraded members. If you don't see the value in upgrading now, keep checking back. As the program matures you will see more and more reasons to upgrade.

The current rate of $15.01 per year is a promotional rate which will only be good for the next 60 days. After that it will go up to $30.01 per year. This is setup as a recurring payment through PayPal and will automatically renew each year unless you cancel. If you sign up that current promotional price you will be grandfathered at that rate. No refunds will be provided to members who are banned for not following our Community Rules.

Click here to upgrade or you can click on the Upgrade link at the top right of the nav bar (see attachment).

[Patrick_DeepPlaya]

I'm curious... why is it $15.01 and not just $15 ?

Just curious,
-p

[Andy R]

Originally Posted by Patrick_DeepPlaya

I'm curious... why is it $15.01 and not just $15?

Fair question. The .01 is actually a code use to identify Cruisers Forum for accounting purposes. You will notice the burgees have the same thing:
Cruisers & Sailing Forums - Cruisers Forum Burgee

[Alecadi]

Originally Posted by Andy R

You can help support our community and offset costs for new features development by upgrading your account to a Supporting Member. Keep in mind Cruisers Forum will always remain free to read and use but this optional upgrade will give your account many perks.

Some highlights of the account upgrades are:
Private Message Storage: 25,000 (Regular members get 50)
Avatar Size: 125x125 (more than 50% larger)
Signature (Max Characters): 1,000 (100% more)
Signature Pic: Yes (regular members cannot have one)
Profile Album Photos: 1,000 (regular members can post 25)
Change Your User Title: Yes (regular members cannot change this)
Recognition: Green Badge
Merchandise: Cost + Shipping
Introductory Price: $15.01/year (recurring annually)

Our plan is to find ways to bring value to upgrading. For example, if you are not upgraded, a burgee will cost you $50.01, if you upgrade that drops down to $25.01. You will save money by upgrading just to buy the burgee and get more account perks. With time we hope to have more merchandise such as t-shirts, hats, as well as other branded marine related goodies. We are also going to be starting a vendor program soon and will be asking our vendors to provide discounts to our upgraded members. If you don't see the value in upgrading now, keep checking back. As the program matures you will see more and more reasons to upgrade.

The current rate of $15.01 per year is a promotional rate which will only be good for the next 60 days. After that it will go up to $30.01 per year. This is setup as a recurring payment through PayPal and will automatically renew each year unless you cancel. If you sign up that current promotional price you will be grandfathered at that rate. No refunds will be provided to members who are banned for not following our Community Rules.

Click here to upgrade or you can click on the Upgrade link at the top right of the nav bar (see attachment).

As already asked: a lot of us will gladly pay the 15$ and 1 cent() but NOT THROUGH PAYPAL.
There has been extended exchanges on this forum about it. But still only one way to be able to pay....
Alec

[foolishsailor]

I know we are supposed to stay away from polotics but as people are mentioning etical issues around the use of paypal i thought I would add this link.

I wont take offense if you wish to slap my wrist and remove the post if it treads to close to the understandable and appropraite non-political stance of this forum...

...there is an ethics issues around paypal, however once you read this article you wont want to use visa or mastercard either - if you have strong opinions about free speech, free government and government oversight...

"The issue of corporate responsibility became salient along a rather different and unusual dimension recently when Visa, MasterCard and PayPal all blocked donations to WikiLeaks...

...Commentators pointed out that by blocking payments to WikiLeaks, Visa, MasterCard and PayPal effectively made the choice for everyone. Moreover, as many pointed out, this is surely hypocritical given that these same corporations do not in general police the processing of payments to other organisations that are ethically ambiguous..."

Ethics in the corporate world | Psychology Today

well worth a read as it addresses the issues of corporate versus individual ethics and choice

...just sayin as it has been raised as an issue

[minaret]

I too am waiting for another payment option. It is really a PITA to be limited to 50 PM's, I spend a lot of time managing my PM files to keep it down to size. Several times recently people have been unable to continue a conversation with me because my PM box fills up too quick for me to keep up. Maybe that particular restriction could be removed? I'd happily shell out the cash, just not through paypal.

[MacG]

I had a paypal account once and after using it, it was an unprofitable affair and I stopped it.
Continuous mails about changes of policy etc. etc.
If someone needs my money, ok, come up with a proper bank-account incl. Iban and BIC code and everything is ok.

[rolandcavanagh]

Give Dwolla a try. www.dwolla.com No personal interest, just a user.

[stillbuilding]

Originally Posted by MacG

I had a paypal account once and after using it, it was an unprofitable affair and I stopped it.
Continuous mails about changes of policy etc. etc.
If someone needs my money, ok, come up with a proper bank-account incl. Iban and BIC code and everything is ok.

+1 Lets get in the real world where electronic transactions are standard.

[goboatingnow]

Originally Posted by stillbuilding

+1 Lets get in the real world where electronic transactions are standard.

What IBANs are real world , high tech, they are dinosaurs

[MacG]

I don' care. If someone wants to use semi-legal banks which are almost invisible, hiding somewhere in Luxemburg, it is their problem getting business or not.
PayPal was set up to accommodate international payments for eBay clients among others when other banks did not have that possibility. And creditcards were not that common, like in Holland.

[IslandHopper]

I don't know what all the hoopla is about, i use PayPal quite regularly and have never had a problem with it...........

[dandrews]

Originally Posted by IslandHopper

I don't know what all the hoopla is about, i use PayPal quite regularly and have never had a problem with it...........

My biggest concern, even though I use Paypal, is the time it takes them to post funds to my account. I use ACH transfers, the money leaves my account within 24 hrs, but for some reason takes Paypal about 5 days to post. Someone is making interest on the float.

Don

[drewcwsj]

I am looking for an alternative to paypal too. How about google checkout?

[Ram]

i do not like PayPal, for the same reason Fooleshsailor pointed out - Will joining this put our web address as a signature?