So just bought SWTOR for $15. I was under the impression that you got 30 days free. So I installed, updated with most recent patches and tried to launch game. It says that there is no active subscription tied to this account. I have already logged in and created all the info it needed. Why do I have to give a credit card or something if I have 30 days free, and soon it will become a free to play game...? There is an option marked "don't have an account? play free game now" below. If I choose that and then later play under subscription will I have to restart my character? This is the first time I'm ever playing an MMO...

EDIT: the play free button wants me to download the client again...

What's your midichlorian count?

So just bought SWTOR for $15. I was under the impression that you got 30 days free. So I installed, updated with most recent patches and tried to launch game. It says that there is no active subscription tied to this account. I have already logged in and created all the info it needed. Why do I have to give a credit card or something if I have 30 days free, and soon it will become a free to play game...? There is an option marked "don't have an account? play free game now" below. If I choose that and then later play under subscription will I have to restart my character? This is the first time I'm ever playing an MMO...

It's probably so they have something on file so they can start charging after the 30 days.

That said, my heart says EA.

@The_Laughing_Man said:

@LiquidPrince said:

So just bought SWTOR for $15. I was under the impression that you got 30 days free. So I installed, updated with most recent patches and tried to launch game. It says that there is no active subscription tied to this account. I have already logged in and created all the info it needed. Why do I have to give a credit card or something if I have 30 days free, and soon it will become a free to play game...? There is an option marked "don't have an account? play free game now" below. If I choose that and then later play under subscription will I have to restart my character? This is the first time I'm ever playing an MMO...

You should have gotton a key to enter at the website. Did you enter it?

Yes. The site says I have 29 days left. But when I click on play it says, there are currently no active subscriptions on this account.

You can't play because you're being weird about giving it your CC info. This isn't a new practice.

@CrazyBagMan said:

You can't play because you're being weird about giving it your CC info. This isn't a new practice.

Why should I give my credit card info when it gives you 30 days free, and it will soon be free to play? Shouldn't it ask for the info after the free period is done...?

@CrazyBagMan said:

You can't play because you're being weird about giving it your CC info. This isn't a new practice.

Why should I give my credit card info when it gives you 30 days free, and it will soon be free to play? Shouldn't it ask for the info after the free period is done...?

@The_Laughing_Man said:

@LiquidPrince said:

@CrazyBagMan said:

You can't play because you're being weird about giving it your CC info. This isn't a new practice.

Why should I give my credit card info when it gives you 30 days free, and it will soon be free to play? Shouldn't it ask for the info after the free period is done...?

That sounds right. Its standard for like 90% of MMOs

But one of the choices is to use a game time code instead of using a credit card, and the CD key counts as a game time code. But when I enter it, it says the code has already been used and that I have 29 days left....

@The_Laughing_Man said:

@LiquidPrince said:

@CrazyBagMan said:

You can't play because you're being weird about giving it your CC info. This isn't a new practice.

Why should I give my credit card info when it gives you 30 days free, and it will soon be free to play? Shouldn't it ask for the info after the free period is done...?

That sounds right. Its standard for like 90% of MMOs

But one of the choices is to use a game time code instead of using a credit card, and the CD key counts as a game time code. But when I enter it, it says the code has already been used and that I have 29 days left....

I'll tell you what I did. Maybe you did the same thing. I originally made an account during a free trial weekend, before the game allowed people to play for free up to level 15. When I found out that you could play up to level 15 for free, I decided to give it another shot but I couldn't play with my first account since they won't let you use an account that has already played once to level to 15 for free. I made a new account and didn't think anything of it. Well, after I leveled a couple of characters to 15, I decided that I wanted to purchase the full game. I bought the standard edition for $15, but I accidentally upgraded my first account, the one that doesn't have any of my characters on it.
 
I've contacted customer support numerous times but all they tell me is that they're "working on it." I swear, the customer service for SWTOR is fucking useless.

@LiquidPrince said:

@CrazyBagMan said:

You can't play because you're being weird about giving it your CC info. This isn't a new practice.

Why should I give my credit card info when it gives you 30 days free, and it will soon be free to play? Shouldn't it ask for the info after the free period is done...?

That sounds right. Its standard for like 90% of MMOs 

Remember there was a lot of talking about this around launch too. For some reason they made it so you have to activate a full subscription to even be allowed to play. It's still completely possible to cancel it right after and never pay though, but I'm guessing it's just another marketing ploy to increase the retention rate. Can't remember the specifics, but seem to remember they did quite a few similar "tricks" to force people into subscribing or not cancelling. A story about unsub button missing during a critical period comes to mind.

@ajamafalous: @Ares42:Does it completely delete/remove credit card history when you unsubscribe? I don't want my CC to be lingering in their databases.

@LiquidPrince: Well, I can't say for sure ofc, but checking out my account there's no CC info saved for me to reuse at least. Think I might've gone back and deleted the entry myself though, can't quite remember.

@LiquidPrince said:

@ajamafalous: @Ares42:Does it completely delete/remove credit card history when you unsubscribe? I don't want my CC to be lingering in their databases.

It's EA.

Most companies probably do, but... y'know, EA.

Make of that what you will.

@Ares42: @Terramagi: So I just went to enter my card info, and it says that it's $14.99. Does that mean I will have the free month and then it will charge, or it's going to charge right this moment. The moment I'm asking all these questions, is I don't even know if I'm going to like this MMO game and the only reason I got it was to try it out at the cheap $15 price point. Paying another $15 upfront is not really what I wanted.

@LiquidPrince said:

@Ares42: @Terramagi: So I just went to enter my card info, and it says that it's $14.99. Does that mean I will have the free month and then it will charge, or it's going to charge right this moment. The moment I'm asking all these questions, is I don't even know if I'm going to like this MMO game and the only reason I got it was to try it out at the cheap $15 price point. Paying another $15 upfront is not really what I wanted.

If it's ANYTHING like other MMOs, you will only be charged once your 30 days are up. You could remove the credit card info after 25 days or so (post-it note) and be totally fine.

But, again, I have a very low opinion of EA and Bioware.

@LiquidPrince: As Terramagi said, it should not charge you before your free days are up. Looking at my own payment history it says my first charge was on Jan 21, which was one month after launch.