Hi!

I used to pay my gog purchases with paysafecard and never had a problem. I inserted the paysafecard 16 digit number the money was discounted and never had a trouble.

I stopped using the system for some time.

Now I am trying to make a purchase with a paysafecard again, but instead of letting me place the card 16 digits it forces me to create a paysafe account in order to make payments.

Is anyone else having this problem? Was there a change in policies regarding this method?

Thank you for your help.



p.s. - i tried to contact gog support but received an automated message telling me that due to covid they where overwhelmed and could not help.

Was about to say it seems to work just fine for me (how the page looks, at least, obviously not going through with the payment), but then I changed the location to Portugal and it indeed seems to no longer offer the plain code option there. And it seems there are quite a few other countries for which that's the case. Really sucks, wonder what's happening. But you might try to see if it works if you change your location to some other eurozone country (since I assume the funds are in EUR) where the option is still offered.

That's...worrying.
I haven't used it since summer, but then it worked just fine.
They did want people to create accounts though, but it wasn't forced.
(Not only do they make money out of left over funds, but the also get personal details to sell that way)

if it's changed..I'm SoL..will boycott them too.

The thing with paysafe card is that you can still use them without account but only for amounts of less than Euro 50. 50 and up you need to register an account, step 1, you need to provide personal ID, drivers license or passport, step 2, and you got to wait until they've taken their sweet time to register you and grant the transfer.

Reason being that the Union introduced a policy to stop money laundering and other illegal activity they said was done with cards such like this. Same reason why, for most phone companies, you now need to register to use them.

This isn't something new ... I bought two cards awhile back, must have been 2016, when this policy was already in place and enforced which I wasn't very happy about. The thought to share personal data with a company in the U.K. I would otherwise have no business with, to give them my personal data they share with others, this isn't something I do. I tried to get my money back but had no luck ... Lesson learned ... since then I stay a far ways away from that payment method.

Usually individual countries have some leeway for implementing directives but the previous laws like this weren't defined properly and were used as threats towards business and against the public anti democratically.

Let's be honest.....serious criminals will find ways around all the road blocks. This is more likely meant to keep tabs on the regular citizens. :|

There was a change in EU law, as noted by Mori_Yuki. It went into effect January 2020. Source: AMLD5: No need to worry - Paysafecard PIN Magazine, via World of Tanks - Paysafecard payment limits. You need to reply to that message if you want to keep your support ticket open. Bear in mind I had to wait 5 weeks for a response, and I have a second ticket that's nearly 4 weeks old and I still haven't heard from them about that one. So you'd be in for a long wait.

Reply to that message and tell them that you still need assistance or try to contact a blue (forum moderators).

I just checked, and it seems to vary wildly from country to country. Still following the Law mentioned above.

There are several types;
PaySafeCard - Just the card, bought with cash in store, and usable with PIN only.
My PaySafeCard - A PIN used with an account.
-||- Unlimited - With less restrictions on amount.
Mastercard My PaySafeCard - Tied to your banks credit/debit account.
etc

Scroll down and compare Sweden vs Portugal:

https://translate.google.com/translate?sl=auto&hl=en&u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.paysafecard.com%2Fsv-se%2Fprodukter%2Favgifter-och-limits%2F

https://translate.google.com/translate?sl=auto&hl=en&u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.paysafecard.com%2Fpt-pt%2Fprodutos%2Ftaxas-e-limites%2F

In essence, Swedes can still use PaySafeCard without an account. Portugal citizens can't.

Thank you for your input, guys!

@Cavalary - thank you for checking, I also tried changed the country, in other countries it does appear do pin insertion form, the problem is that when I try to insert my card pin is says it is not valid for that country.

@Vendor-Lazarus - Thanks for your help. Yeah, i have tried different countries and it appears that many other countries don't need a mypaysafe account, unfortunately when I try that the message tells me that my paysafecard card cannot be used in other countries. :( Good thing Sweden users don't need to create an account.

@Mori_Yuki - Thanks. Actually my paysafe is of 10 euros and it still forces me to create an account. According EU money laundering, apparently only applies to some EU countries, as other can keep just using their paysafecard pin without an account. I am also not happy having to offer my personal data to a 3rd party company that will most likely sell them to who ever wants it. I'm guessing EU's GDPR is just for show.

@§pectre - Looks like it.

@GamezRanker - Yep I'm inclined to agree with you.

@Ice_Mage and @KetobaK - Thank you guys I will do that.


I also contacted paysafe for try and get information about my situation and they told me that the mypaysafe account was mandatory in every EU countries (well we seem to have established that that is not true) and that if I wanted my money back I had to pay them €7,5 for processing fees. :O , €7,5 for a €10 card??? These guys are even worse that loan sharks, and EU is worried with money laundering? It should check these guys.

Well, anyway, this was practical method of buying stuff when you had any trouble processing payments with your credit card or even if you had no credit card, which was my case, and now it was rendered useless.

Don't know if you have alredy solved this issue, or just given up on the 10E...
But the way i got arround this was:
-getting a new sim card (about 5 or 7,5E), it helps if you have a cellphone not locked into a carrier;
-making the paysafe account with that number;
-making giberish for names and IDs and adress, use a temp mail service;
-and thats about it,
for about a year i've been doing so, with some other uses i may have spend 10E so far recharging the sim.

This way i haven't given any data to some faceless company,
and don't have to use any banking card either.
As for the diference between Sweden and Portugal, I bet it's because of Chengen and the monetary union
and the safecard company being a UK based one, and the resulting can of worms.
And GOG has very little to do with this mess, even if they could try and help and diversify non banking options,

Seems the payment servers(PSC/etc) know which country the pin was bought in.
(this is likely in part so they can block people from using such workarounds as v-p-n)

Imo this is why they keep pushing for more and more cashless payments(even before 2020)....so they can monitor the common citizen's entire purchasing history and use that info as needed.

Yeah, I've also heard claims that they also keep any remaining balance on a card that one cannot spend(for some reason) or that one forgets to spend after a certain time period.

I don't think criminals often investigate other criminals....unless those other criminals are competition to them/their allies, that is. ;)

Post 11 seems to be the best bet in your case. And yeah, you have to spend some money to do this, but that phone can also be useful when dealing with other sites that need such info as well.....so in the end it becomes a good investment.

Sweden doesn't use the Euro, that may be a difference.

They used to charge rougly the equivalent of 2 EUR / month out of the credit left unused after 12 months, now it's 6 months...

And all of this is messed up. Of course, doesn't matter now anyway, but for some future, and maybe some other DRM-free sites that may crop up and offer it as payment, it'll become useless if they will indeed require accounts for all EU countries. The point was to not have any, not give any information, and just use it as a way to essentially make a cash payment for electronic goods, buy the code with cash at a machine, type the code, that's it.

Money grubbers will always find new ways(fees/surcharges/etc) to money grub, it seems.

Tptb seemingly won't have that, though.....they want to keep tabs on everyone and every purchase they make....so of course they'd ask/"ask" PSC to do such things.

(my bet is that within a decade they'll try to phase out cash for the most part if not entirely....they already sort of started in countries like Australia, where one now cannot buy things over 10k using cash)

With some minor directives, yes. The major ones countries either adapt them, or, heaven forbid they don't, have to face consequences. This happened numerous times in certain members but not others. The money laundering laws, the requirement to register mobile phone accounts, the rather new (2016-) cash-payment cap of ~Euro 2000, it's both anti consumer and to some extant anti business.

I have to agree that all those measures and many more not even openly discussed makes EU citizens transparent. The worst part is that data in some countries, such like Italy, who closely worked with China, their citizen's health and other data is now firmly in Chinese hands. Albeit not the only country that that's the case. EU-wide transfer of data to the U.S., much of the U.K.'s to Russia.

But, back to money laundering directives, I tend to agree that phasing out cash altogether, as GamezRanker suggests, does seem to be one goal. Looking at the U.S. where most people own not one but several credit and debit cards, the whole payment history becomes known on the pressing of a button if has to be. From there it's easy to connect all the other little dots to get a complete picture: Where has that person been, what area, what ATM they use, what they bought, for instance magazines - harmless or innocuous? - to whoever does the query. Most times it's one of their law enforcement agencies ...

In the EU we are not so very far behind of, say, China or India and other countries in this world. What some may have laughed at is now a sad reality where hardly anyone can laugh, except people with money, who, at least in parts of the world, bend the rules to their will. Many African countries, with many millionaires and billionaires, Russia, you name it.

Privacy? Dead as a dodo. Only people who got something to hide, criminal until proven otherwise. Money in the sense of numbers printed on paper? Maybe soon to follow. That's the sad reality many warned about, the new normal we got to adapt to.