"Teh epik master plan" Part II: The Research
Ah, hello, I haven't written here for a long time. So, for the unguided individuals, "teh epik master plan" is my plan to actually buy a game via Steam for the first time in my life, by opening a bank account and linking a debit card to my PayPal account. TL;DR is at the bottom!
Before commenting:
- First of all, I'm 14 years-old.
- Second of all, my parents won't borrow me their credit cards, hence the need of my own debit card.
- Third of all, I live in a second-world country, so we can't buy any Steam Wallet codes too.
- Fourth of all, I'm not poor, I am only unable to buy anything online for now.
Actually, we have the codes on some places, but a 5€ code is 16 BAM, for God's sake! And the EUR to BAM chart is 1€ = 1.98 BAM (approx.), so it should have been 9.9 BAM.
Alright, let us begin:
So, after 1 month of research, finally, I've decided in which bank to open an account, and they have a special account type just for teenagers like me! And, along with the bank account comes a debit card, using which the client can do, besides normal stuff, Internet shopping.
However, I'm uncertain whether I could buy something with a different currency, since we use BAM in Bosnia, and on Steam, there are Euros (€) for my region. So, this is the plan's question which will either kill it, or save it. Palaćinka! (Or 'блин!')
But, yes, if all goes well, I will inform you in 'Part 3: The moment of truth'.
If the plan works, however, I will:
-Finally buy some hats (in TF2) for my 5 year-old brother, and a copy of GMod for him
-Buy a copy of Call of Duty (either 2 or 3), in order to make some maps for it
-Buy a copy of Half-Life 2 (duuh, to make mods for it)
-Transfer some 'resources' to one of my friends' PayPal account, so he can buy Mount & Blade.
Of course, that will happen only if the plan works, and I'll buy games when the 'Summer Sales' hit. And, if it doesn't work, no worries! There's Fiverr, online surveys, and, of course, an app called Joy Rewards (because AppNana is poop, and I'm pretty close to the $5 PayPal gift card).
TL;DR: I did some research and found out about debit cards for teens, and I found a bank which offers "accepted-by-me" teenagers' accounts and debit cards. I'm only worried if I'm able to use currencies other than KM (a.k.a BAM).
And a message to other minors (people under 18) who are in a similar situation, use my plan if you wish to buy games, but your parents just won't allow you their credit cards.
Don't know about you, but in our country you have to be of age to have a fully featured bank card be it credit or debit.
As far as conversion rates go PayPal will automatically convert any currency to EUR or USD upon purchase (depends on where you buy from), but not for free.
It might be wise to open a EUR bank account, yes banks let you open accounts in different currencies. Exchange rates in banks are usually better than PayPal's so you wont have to pay PayPal more for converting your cash.
Eventually I managed to get a hold of a prepaid card, which is like a debit card that's not tied to a bank account. You go into the place where you got it, and give them money to top up your account. If rufee's right, you might want to try getting one of those. Although I can't remember if there's an age limit for them.
It all seems to depend on the card; if you can't do international purchases you are up shit creek I'm afraid. Can you enquire with your bank if you are able to?
That may be very possible to happen in my country, but if the bank, however, does offer accounts for other currencies (and still without being an international account), then that might be a good solution, but I'll have to speak to my parents about that, because I'm not sure if they'd agree, but hey, Euros are common in Bosnia, too. Many thanks for the information.
@TJB
Prepaid cards act just like debit cards, yes, but I'm not quite sure if they, again, support international payments, but they really do support paying across the Internet, or I don't remember correctly.
@Penguinboy
Yeah, good idea, but that service is US only, it's lucky for you to live there. Despite that, I'll see that information again.
@Instant Mix
Well, thank you! My English teacher and the school's director, who used to be an English teacher, both said similar things to my mother.
Regarding the cards, the UniCredit Bank (the one I chose) has only MasterCards for debit cards, and 5 types: Teenage, Golden, International, Regular and Prepaid. So the ideal one would be MasterCard International. And if you need proof go here.
Edit: Umm, actually, they also have a debit card for students but that requires an ID card (and I have to wait to turn 15 for that).
I couldn't find any details on whether you can do it in Bosnia though. It is in the list of countries they support though, so it's worth looking at least!
But going by your link the "Teenage" card will do what you want. Google translate says that one of the bullet points is:
"Buy products and services - payments through POS terminals at all points of sale in the country and outside the country..."
The debit card provided with the account can actually make payments via the Internet.
And, using the bank's app for PCs and Android phones, the client is able to convert to (and so make payments in) other currencies.
One additional thing I've found are the daily limits (thus discovering can the card be used for via-the-Internet payments) and a few costs regarding using their mobile app service (including conversion).
P.S. See if Google Translate can translate "Dolje gore gore gore nego gore.".
Croatian (auto-detected) => English
Dolje gore gore gore nego gore. => Down up up up up care.
Google Translate :
English => French
Money on it being gory. => L'argent sur elle étant sanglante.
My translation of the previous sentence :
French => English
L'argent sur elle étant sanglante. => The money on it being bloody.
The original meaning of D.G.G.G.n.G. was "The hills down there burn worse than up."
But, back on topic, I hope that the plan will conclude well. Afterall, it's on my list of '50 things to do before high school'.