Buying multiple "Standard Edition" on Origin instead of game time thru Bioware [ Edited ]

[gingervitus777]

I've been having difficulty purchasing either CC, a two month one time sub, or a recurring subscription through Bioware's SWTOR website with both a credit card and a debt card and have been in touch with support the whole time to no avail, so I'm looking for other options. I'm a former subscriber. I don't particularly want to buy 60 or 90 days time through cards if I don't have to, I want 30 days. Regardless of what I want, there aren't any stores selling prepaid cards near me anyways so it's a moot point.

I know I can make successful purchases through Origin, so I was wondering if it would be possible for me to just buy and then rebuy "Standard Edition" versions of SWTOR (link at the bottom of post) from Origin when I choose to get more game time; it includes 30 days time, usual subscriber 500 CC allowance, and recent expansions. It looks like it's just selling game time but it doesn't call it that, it looks more like it's trying to sell me an instance of the game with one month's sub, despite actually just being a normal one month subscription.

If I bought this once, would I be able to apply this purchase to my existing preferred account? If I bought this a second time, would it apply like a normal prepaid sub to that same account?

https://www.origin.com/usa/en-us/store/star-wars/star-wars-the-old-republic/offer-selection

[gingervitus777 · Accepted solution]

I ended up buying 2 $20 EA Game Cards from Walmart.com, as nowhere seems to stock digital codes of SWTOR 60 day or physical ones near me. With this I can get a 60 day sub from SWTOR.com and $10 left over, maybe for CC maybe something else entirely, Idk yet. Not an efficient deal but I did get my sub despite Bioware's bug that has apparently been around since launch. What really should have happened once this bug wasn't fixed after a few years, was shifting the subscription services over to EA (or to have continued selling 60 day passes on EA's store) so people could just pay through EA when Bioware's service was busted. 

[proxos666]

@gingervitus777 

the 30 day code on origin is the retail 30 day code that is similar to what was supplied in the physical boxes of the game and can only be applied to an account once.

so if a code from a physical box has been applied to the swtor account, the 30 day origin code also will not be able to be applied.

what error are you getting when trying to purchase ? high traffic page ? strategy redirection ?

[gingervitus777]

"This purchase has already been made" or something, despite them successfully charging my card a dollar but showing an empty payment history. I had gotten that one a month or two ago also, and last month I got the CC bug where you finally submit the form with payment info and then they loop you back to the screen asking how many CC you want to buy. Last time I played like a year or two ago, they also charged my card when I wasn't trying to buy anything, which my bank (rightly) rejected and they suspended me over it which gave me my singular warning for a hard ban (and they failed to email me about the "purchase" or the suspension, or keep a record of the incident anywhere for me to review). So I am definitely done putting my card information on their servers. 

It sounds like this "standard edition" may apply to my account (for a single instance) in that case, since I've never bought a digital or physical box, just a few months of subscription years ago. But also worried that they might just give you a digital box when you become a preferred played like they do with giving you access to expansion.

[gingervitus777 · Accepted solution]

I ended up buying 2 $20 EA Game Cards from Walmart.com, as nowhere seems to stock digital codes of SWTOR 60 day or physical ones near me. With this I can get a 60 day sub from SWTOR.com and $10 left over, maybe for CC maybe something else entirely, Idk yet. Not an efficient deal but I did get my sub despite Bioware's bug that has apparently been around since launch. What really should have happened once this bug wasn't fixed after a few years, was shifting the subscription services over to EA (or to have continued selling 60 day passes on EA's store) so people could just pay through EA when Bioware's service was busted. 

[proxos666]

@gingervitus777 

Have you tried removing the payment method from the linked ea/origin account and swtor account and re-adding the payment method to swtor ?

I have seen doing that solve that error

[gingervitus777]

Yes deleted from both EA's and SWTOR's logs and retried while allowing SWTOR to save my account information and still failed despite continuing to successfully grab a dollar from my bank/card. I've been looking into this issue since November now and there doesn't seem to be much of a rational recourse aside from luck and patience (yet nearly 2 months worth of patience didn't solve my problem). I think the rational solution is to not rely on Bioware's services.

[proxos666]

@gingervitus777 

I wonder have you checked if the EA account you have is actually the linked account ? that maybe why removing and re-adding failed

just trying to cover all possibilities