Q: How do pay sites work?

Pay sites sell “memberships” which provide you access to premium content. In most cases, these memberships are purchased with a credit card or by using the well-known and reliable online payment system called Paypal (hyperlink). While some of the larger porn sites have their own merchant accounts and do their own billing, most pay sites work with a third party billing company which processes credit cards and verifies memberships. When you click “JOIN” you’re passed over to the billing company, which asks for your name, address, telephone number, credit card number, expiry date, and so forth. Before you give your credit card number, make sure there is a little lock icon in the corner of your browser, which signifies you are making a secure transaction. When you’ve filled out the form and clicked the submit button, the billing company confirms that your credit card is valid and then assigns you an “account” name and a “password” (In some cases, you get to pick these yourself.) The billing company also e-mails you a confirmation notice. Do not delete this notice! You’ll need it when you want to cancel your membership. When you click on the “members” button the next time you visit the site, you’ll be served a pop-up asking you for your account and password. If you enter them correctly, you get access to the site. While some sites use “one-time” charges that provide access for a set period of time (pay per view), in most cases joining a web site involves buying a “membership” – which means that your credit card will be billed every month for access to the site, even if you never access it again. The only way to avoid this is to cancel your membership.

Q: How will the charge appear?

In most cases, the charge will reflect the billing company or, if the pay site does its own credit card processing, some “vague” corporate name. While this sometimes makes it difficult to discover which web site is charging your account, the fact that your membership in LatinaSlutsWithGreatBigPurpleDildos.com doesn’t appear directly on your credit card is probably more of an advantage than a liability, especially if your wife likes to check out the credit card charges each month.

Q: Is my credit card safe?

Sir Rodney believes your credit card is safer with most online pornographers than in most restaurants. Porn sites and the billing services they use are well known to the credit card companies. These merchants don’t want a problem with Visa, and therefore they do not want a problem with consumers. That said, security of your credit card and other personal information is extremely serious business these days, and you should call your credit card company immediately if charges appear that you do not recognize. Fortunately, your maximum liability if your card is stolen online or offline is limited to $50 USD. Sir Rodney has never experienced this kind of security problem but invites users to share bad experiences by writing to him at this address: SirRodney@SirRodney.com.

Q: Are there other ways to pay?

In addition to credit cards and Pay Pal, many web sites allow you to pay by check or money order. However, Sir Rodney believes the only safe and reliable way to buy pornography online is with a credit card. If you need to pay other ways, he respectfully suggests you look into purchasing adult entertainment offline. Often, this is cheaper in the long run anyway.

Q: What are “dialers”?

A “dialer” is a way for a porn Webmaster to convert telephone charges into a charge for the pay site without the use of a credit card. They only work with dial-up lines and not with DSL or a T1 links. The dialer program routes the call through a long distance carrier, generally located in a foreign country, which assigns part of the long distance charges to the Webmaster’s site. Dialers are more popular internationally than in the U.S., especially in regions, like Eastern Europe, where there are so many bogus credit cards that webmaster are reluctant to accept them from that region. Sir Rodney does not recommend the use of dialers because you have no idea how much of a charge you’re running, until you get your phone bill at the end of the month.

Q: How do I cancel?

A: While many porn web sites still hope that you’ll forget to cancel (and keep paying them membership fees), the porn sites and billing companies don’t want to be hit with chargebacks (see below), so they’ve made it easier for consumers to cancel their accounts over the past few years.

1. In almost all cases, the e-mail that confirms your membership will contain information about how to cancel. The “terms and conditions” page on the “join” area of the porn web site often contains this information as well. Note that in some cases you’ll need to know your account and password, as well as the e-mail address and credit card number that you used when you signed on. In most cases, you can cancel online.

2. If you have lost the e-mail or some of the data that you need to cancel, then your credit card statement probably has a number listed with the charge that you can call in order to cancel. Call that number and, with whatever information you have, try to cancel your membership.

3. If there is no identifying number, then you should e-mail (or call, if there’s a number) the webmaster of the porn site and request a cancellation.

4. If none of the above work, then you should call your credit card company and ask them how you can disallow future charges from that merchant.