One-Time Payment

Alright, so we've already got a system that allows people to "gift" subscriptions to eachother, one-time payments that end up as credit on the recipients account. Would it be entirely infeasible to set it up so that people can do this using paypal and similar "one-time" payment services, and also combine this with the ability to Only use your "credit" to finance your subscription, removing the need to fill out card info etc? I think this solution would be a workable middle-ground for those who live in countries with expensive prepaid cards and who can not, or do not want to, get a credit/debit card.

Correct me if I am wrong but doesn't paypal have a card-like option?

I have no idea, I don't use paypal, at all. I just wrote up this suggestion because I've had a few players and fellow GMs, as well as noted a few comments about it on the boards, that apparently are a bit dissatisfied with the current availability of payment options. After reviewing the earlier threads on the matter I just felt like the above might be a workable option, since it entirely sidesteps the issues stated with paypal being finicky when it comes to recurring payments and hence wrote up a suggestion and added it here. :) Edit: Scouring their website and also their help stuff I can't find any mention of them having a card option. Might you be in error or am I failing a roll here? :)

Paypal prepaid cards

While that seems to be the prepaids they seems to not only suffer from the same issues other prepaids do (expensive, more so than others I've found online actually) that service seems very unreliable. In twelve hours I only managed to load the paypal-prepaid site once, and then it went back to being inaccessible (for me anyways). So anyways, back on topic, would it be that unfeasible to allow one-time payments that tip-up ones "credit" and have the service draw from that instead?

If my understanding of what you are saying is correct, you are asking for a wallet-like system, is that right?

Yes. There is one already, except if one wants to use it for subscriptions one still needs to supply credit card info that "sticks". Once the credit runs out it will try to keep on going using that card, which not everyone is comfortable with (not to mention that not everyone has a debit card). With a system like that someone could fill their wallet (yes, lets go with that analogy), either from their own card or by asking a friend to do it and handing that friend the cash for it (for those that don't have a card themselves) and then run it that way. It would also have the benefit of making a paypal option feasible, since the main problem with pp that the mods have stated (that I've seen) seems to be that pp is a pain for recurring charges.