Cost to Play EVE - if you live in UK read this:

Apologies for this blatent public service advertisment - but I thought I should post as when I initially joined EVE I was unaware of the savings TC's could give vs paying for EVE time direct to CCP. New players take note:

I play by 60 day timecard - why do I do this? Answer:

• Its cheaper than buying a sub in the EU... fullstop.
  
• Its 19.99 euro's first month to pay direct to EVE, then 14.99 euro a month per account. (ie, about £12.50 a month). Current EVE TC costs are £19.31 (as per bank statement from this month) for 2 months (though it does depend on the UK->US exchange rate)- ie, you save just over ~ 2.50 a month (if euro stays at 1.2). Paypal is nice for payment as it gives rate at time of transfer, ands its usually competitive. This means I can run 2 accounts for roughly 19.31 a month - only a fiver more than a single WOW sub :)
  
• It may also be cheaper for the Europeans in Eurozone to pay this way also, but I've not done the maths as it depends on the dollar to euro rate. I can't imagine it is not cheaper though.
  
• Another thing you may not be aware of - you can start an account with a EVE TC, saving the 19.99 first month fee (or continue onto a full account from a trial with one). If EVE still charge more for the first month that is :)
  

Now note I would change to paying annually if the Pound -> Euro rate recovers from its current low as this will then work out a lot cheaper... but currently I believe EVE TC's are the cheapest way to play EVE-online if you pay monthly for a UK player - as of Sept 2008 at least.

Now the link to the guys I use - ShatteredCrystal - click this then choose EVE TC's then the 60 day card.

The guys linked are awesome - they are an approved EVE TC reseller (see the EVE-online website for confirmation, but don't click on their link from there (see below to why)!), and once you've got the first TC (which takes 1/2 hour and a phone call for verification), subsequent ones usually take well under 5 mins - you order, TC arrives in email (my record order took under 60 secs from order to TC delivery).. I personally have used them for last 2 years for all EVE TC purchases (and other games where TC's make sense financially from UK/EU) and never had a problem.

Note that DSTIC corp gets approx 1/50th of a TC (which we'll trade for corp ISK using the approved method) every time you buy from the link on this blog post - so corp members should ideally use this if they pay by TC). Or anyone else who feels generous and who appreciated this post as saving them hard cash (and not the ISKie varient)