Payment

"Cash-Basis"

All our prices, including shipping, are stated on a cash basis. As such, they reflect a 3.62% cash discount.

The basis of this distinction is whether we receive 100% of the proceeds (considered as "cash"), or are assessed any amount of fees to receive your payment ("non-cash"). The amount of the difference approximates what we must pay in fees to receive your payment.

If you pay on a non-cash basis, then you forego the cash discount implicit in our prices; add 3.75% to our stated prices to remove the discount implicit in all our pricing.

Currently, all forms of payment that utilize credit or debit cards in any fashion are non-cash. Add 3.75% to the grand total to remove the cash discount. This includes PayPal payments funded by these methods.

PayPal payments funded internationally are generally non-cash as well, regardless of how they are funded. Only where funds are already in your PayPal account in US$ and specific procedures are followed are funds likely to arrive "as cash."

Checks, Money Orders and Cashiers Checks, Bank Drafts, etc.

Payments by check, money order or cashiers check payable in US$ and thru a US bank are considered "cash."
Checks, etc., should be made payable to "Fine Games."
We must have your full contact info, including home street address and home phone #.
All such payments should be drawn on a US bank and denominated in US$. Checks not drawn on a US bank or denominated in other than US$ will be delayed by at least ten (10) days. In addition, you will be credited for the amount our bank credits us, less all fees imposed by our bank (which can be rather random).
We allow ten (10) days for your check to arrive (20 days for international customers). After that, your payment is late and your order is subject to immediate cancellation. We do take pains to remind you, several times if necessary, but if this proves to be your habit, we may elect to accept your order only upon arrival of your payment.
We reserve the right to hold any check, etc., until is has cleared if is advisable for any reason. Generally, this is necessary only for unusual or large orders, checks without imprinted information, and instruments drawn on a foreign bank, etc. This is rarely needed, fortunately.
Checks returned by your bank for any reason are assessed a $35 fee on each occasion. This generally means your check is sent to collections and we part company. So please, don't. (See our Policies for more.)

Credit Cards

We accept Visa, MasterCard, Discover® and American Express cards.
Credit card payment is immediate, and so your order can ship immediately.
Payment via credit cards is not considered cash, and thus the cash discount must be removed before arriving at the grand total for an order. Do this by multiplying the cash-basis total by103.75%. See Cash-Basis, above.
ATM and debit cards are, for all our purposes, the same as a credit card.
To use your credit card, communicate your card's info to us along with your other order info. See our Contact Info for the ways to contact us. The info required to use a card is:
- Credit card #
- Expiration date
- Card holder name
- Full home street & mailing address and home phone #
- Full billing address for the credit card (if other than your home address)
To protect the security of your CC info, we recommend that you convey your CC info to us in one of 3 secure ways: by phoning us, by FAX, or via an encoded email.
The most secure method is to use PGP and our Public PGP Key. Alternatively, include the info in a MIME attachment to your email (such as a Word or Excel document). A simpler alternative is to convert your CC info into words (e.g. 4 becomes four), or to disguise the number as in this example:

Alpha $54.32 Beyond Valor $10.01 Cat $59.99 Dog $09.01 BDay 4-04

PayPal & Other OnLine Payment Services:

Fine Games accepts but no longer recommends PayPal, the world's largest online cash-transfer service.
Due to PayPal's convoluted terms, Fine Games distinguishes between two categories of payment. Please note this difference carefully:

Payments funded by electronic transfer from a bank account or funds you've received into your account (and not by any charge to a credit or ATM card) are accepted under specific conditions at face value (i.e. on a cash-basis). Such payments are sent to CashPayments@FineGames.com. However, you must observe the procedures detailed here; in particular, to send a payment that does not arrive arrive with fees you must either pay the fee yourself OR declare in the SEND MONEY screen that you are "sending money to family or friends."

Payments funded to any extent via a charge to a credit or ATM card are not considered cash; the implicit cash discount must be removed on orders paid in this manner by increasing the grand total by 3.75%. In addition, payments funded in this manner must be sent to a special email address used only for this purpose: PayPal@FineGames.com. If you select the "I'm paying for goods & services" button, fees will always be attached to your payment. Or you can use their QR code to set up payment:

(Payments funded via a credit card sent to our normal address will delay shipment.) Since the amount you'll pay with this method is the same as if we charged your credit or ATM card directly, we encourage you to handle payment in that way if you really want to use your credit card.

Since PayPal generally takes only minutes to setup and can be used immediately, we expect your payment to arrive within three (3) days of the time you confirm your order. Transmission time itself normally is but an hour or two.
PayPal recently expanded its services to those living outside the United States and who possess a credit card. Read about PayPal's International availability. Our experience indicates that the only way to send a cash-basis payment internationally is if you already have payment funds in US$ available in your account.

Trade-In Games

We encourage you to trade in your games to offset the costs of games you want. See our information on Trade-Ins & Game Sales.
We credit you for trade-ins only after your games are inspected. Depending on the number and condition of your trade-ins, and other demands on our business, this may take some time.

Cash

We accept cash payment. Be aware that you are responsible for the safety of your cash payment until the moment we receive it. Unless you're sending only a small amount of cash, we recommend that you use registered mail or another method of payment.

Bank Transfers, Wired Funds

Fine Games does NOT accept wired funds as payment. Too much hassle & cost for the very rare circumstance where this is requested.