Q - Why asking for CC information if I just want to try it?
A - When you want to check Horizons out with a 7 day preview you are still required to provide credit card information.
This is done by several gaming companies to give "importance" and traceability to the subscription, so to avoid lots of "batch made" try accounts and other bad practices I won't describe at full.
Q - Did AE recently change their billing company?
A - Yes, now they use iPay.
Q - What if I am uncomfortable at giving away CC information?
You should have several forms of payment available, CC being the fastest and most reliable.
If you really are bent on not giving away your CC data you could ask your bank to provide you a single use credit card (not available in all countries).
They work like regular CCs but have a number that expires after one usage.
Q - What about autobilling? Why it?
In the beginning all players had to re-introduce their billing as their subscription expired. Very often they ended up forgetting to renew it in time and had to wait off game for some time (even days) for the new application to go in effect.
After several requests AE created two billing systems: automatic and manual.
By default new accounts will automatically be billed forever their subscription.
I.e. if you subscribed for three months in advance, at the end of that period you'll be rebilled more three months (not just one).
In manual mode, which is activated by cancelling the subscription when it's near expiration, you have to everytime approve and fill in the data to be able to play again.
Q - How do I cancel? And I have been told it does not work, so I am shy of registering or even try the game out.
To cancel usually involves yourself pressing the cancel option in your billing page. You'll still be able to play until the end of the paid period.
If you don't feel like trusting the unsubscription you may:
- open https://www.ipaycs.com/and check your status / remove subscription.
- talk with your bank (I'd avoid this in favor ofusing iPay web sitebecause it's a less "clean" approach and some banks will ask you reasons etc.) to avoid any further paymentto AE or iPay.