Nico Nico Guide II : Getting a Paid Account

[fascinates]

While Nico Nico Douga can be enjoyed even with a non-premium account, it is definitely a much better experience to have a premium account. There are a lot of benefits, not to mention you can enter namahousou which are hard to view. Here are some of the benefits of having a paid account:

1. Paid users are given the priority os they can avoid congestion in watching both video uploads and straming.
2. During busy, congested times, the quality of the videos are lowered (economy mode) so non-premium members can still watch the video/stream although in low-res. As a paid user, you can avoid watching in economy mode.
3. A free user can mylist only up to 100 videos. A premium user can mylist 12,500 ^^;.
4. You can turn off announcements from games and surveys while watching videos.
5. Non-premium members can only use 10 colors for comments. Paid users can use any in hexadecimal form.
6. You can preserve/add to memories interesting comments (up to 250). Regular users can only memory 50 comments.
7. When a video has too many views, the earliest comments disappear under the newer ones. As a premium user, you can review those old, erased comments. A regular user cannot.
8. Even if a namahousou/live broadcast is full, you can still enter it even if you are viewing it late.
9. Even without timeshift reservations, you can watch any timeshifted namahousou for 7 days.
10. You can reserve up to 30 namahousou with timeshift. A regular user only has 10 slots for reservation.
... and a lot more.

This is a guide to getting a paid account in Nico Nico Douga. Note that since we cannot use credit cards (the site only accepts Japanese credit cards, it seems), we're going to use Webmoney. Many thanks to aserett and yueqian for teaching me this method and helping me with my first premium registration last year :).



Since we are using WebMoney, we have to do this the hard way in three steps:
1) buying webmoney prepaid credits;
2) enrolling it in a webmoney wallet; and
3) paying for the paid account.

1) You can buy webmoney prepaid credits online. They work like a normal Internet shop but instead of shipping you the card, they will just e-mail you the code within 48 hours. Webmoney merchants are all over the Internet, although not all of them are trustworthy. The merchant I use is sutocorp. You can buy credits using their cart and their guide, and they will e-mail you the credits. For first time users, they will need to see proof of your name and address so you need to send them a scanned ID or document indicating your address/name. You are free to erase any other info on the document, like your picture or government-related numbers. Anyway, the site is in English and is easy to understand.

2) Before you go about paying for your Nico Nico Douga account, you need to make an account at Webmoney. So go to the website

a. Click the "new account" link at the menu on the top.




b. You'll be asked to choose which kind of web wallet would you like. Choose the second one since it has the prepaid charging options.




c. Fill out the form using this translated screencap. After that, you might need to read the terms and agreement and click on a confirmatory email, like with most websites. After that, you're ready to use your web wallet.

note: Be careful with the secure password thingy (the 4-number password). The letters corresponding to the numbers sometimes change, so make sure you remember the number set, not the letters.


d. Log in using your new password and username.






e. You will see your wallet menu at the right side of your screen. The points there correspond to the points you have already charged in the wallet. Of course, you won't have any points yet, so you need to click the "charge" button (encircled in red) to input the prepaid number you got from your Webmoney merchant.




f. Type in the 16-digit number in the four boxes and click the "charge" button.




g. You will get a confirmatory message asking if you are sure you want to charge this prepaid code into the wallet. The code and the amount will appear on the message. Click the confirmation button (encircled in red) to charge.




h. Your code is now charged and you can use it to pay for your premium account!


3) To get a premium account, you need to log in to your account and check the top bar. Beside the link to your mylist, you will see a yellow link leading to the premium payment options. Click on it.

i. You will arrive at a page listing options you can use to pay. Unless you live in Japan, you cannot use most of these, except for webmoney. Click the very small webmoney link at the bottom of all the options. Note that you have to pay 1680JPY compared to the advertised 525JPY. This is because if you use the Webmoney option, you have to pay for three months paid time instead of the usual one month.



You might see an alternate page (for those refreshing their paid accounts, especially), but just the same, click the webmoney option.




j. Choose the Webmoney option.




k. You will be given asked to confirm your payment. Click the rightmost button to continue.




l. It's a bit more complicated if you try paying suggested way, so click the button below to just access your Webmoney wallet from the site.




m. You will be asked to log in to your Webmoney wallet account, just like in the Webmoney site itself. You need to input your user/password as well as your secure password.




n. Click the orange button to pay using the points in your Webmoney wallet.




o. You will know that you have sucessfully paid for your account if you see this message.





Congratulations! Your account is now premium and you have the access to a lot of privileges for three months. Just a warning though, once you get a premium account, you might not be able to use a regular account again, especially if you like listening to namahousou ^^;.

Comments

[frodoshopuser.livejournal.com]

5. Videos are automatically replayed in paid accounts. In non-premium accounts, you have to click the play option again

. . . really ? >< Like, there's a button for replay next to the comment button, right ? Is it that ? Because I can replay videos without premium membership.

[fascinates]

Thanks for the information, I don't know how it goes for non-premium accounts, tbh ;;.

But in the premium vs free table, it's written that automatic playback is only available in premium accounts. I guess I misread it then. Sorry about that.

you can use PayPal now

[(Anonymous)]

Hey I just registered as Premium^v^, but instead of WebMoney I use PayPal, just to update this to you since you might want to include this in your article!^v^

Re: you can use PayPal now

[fascinates]

Yup. I'm in the long process of -how to put that extra info in or should i make another post- movement XD;. Thank you for the heads up anyway :3

And congrats on being premium! It's...you can never live without it again. Probably /shot XD

[(Anonymous)]

hello,
I have a question. I just made a nico nico account but accidentally pressed the premium account button. Do you know if there's a possibility on getting a changing your account options to a non-premium account?

[stephieku]

Are you sure you made a premium account? If you did, you would be asked to pay and your top menu should say "Premium user (プレミアム会員)" like this http://i56.tinypic.com/16c52lj.png

If that is the case, if you want to cancel
If you paid through webmoney and do 3-month subscriptions, if you stop paying your account fees, once your subscription runs out, you will be back to non-prem. There's probably a way to cancel right away, but I don't know of it and you probably wouldn't be refunded for the money you paid for the subscription.

If you're on monthly auto-pay (i.e. through Paypal), turning off the auto-pay function will instantly turn your account back to non-prem.

[(Anonymous)]

Question!

Can you pay other than webmoney?

Sorry if I can't read....I suck.

Any other payment method? if you could list them it would help me a lot :3

[stephieku]

For international uses, you can pay by Paypyal and some credit cards!

However for the credit card option, not all cards work. For Paypal, the only option is th month auto-pay option. You cannot use the 3-month subscription option, I think..

[(Anonymous)]

I am using Paypal to pay for premium account for hmm a LIVE concert last March, so now I want to cancel my premium acc, how to turn off the auto pay?

[varavi]

http://imageshack.us/m/844/6435/ppcancel.png

Note: once you cancel, your premium is canceled at the same time, so if you just paid for the last month, it would be better to wait until the end of the month to cancel.

[(Anonymous)]

I'm trying to pay through Paypal, but every time I get to the Paypal screen, it tells me to add a credit card to my Paypal account. Is there any way I can pay without doing that?

[stephieku]

Hmmm...will it let you add a bank account? It uses autopay, so I'm not sure if it's credit card only

Premium Account Questions

[(Anonymous)]

I have purchased a premium account today through paypal method (525jpy/m) and was wondering if it either charges money the beginning of every month or every 30 days after I paid for premium membership.

Re: Premium Account Questions

[stephieku]

I think it's every 30 days after you paid for premium!

[scottish-lilly.livejournal.com]

Wah!Great guid!!!!Helped me tons!さすがよね！（*´▽｀*）
I ran into a little hitch and I'm gonna try going on a limb and asking here (as I anxiously await the reply from suto):I know I was supposed to receive a 16 digit code via mail...but for some reason mine is alphanumerical!

Have you ever heard of this happening before?Or maybe the mail has some wacky encodng that my computer isn't reading right...does that even make sense?

[stephieku]

Hello! I'm not sure what you mean long as they're 16 letters, go ahead and try inputting them!

For example one of mine starts with eb62uyhq.... (I cut off half so no one can redeem it) If that's what you mean by alphanumeric, I think it should be fine :)

[(Anonymous)]

This was really helpful! I just wanted to know, is there any way to gift a premium account to someone? I mean like in dA, in whicch you can buy a premium account for X user

[fascinates]

Hello!

Right now, I don't think there's a way to do that, unfortunately. There are other ways, like giving him/her webmoney instead. But I don't know if any straight way to gift premium time ^^;

[(Anonymous)]

When we get the premium account, & post a bunch more videos that a non premium can't, when we cancel, would the videos be all deleted? or are we just not allowed to post anymore?

[stephieku]

I'm not sure about this, but I think you won't be able to post more..
I'll try finding out from people who upload videos. However, for communities, you're given a 1 month's notice to reduce your number of communities, so it's possible there might be similar rules. I'm not sure, sorry :(

??

[(Anonymous)]

i just payed for a premium account using paypal, but after i went back to the nico nico douga page it still said i was a normal member...
do you need to wait a few days for it to start? I tried logging out and logging in again...but it still said im a 一般会員 ;__;
please help ;__;

Re: ??

[stephieku]

I'm not too sure, I'd wait a day or so. It might take a bit for the Paypal transfer to get through/be approved, but I don't think I've had that problem with other monthy-payments with other sites. I also pay for premium using a paypal account, but I don't remember how long it took it to work. >< Good luck!

Question from a stupid one

[(Anonymous)]

I know this is a stupid question, but if you use a credit card, does it automatically deduct from your credit card or when your Premium account ends, or you end it, you have to pay the accumulated amount? Say, I used for 10 months, does that mean on my next credit card billing I'll pay the 5250 yen? or 525 per month? Cause- I- Uh- I'm sorry :<

That confuses me a lot, and I've been frantic about it.

Re: Question from a stupid one

[fascinates]

Hi! Unfortunately, I don't think you can pay directly by credit card unless you have your card linked to Paypal. If you are enrolled to Paypal and you use it to pay for your premium, it will deduct the fee monthly, I think! It will continue like that until you stop your automatic payments.

I haven't used Paypal since it doesn't work in my card, but I'm quite sure this is how it goes.

[(Anonymous)]

i'm sorry that i'm asking a stupid question but...
what's the 16 digit thingy?><
is it the numbers below the "points?"
it's more than 16 digits..>

[fascinates]

Yep. It's the set of letters and numbers beside/below the points.

[(Anonymous)]

Does the premium membership charge at the beginning of each month or right when you pay for it(28-30 days for a month)?

[(Anonymous)]

Just read the comments above, and wanted to clarify it a bit better. ^^"

Like, does the premium start, then you pay at the beginning of each month? OR do you have to wait? I'm so confused. OTL

[(Anonymous)]

I've been hearing that if you pay for premium, you'll also get 4,000 points. Is that correct?

[stephieku]

Hmmmm... this is the first time I've heard that. It's possible that there's a special promotion or something, but that sounds a bit too high for getting prem which is worth 500 points. Often prem members get discounted tickets though.

[(Anonymous)]

Just wanna ask~ since I don't have a paypal account so I ask a forum member to help me purchase the premium but he cancel the recurring payment. Does that cancel the whole premium account? since I waited more than a day or so, and still a free member status but the 525 yen is already charged. please help! XD

[stephieku]

Unfortunately PayPal is only recurrent payments so your premium membership is canceled immediately after you remove the PayPal or credit card account :( I recommending buying webmoney instead of using a PayPal account if you only want to use premium for 1 month

Could you get a free premium account?

[(Anonymous)]

Is it possible to not use money and get a premium anccount on nico?

Re: Could you get a free premium account?

[stephieku]

A premium account is a paid account. Someway or another, you will have to pay for it.

RE:economy hours and buffering speed

[(Anonymous)]

Hello, thank you for this wonderful guide! I'll be able to get a prem account shortly using webmoney.

Btw, I have a question regarding to economy hours and buffering speed.
From what I heard, during economy mode, the buffering speed will be faster than normal hours. This is due to use of low bandwidth as a result of buffering low quality videos.
So since I have a prem account, during economy mode I will be watching without suffering from low quality videos.
However, my question is: during economy mode, will my buffering speed be slower compared to other free users since I'm watching it on high/normal quality? Or will I able to get fast buffering speed as well as good quality videos?

Thank you, help would be appreciate it.

Re: economy hours and buffering speed

[stephieku]

To be honest, I'm not sure. I haven't tested it myself, but it seems like both premium and free users will be slower during times of traffic, but should buffer about the same. The video quality will be different of course.

Although another friend of mine said economy is usually faster since the quality is pretty bad...

[(Anonymous)]

Hmmm, I see.

Well looks like I'll have to test it and found out whether if its slow or not for perm accounts.

It's probably true as buffering low quality videos takes a little amount of time compared to normal/high quality videos due to use of small bandwidth.

[(Anonymous)]

So I just paid for the premium account and they charged me but I'm still a free member? Wtf. The transaction also doesn't appear in my paypal history at all. I was googling to see if people experienced similiar problems but found nothing. It's not my first time buying premium either, I already bought it like 4 or 5 times before and never had any problems. Do you think I'm screwed?

[stephieku]

I've heard this happen before. How long has it been? It might take a bit for the transaction to go through PayPal.

Question

[(Anonymous)]

So, niconico have changed their options now, and if you want to see niconico in English you have to use United States as your region, but you can't pay using WebMoney like that, but when you put Japan as your region you will be able to use whatever way to pay, so anyway I wanna use WebMoney to pay, can I shit to Japan, pay the fees, and then switch to United states again, and will I still have the premium account, cause I can't understand things in Japanese, and I'm just not used to it, it would be a great help if you can answer my question :D

Re: Question

[stephieku]

I'm not familiar with the new changes, but so far I can still change my language to English even though my region is set to Japan. I am still able to switch regions too. It doesn't seem like my premium account is affected.

Can you still access this menu on the bottom? http://i.imgur.com/FHrUUmh.png
If you can't change the region or language from this menu, please let me know.

[(Anonymous)]

Hello, I heard premium account can watch region restricted videos, is that true? There are so many nico namahousou I want to watch, but most of it are region-locked.

[stephieku]

In my experience this is not true. You would need a proxy to bypass the ip restriction. There are some broadcasts that are premium member locked, but I haven't been able to get into any of the region restricted ones.

May I know how to make a paid subscription to an account?

[(Anonymous)]

I have been struggling upon trying to find out how can I subscribe to this account. http://www.nicovideo.jp/watch/1390470588?ref=search_key_video

It kept saying that my card can't be used but it isn't true.
I tried both of my debit cards and maybe I don't understand some of the instructions.
May I know whether I have any other ways to subscribe? Thank you ^^

Re: May I know how to make a paid subscription to an account?

[stephieku]

This is similar to buying a premium subscription, only credit cards with triple/additional verification can work. I don't think debit cards will work. Unfortunately it doesn't seem like there are any non-JP alternatives as it seems like Webmoney services aren't offered for subs :( I think you will have to find someone with a credit card.

Paid Premium

[(Anonymous)]

Hi,
I'm a content creator and I was wondering if I can still get paid for my content even though I have a free membership. In other words, do I have to have a paid membership to get income for the videos I create? Thanks

Re: Paid Premium

[stephieku]

I do not know anything about shared ad revenue on Niconico. It sounds like a newer feature.