I tried prepaid Visa cards - paid for them in cash at Walgreens - no id needed so far so good  

Then I go to SA to pay - turns out the form needs a billing address etc . I send a customer service request and they say to call a number to pay maybe easier - ok  

I call that number , give them card number, expiration, CVV code , card declined !  

Turns out I need to activate the card online . Ok so I go online, apparently green dot needs a real social security number and birthdate ? I tried putting in a random set, and red error came up . What’s the point of the card if I can’t use it anonymously- don’t get it  

Then I read up about PayPal debit - seemed interesting - again the fine print says ID verification needed

Did the laws change recently to make all this so difficult? I mean is there no way I can conceal my true identity while paying for SA membership- I don’t want the risk of Ashley Madison like hack and my details exposed

 I have created a separate card for booking hotels etc that will be away from prying eyes of my wife but I can always explain a hotel charge if caught. I could never explain my info showing up on SA if caught - that’s the problem  

Lot of you good folks don’t need secrecy and I get that . But ppl with need for discretion and significant others, how have you dealt w it so far . I have everything ready to go (pics , profile etc) , just need to figure out a damn way to pay truly anonymously  

Thanks all

Prepaid master card (prepaidgiftbalance.com) / registered it first / then renewed - no problem

Dude, go buy a Vanilla Visa card. Use it to pay SA, make up a name and address and you'll be fine. I've been doing it that way for a long time. Vanilla card doesn't need to be activated and it's accepted (I think it's the only prepaid that's accepted from SA) without issue.

Not of immediate help to you, but TER is one of many companies that allows payment via anonymous Gift Cards. TER uses a third party company that monetizes GCs and pays TER on your behalf ... and takes a cut.  TER uses PayGarden, I think.  
http://www.paygarden.com/
"Join the $45 billion garden of gift card payments. Accept payments for your business using major brand gift cards. Give your customers a convenient new way to pay." Let me add "... convenient new ANONYMOUS way to pay."
.
You buy $100 GC at brick and mortar store for $100 cash.
You sell $100 GC to PG (via a link from your anonymous TER name) and get, e.g., $75.  
PG automatically credits the $75 to TER (via your original anonymous payment link) and you get VIP days.
PG sells the "$100" GC to others at a discount, e.g., $85.
PG makes $10 (minus expenses) on the deal.  
(I made up the 100 - 75 - 85 numbers. I don't know that actual percentages.)
.
Ask SA to cut a deal with a GC monetization company and tell them their memberships will grow a lot.  
.
Good luck.

When did you last do this?

First, you may be asking the wrong question. But I'll get back to that after I answer it.  

 
Here is a list of groups that want to make anonymous payments:  
- Terrorists
- Drug lords and drug cartels
- Money launderers
- Russian Oligarchs
- Spies
- Pedophiles
- Mafia  
- Sugar Daddies

 
Do you see the inherent problem yet?  The US and most of the world's governments have enacted serious regulations and laws for banks, payment systems, money transmitters, merchants and other value-exchange systems around detecting and preventing illegal use of funds in furtherance of crimes. These laws require that all participants actively work to enforce these rules and attach severe civil and criminal penalties to those who don't do their part. This includes every player in the funding process including merchants/business.  That means no anonymous payments that would allow a bad actor to hide their identity or activity.  

 
As a merchant, SA is required to comply with those rules. In addition, it is (now) not in their best business interests to support anonymous members, as they have been working very hard to shift their public persona to a "legitimate dating site" and not a thinly veiled marketplace for hookers and johns. So expecting them to welcome you "Mr. Smith" with a wink and a nod to your no-name gift card is no longer reasonable. Yes, it's possible to find a way, but as I suggested at the start of my reply, you are trying to solve the wrong problem.  

 
Your question may be better stated as: How can I protect myself from being exposed from an SA data breach or from my SO/Family/Workplace/etc. finding my Sugar activity?

 
I don't share that risk; not married, no family, retired. So I'm not an expert on hiding my sugar life or mongering.  But I can suggest the following:  

 
Set up a new checking account with a debit card at a new bank.  Open it with cash. Don't use your home address - try a PO Box, or office address. Use your burner phone number and email if you have one. Get a Debit card not a credit card, so there is no credit bureau inquiry. Deposit cash through an ATM, or if no one sees your paycheck stubs, set up a direct deposit from your work paycheck so the funds never appear in your regular account.    

 
If SA gets compromised, your data will only map back to the sugar bank account.  It won't stop a serious identity thief, but if you are targeted by a "pro" criminal, your sugar life being exposed is the least of your problems.  

 
Others here may have better techniques. But maybe I've helped you approach the problem from a different point of view.

 
Life is good

 
The Cat

early January

Still not a perfect solution, but can the intermediaries, e.g., PayGarden, assume some responsibility for distinguishing between "Discount Terrorist Missiles, Inc." and "Seeking"? I.e., PG will choose NOT to do biz with Terrorist Missiles, Inc. but can choose to work with Seeking and TER. If PG makes a transfer from PG to "Terrorists? Not Us!" and it is detected by US LE who  alert PG to that, PG can terminate that relationship. Right?  
.
Also, isn't there a big diff between 2000 x $100 transfers per year from all over the US and 10 $20,000 transfers per year?  
.
Here's another suggestion / question for the OP. If you take a trip to Canada or Mexico, will an anonymous Visa or MC work from there? "I'm an anonymous Canadian. US LE can't touch me here." or "I'm an anonymous Mexican. US LE can't touch me here." From what countries can you make anonymous payments? Add it to your vacation or business travel agenda.

Good questions, Imp

 
Starting with the Patriot Act, the current laws tag ALL participants in the payment chain as responsible for monitoring all transactions for possible bad actors. One of the mandated aspects is that all players must "know your customer" (KYC), and they must actively confirm that customer is not on the OFAC SDN list. (Look it up if you want a cure for insomnia.)  

 
As an example, if a customer is named Osama Bin Laden presented you a credit card you would be required to halt the sale, freeze the funds if possible, alert the Treasury Dept./Secret Service using an SAR (look it up as well) and NOT tell the customer why you are doing any of these actions.  If you neglected to try to identify your customer and it later turns out you let OBL buy, say 50 gallons of chemicals, or launder money through your business, you will be fined and imprisoned.  Seems a bit burdensome to the business, right? The US Government does not care.  

 
So most business choose to er on the side of compliance, or at least avoid being out of compliance.  How is SA to know that one "anonymous" customer is a married man stepping out or is Osama Bin Laden using the site for passing anonymous coded messages between him and his covert operatives? Note that after 9/11, business that use a phone management service (ACD/Voicemail) were informed that one of the methods the terrorists involved used to communicate was to hack corporate phone systems and leave voice mail messages on live, but unassigned extensions. These went unnoticed and were deleted after the recipient picked up their instructions.  Now all such phone systems require a unique password on each live extension.  

 
Next, amount vs frequency:  The short answer to this is total amount over time and ongoing patterns matter.  

 

Life is good (if a bit complicated)

 
The Cat

I suppose in some camps they are approximately equal.

lol

I posted this in the last thread that asks this same question.  Vanilla cards work fine, so do Walmart pre-paid Visa cards of all things.  Buy the card, then go online and register it to an address nearby.  Don't use yours, and don't use your name.  There is no verification of either of these things.  I use a house number that doesn't even exist on a nearby street.  I joined two weeks ago with this method (WalMart card) and it worked fine, as it has for the past six years.  According to other threads on here, make sure the billing address is somewhere close to the city/zip you registered your account with.  My experience is they do NOT need to be the same, but I do use adjacent or nearly adjacent zips.

The issue is not SA, nor any of the other stuff posted here, it has to do with SA's CC processor.  Based on the original site, I don't think any major processor wanted to work with them so it is some fringe processor that is known to handle gray area business and therefore, not always approved.

Thanks to all for the great detailed replies - you guys are the best discussion group on TER by far  

So I tried this new thing called PayPal key - it is like an online type debit card linked to a bank of your choice . I opened an account at Marcus bank (thanks for the idea herbcat) and connected it to PayPal key - this way even if anyone gets a hold of this key , the damage is limited to the amount in the new bank act (limited size )  

Then I tried to use PayPal key to buy vanillla gift card . Transaction declined - called vanilla and they said it was at my end - so I am going to call PayPal today and ask them why. If all else fails I will try the Walmart card method later today  

But having this separation between PayPal key (which has my real info) and SA (which will only have the gift card ) I think is important. Not only for spousal reasons but also for work / professional reasons imo

I remembered another service that TER used to use: TrustCash.
.
http://www.theeroticreview.com/discussion-boards/newbie---faq-33/trustcash-pp-gc--165763?frmSearch=1#165763
TER used TrustCash for a while and then stopped. It's an anon payment system. The Vendor (TER) issues some kind of coded money transfer slip. You then go into almost any bank and pay cash at the Teller window with the codes. Your cash goes to TrustCash who then transfer it to the recipient (TER). No paper trail for the payer and anonymity for both parties. I have no idea how much the service costs or if it's available to infrequent, "I'm a low volume Provider" users.  
.
I don't think that that TrustCash exists any more. I guess that business model didn't work out. But you get the idea.
.
Another one of my old posts / great ideas, from when BackPage was still around: Replace BackPage / BP with Seeking / SA in the quote, below:
.
http://www.theeroticreview.com/discussion-boards/newbie---faq-33/money-order-wire-transfer-bitcoin-trustcash-cash-deposit-account-and-maybe--148138?frmSearch=1#148138
Money Order? Wire transfer? Bitcoin? TrustCash? Cash Deposit Account? And maybe ...
.
I read someplace else that BP might establish a mailing address to which to send money (checks, money orders) for deposit into a BP account and then the user can draw on that balance to pay for BP ads (only).  Like an account-based gift card.
.
How about this: Everybody is establishing their own credit or debit card systems.  I forget all the names: Walmart Blue Card?  Walgreen's, Target, CVS, ... they mostly use the existing MC/Visa/AE banking structure.  How about this: BP contracts with a bank (non-US, if necessary) to manage the BP Credit/Debit Card.  You load it up with cash (just like a regular cash-based card) at a local checkout counter and use it like you would a regular cash based card (to buy lube from the drugstore) AND you also use it to pay for BP services without blockage.  As BP ad space dies a slow death, BP builds up their "financial services" division and becomes the next GE Capital.  The next thing you know, BP International Hotels, BP Airlines, BP Transportation Services, BP Fashions and Fragrances, Inc., they buy Toyota and become BP-Toyota, ..

Hasn’t worked in Forever.  Sorry.

Are you retarded?

You need to understand that SA is not TER.  That would eliminate half of the retarded responses.  Just saying.

It isn’t going to work. Sorry.  I used to use Blur, but it no longer works either.

If you succeed with a gift card, congratulations.  Almost (maybe 100%) require an ID to buy 300+, which seems to be the amount that you can “activate “ online with an address.

Logging in from abroad is also stupid, as everyone has. VPN now.

Ashley got hacked, and SA will eventually get hacked.  If you survived Ashley, then pucker up, as you will need to survive SA hack as well.  I am holding out, but considering risk on again.  Pussy has that effect. lol.

Remember I called SA to pay using vanilla and they said the card was declined ? I assumed it was because of the 24h waiting period so didn’t get alarmed  

Next morning , I decide to check vanilla website to see if I can figure out whether I still need to activate my card - and I was in for a shock  

My card had already been drained by someone at a seven eleven that morning and now was nearly empty WTF !!

Mind you this is a legit vanilla card , purchased for cash at a legit busy Walmart in the LA metro area, not at some rando gas station in the middle of nowhere  

So now I call the vanilla support line - on hold for like 40 mins then finally get someone - they first refuse to believe me - my name is somewhat unique (mixed ancestry) , and I can totally see they are used to snubbing immigrants who rely on these cards. I think the support line person was also not US based. Anyways I pull out my angry American routine, and he finally agrees to let me file a “complaint” and I get sent a shitty basic complaint form (looks like someone typed it up on their home pc) to fill out w my details and send back .  

I almost feel like rather than compromise myself further w this crap outfit by handing them more sensitive info, I am better off writing off the 110 dollars as a “loss in pursuit of mongering “  

But I am done w f king around w prepaid cards. The problem is PayPal key or any other debit card won’t work without me handing over my billing address on SA website  

So the choice is clear - take the risk of your home address and name being exposed if SA ever goes through an Ashley Madison like hack.  

Maybe that’s a risk worth taking since i am just tired of the provider routine and want a bit more excitement in my life since I am still fit / relatively young , and also have time $ to spend at this stage in my life

But boy, they sure make it hard now to remain anonymous , don’t they ? Lol

I'll just gently comment that while "...they sure make it hard now to remain anonymous , don’t they ?"  the have never intended to make it easy to remain anonymous - ever.  

 
Life is good

 
The Cat

Lol y they always did I agree - esp after 2001 patriot act and more so now after the Panama papers fiasco from a few years ago.  

Nonetheless I think the bowl is totally worth a shot , you only live once and if I chicken out now I will never forgive myself later when I am no longer even capable of engaging in such activity!  

I will report back in a few weeks my experience - stay tuned