FFXI making payment difficult

[spectacools]

I am a NA player who has a EU in-game friend who is leaving the game, possibly temporarily due to financial issues. They have asked me to hold onto their account for them for the time being; while I'm not sure of the ethics of this due to POL terms of service I know of many people that "take over" a friend's character when they leave the game, be it a short duration or permanently. The problem I am having is updating the payment info to be valid. I downloaded and installed the EU POL client, and attempted to change the payment information from theirs to mine. However, all that is available to change is the credit card number, and not the person's name or the name on the credit card to be used. Thus if I were to try to use my own credit card it would be declined since it would be their name (which is permanently locked by POL, it seems that the name of the person originally registered to POL cannot be changed) and my credit card number, which would not be valid, since the name and credit card number obviously must match. One solution suggested to me is to get a prepaid visa or mastercard gift card, those do not require a name, they can be blank, labeled with the name "Gift Card" or any other name a person wishes. The problem with that, I have found, is that most that are available in the US in stores are limited to be valid only in the United States, and cannot pay funds internationally. I have tried to pay using one that is "Valid only in the United States" but the EU POL client will not accept it. Those gift cards that can be used to pay internationally seem to need to be registered to a person's name and social security number and activated in such a manner as a normal credit card, and as a travel agent explained this is due to the patriot act which states:

The USA PATRIOT Act is a Federal law that requires all financial institutions to obtain, verify, and record information that identifies each person who opens an account. You will be asked to provide your name, address, date of birth, and other information that will allow us to identify you. You may also be asked to provide documentation as proof of identification. "100% Approval" and "No one is Turned Down" is contingent upon successfully passing this mandatory identification confirmation.

Thus buying a visa or mastercard gift card that is nameless, aka one POL will accept since game accounts are supposed to be "non-transferable" seems to me to only work if you are a NA player changing information on a NA account, and not EU. I have searched in vain for a method whereby I can pay for their FFXI, either temporarily or permanently. Having the money is not the issue for me, it is method of payment as POL seems to want to accept none (not my visa or mastercard, only one that is registered to original account creator, or one that is visa/mastercard gift card as those require no name). Someone must have had an issue like this before, is there anything I am unaware of regarding this matter? It seems ridiculous that a gift card is the only means I can find to make a payment, is this what everyone who keeps a friend's account does? If I am unable to find a means of payment that SE will accept to save their character for them or for myself, I may have to cancel the account which to my thoughts would be a waste should they return. Mainly this reduces to two questions I have:

1. Is it possible for another person to pay for an account using their own credit card, not one of the original account creator, and if so, how?
2. Is there a means of payment that a NA player can use to pay for a EU account if they are not the original account creator?

I'm sorry if the solution to this is obvious or posted elsewhere, but I have not figured it out. Any help would be appreciated.

[Niya]

Um... i haven't changed my payment info for ~1-2 years, but i'm 100% sure that account owner and CC owner are 2 different entries. My account (EU) is running on my name etc, but the CC is from a friend cause i don't have one...
it may not show up on the first screen where you have to type in the CC number, security code etc, but i'm quite sure that you can enter the CC owner data on the folowing screen.

[Day]

Yeah, so unless something is just completely different with the EU version, I dont see why you are having such a hard time. People change payment information all the time, I just did it the other day actually with my friends old account. Playonline > Service and Support > Payment something like that. Can you screenshot the screen you are at where you change the Payment info and post it here?

Maybe someone with an EU account would be a little more help, but it doesn't make sense you can change the card number and not the name.

[Robert]

When you change billing information even on the NA version now theres no place to put a name, just number/expiration/address/etc, I didn't really think twice about it..I just changed mine to another card with a different name than that on my POL account..so I don't know unless theres something different about EU POL because my friend who lives in Japan used his credit card to pay for my NA account before with no issue <_<