Rapidshare have just released information on a new payment structure.
http://rapidshare.com/news.html
I'm not sure whether they could have made it any more fucking complicated if they'd tried. I presume they've made it so, in order to disguise the fact that they'll be charging more if you share over 50GB of data.
If you want to continue with a premium RS account that allows you to download data as premium user, the packages work out as follows:
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RapidSmall: If you only want to download a max of 1GB per day, it'll cost you around £1.23 per month. The maximum size of the files you can store is 10GB.
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RapidMedium: If you want to download up to 5GB per day it'll cost you around £6.14 a month. This is more than their current monthly charge which is around £4 or less depending on whether you paid per month or per quarter. It also means that you can only share 50GB.
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RapidBig: If you want to download more than 5GB per day, or crucially, have over 50Gig in your account (and under 200Gig) as I expect a lot of the main RS uploaders on this forum do, its going to be expensive - around £24 per month.
Collectors accounts are going to be automatically converted into premium accounts
"thus making it still possible to use the RapidShare service without charge". I assume this means that its possible to have a free premium account where you can still share data, but only be able to download as a free user. I can't see any information on whether there's a maximum storage limit on a free premium account, but it can't be larger than the 10GB that the cheapest payment option allows.
I guess all the RS uploaders will have rapid points that they can convert and in doing so acquire a reasonable level or credit to pay for one of the packages for a period of time.
I'm not sure what will happen if you currently have more than 50GB in your account. Will they automatically convert your 'Rapids' that you obtain from your current rapid points, into a RapidBig package at the cost of 78 'rapids' per day? Or will they allow you to choose your package, and if so and you only decide to pay for their RapidMedium service, what will happen given that you'll have in excess of 50GB? Or maybe if you have in excess of 50GB the only packages you can opt for will the RapidBig or larger.
Personally, I like other members have enough RS points to convert into their new 'rapid' currency to last me for some time with a RapidMedium package. I don't intend to use my newly converted 'rapids' to pay for a RapidBig package, so if needed will reduce the amount I share via RS to 50GB or less.
I don't know if they'll automatically convert premium users' current rapidpoints into their new currency, so in case they don't, make sure you check and convert them yourself - and soon (you've until July 6th). For some, I'd guess your points will equate to 1 or 2 years worth of a free RapidMedium package.