Newcomer / Intro Transferring money (credits) to another player using the Fleet Carrier.

Hello everyone!
I haven’t been playing the game for very long, but I’ve already leveled up my ranks in the Federation and the Empire, purchased some "top-tier" ships, and experimented with them. I’ve also engaged in some combat with Thargoids and, in general, explored the core mechanics of the game (though not all of them!). Over this time, I’ve formed the impression that the game can be quite harsh on newcomers. This harshness isn’t so much about the difficulty of the gameplay itself, but rather the amount of time required to achieve any significant progress.

One of the major issues is that to truly free yourself from the burden of managing your fleet in Odyssey, you need to own a Fleet Carrier. However, to purchase one, you need to earn enough credits not only for the Carrier itself but also for its outfitting and upkeep. While the upkeep costs don’t seem as daunting, the thought of having to earn, by my estimates, at least 7 billion credits is quite intimidating. This brings me to a serious and pressing question.

Not long ago, I met someone on Discord, and we started chatting and playing together (we’re now in the same squadron). We’ve already built him a base in the new update, and he has a well-developed fleet along with his own Fleet Carrier. He offered to help me earn credits by simply sharing his with me. Here’s how he explained it: The process is based on trading through the Fleet Carrier. He sets up a commodity for sale at a low price, I buy it, and then immediately sell it back to him at a much higher price. We repeat this process a few times, and voilà—I have enough credits for my own Fleet Carrier, and even more.

I started looking into this, and on the surface, it seems like this might be punishable. However, when I tried to find information online, I kept coming across mentions of Real Money Trading (RMT) and how it’s against the EULA. After reviewing the EULA myself (both manually and with the help of ChatGPT), I couldn’t find any direct prohibition against transferring credits in this way. My friend claims that he’s shared credits like this before and that it’s perfectly legal. Personally, I’m leaning toward the idea that this is a "gray area." From the game’s perspective, it might be considered legal since it doesn’t directly violate the EULA, and the process fully utilizes in-game mechanics without exploiting glitches or bugs.

I also want to note that both my friend and I (after my own research) are aware of RMT and have no intention of getting banned for it. We’re not planning to exchange anything in the real world (except for spending time together in the game, LOL ^.^). He’s simply willing to share his credits with me, and I’m open to speeding up my progress a bit.

So, here’s the question: How legal is the process of "credit transfer" between players using a Fleet Carrier in Elite Dangerous, provided that neither player receives any form of real-world payment or compensation?
 
You and your friend could just avoid the loop aspect by you buying goods from a station at regular price and selling to his carrier at a higher price, it would be slower but would barely register any grey at all.
 
I do (did) this to give billions to my alt. He owns a FC now which I use for colonization. Mine is in use.

Something like meta alloy of grandiderite works best as they have a high value.
 
You'll need to ask FD for a definitive answer - and they won't give it here on the forums. Or just do it. You won't violate any laws, whatever you do, therefore it will be legal in any case. You may or may not violate the EULA, which is pretty much meeaningless since it essentiallly states that FD, like a real DM, can effectively do whatever they want (worst case, they might have to refund whatever you paid for the game...).
The problem is that the real world money transfer is basically impossible to prove either way if you involve two real people here (I do this to transfer credits between my alts, but they all belong to the same real world person).

If you want to ask FD directly, the best way would probably be through a service request - go through https://customersupport.frontier.co.uk/ and follow the links, then scroll down once you've reached the actual support page, there'll be a link to send a specific question. Can't give you the link, because FD is forcing me on the German site.
 
I do (did) this to give billions to my alt. He owns a FC now which I use for colonization. Mine is in use.

Something like meta alloy of grandiderite works best as they have a high value.
I'm considering doing this for a friend. He's a casual player and we want to do some combat together, so he needs to make a few credits to buy a decent ship.

I'm thinking I set buy order for Tritrium for 200%, he buys at a nearby station and then delivers it, goes back and gets more, etc. So far, so straightforward.

But what if after he sells me the Tritrium, I drop the price, he buys it back, then I immediately raise the price and he sells it again...lather, rinse repeat. Is that kind of what you did?
 
I'm considering doing this for a friend. He's a casual player and we want to do some combat together, so he needs to make a few credits to buy a decent ship.

I'm thinking I set buy order for Tritrium for 200%, he buys at a nearby station and then delivers it, goes back and gets more, etc. So far, so straightforward.

But what if after he sells me the Tritrium, I drop the price, he buys it back, then I immediately raise the price and he sells it again...lather, rinse repeat. Is that kind of what you did?
Yes but with a more expensive commodity
 
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