I just registered with Universe and Patro.

I do it occasionally. The reason is that I want to increase my all-time offer count on Universe Club. I’m currently at around 200 and aiming for 300. Since there are idiots like me, I don’t think there’s any one answer when someone asks, “Why?” This is beside the point, but a friend of mine is wondering: “Are Darling’s comments approved by the club rather than by the writer?” P.S. Since letter dates seem to be getting painted as something bad, I’ll give a serious answer. Sorry to bring up my friend again, but they wrote a column called “Letter Date Etiquette,” so try looking it up and giving it a read. Give the woman the setting fee you saved. That’s where a letter date really begins. If you simply tell her, “This is for the letter date,” and send her the money, she’ll be happy, and you’ll get a step ahead of the other papas. For the record, I’ve given a woman ¥100,000 for a letter date alone. Since you can’t send money through patolo, unless there’s a particularly good reason, I usually steer things toward a letter date and give her the money there. Of course, I want to support Universe Club, but the woman comes first. If you keep the setting fee down by half and give the amount you saved to the woman, she’ll be happy, right? It’s really disappointing that people only think about themselves and end up with the idea that “letter dates are cheap.” I always put women first. Writing this might give away my identity, which is a bit awkward, but I felt like saying my piece.

I imagine they’re trying to save on the offer fee, but since only Black members can use Letter Dates, you could take it positively and assume the offer is definitely coming from a Black member. The offer fees through Patro and by letter aren’t that different, but as I mentioned before, there are women who are Platinum on Universe and Black on Patro. Looking only at the offer fee, it can actually be cheaper to make the offer through Universe, so that may be the reason. Hope this helps.

Because the setting fee is cheaper for a letter date. A letter date costs half the regular setting fee, so the amount you have to pay the club is reduced accordingly. However, with a letter date, the arrangement is considered complete once the man and woman have exchanged one message each. In other words, even if the woman ultimately doesn’t meet him, the club may not have to refund the setting fee. Some men occasionally complain because they don’t understand this. They simply fail to realize that a letter date is completed through the exchange of messages, and that the fee is set at half price because there’s no guarantee they’ll actually get to meet the woman. Of course, the woman also needs to have a valid reason, such as gradually becoming uncomfortable with the content of the emails. But as you exchange messages, you can sometimes get a sense of the other person’s personality, so in those cases, I think the man is simply at fault. One thing to keep in mind is that someone who tries to save money on the setting fee may also be likely to offer a low allowance. If he invites you to a hotel, make sure to confirm that the allowance is acceptable to you. P.S. The comments on your column seem to take a long time to get approved. Comments on the column aren’t moderated and should appear immediately after being posted. Are you referring to comments on an older column? I wonder if comments on older columns are still subject to moderation. It’s also possible that server caching is delaying their appearance. Server caching can cause problems, so I’ve asked them to disable it, but they keep coming up with various reasons not to. It’s frustrating.

It’s obvious that they’re trying to save on the setup fee, but would knowing that really help you, the person asking? That said, only black-tier members can request a letter date. So I think it’s more likely that they’re not actually trying to save on the allowance.

One of them is probably just cheaper. I don’t think it has anything to do with the allowance amount. Comments on the columns take a while to get approved, don’t they? P.S. I just commented on Mac’s latest column, and it looks like it may still take about two days to be approved. I don’t really mind if it’s slow, but five years ago, discussions in the comments would immediately continue for dozens of posts, so it feels a little lonely. I guess I’m a longtime member now. P.P.S. I posted a comment on the column before noon, and it’s already been approved. Two days was an exaggeration—it was half a day. Sorry.

Not everyone does this, but using a letter date is the cheapest option when it comes to the introduction fee. Whether the goal was specifically to keep the fee down is something only they would know.

Only she knows the real answer, but I can think of reasons such as wanting to use up her remaining balance at Universe Club, or wanting to use Universe Club because she contacted their staff.