You may have already come across these two names for the in-game currency: UEC and aUEC. The difference between them is quite simple.
UEC
United Earth Credits are the currency that will come into the game after the official launch of Star Citizen, meaning version 1.0. You can see how much of it you’ll get at the start in your profile on the RSI website. Usually that matches the amount you get with your starter pack.
You get an extra 50,000 UEC on your account if you enter a referral code when creating your account. If you don’t have one, feel free to use mine: STAR-KQJM-Q44K
aUEC
Alpha UEC is the money you use now during the alpha. That way it’s clearly separate from UEC, the money you’ll get at the official launch.
After a database reset, which can theoretically happen with any patch, your aUEC are wiped together with everything you’ve bought in-game, and you get aUEC equal to your UEC balance.
For a small fee, you can transfer aUEC to a friend via your mobiGlas.
Can you buy aUEC?
No. There’s no way to buy aUEC for real money in the store. So everything you own in the game, you’ve either flown for or worked for.
The only exceptions are the starting credit from your game package and the 50,000 credits for the referral code. You get both once at the start, and after that it’s: earn it yourself.
REC
A less well-known currency is REC, Rental Equipment Credits. You get them by playing Arena Commander. You also get a fixed amount every month as long as you have a Star Citizen subscription.
With REC you can rent ships or ship equipment in Arena Commander and try them out at your leisure. Afterwards you can decide whether you really want to spend aUEC or even real money on them.
Store Credits
You get store credit when you melt a ship or game package you bought from your hangar. You can use the credit to pay for new purchases in the RSI store, as long as they’re not warbond. You’ll find more information on the Pledge Store page.