It's probably because when you register, you don't get any message telling you to check your emails for the activation link. The easiest will be to disable the activation of new accounts in the joomla configuration.
Concerning the payment methods, there must be something you're missing in the list of problems of the FAQ, otherwise, they would display. Could you please double check? If you don't see the <jdoc:include type="component" /> , then you should ask your template provider about the message tag.