Microsoft does not want my money

[Marek]

Alright, so I moved from Holland to the UK a few months back. Microsoft does not like this. Microsoft, a multinational corporation, cannot deal with the fact that I emigrated to another country.

I have a Dutch Xbox Live account. Now when I try to add Microsoft Points, it displays the cost in GBP (fair enough), but doesn't accept my Dutch or my UK credit card anymore. I guess I'm meant to be using my Dutch creditcard as my account is Dutch, but I'm guessing since it's not asking for euros it's causing problems there. And my UK credit card won't be accepted because the associated street address is not in Holland.

So I tried changing my account's locale, but this is not possible. That's right, you can't change the locale of your account.

I searched around and it's a known problem. If you call MS they'll tell you to bugger off and create a new Xbox Live account for the country you are in, which of course means losing your friend list, gamerscore, achievements, etc.

This is retarded. I am here, credit card in hand, READY TO PAY A COMPANY MONEY, which they are refusing. I am in fact unable to play Braid because of this dogshit.

Why does Microsoft not want my money? Are they afraid I'll buy Microsoft Points in another currency and lose them a slight amount of money? Oh no, think of the children!

Fuck them.

[eljay]

Can you perhaps buy a points card in a game shop and redeem that to your account? Most companies utterly fail at being truly international, they really need to get with the times!

[Marek]

What I've been able to find out so far is that for gold subscription extensions this does not work. Whether it works for MS point cards I don't know, but I kinda doubt it. Otherwise people could buy points in whatever currency is the cheapest and then sell it on eBay...

[toblix]

I know how you feel, Marek. Stupid policies that ruin something awesome suck.

[twmac]

I had this problem in Canada when my profile was linked to a UK address. I ended up sticking to having an online only profile that I used (up until four weeks ago) to play over Xbox LIVE and my normal account which I used for achievements and genrally staying in touch with people.

You might be able to get one of your friends to get you a subscription card, or MS points card from Holland and send it over. It might be risky but it worked for me.

I agree that it is a shoddy thing for Microsoft to do, like how some people's random achievements disappear after logging online for the first time (top tip: don't connect your hard drive with your profile to some one else's 360 while they are online and it is the first time you've ever connected to LIVE; get a Memory Unit if you have to). Don't know what to say apart from 'good luck'

[Erkki]

I had problems with this as well, being in a really small country I had to actually pretend to be from somewhere else when I registered my account.

The same goes for Wii's online services, but at least they accept my credit card for buying points.

I'm not sure if the PSN is any different?

[ThunderPeel2001]

Marek, the solution is pretty simple (if annoying). I have a US and UK XBLA account, for instance. Just use your Dutch account as normal and buy things on your new UK account. Your Dutch account will have full access to whatever you buy.

For example: My UK account is my main XBL account. That's what I log into and where all my achievements/friends are stored. I also have a US account that I use to buy online content sometimes (like songs for Rock Band or Arcade games) because it works out a little cheaper. All my UK bought content and US bought content is available to both my accounts completely transparently.

(To add MS Points to my US account, I just buy US MS Points from eBay.com.)

The only thing you've got to remember is to log back into your Dutch account! (Or you might save your achievement to your UK one!)

Hope that's of some help?