Step by Step Guide to purchasing Games from US Xbox One Store from any region

MS have now patched this.

https://xbox.uservoice.com/forums/2...blocking-digital-games-purchases-in-other-xbo

 

Hello folks.

Please allow me to tell you about my experience, which in most of it agrees with what has been mentioned in this thread, except for a minor, yet important, part that makes me little worried.

I am from Egypt, a country that is not among the list of countries in which Xbox has been officially launched. I got an imported Xbox console from the US a week ago. During initial setup, I chose USA as my region. The console came with a 30-day Gold membership trial. In order to activate it, I had to enter a payment method (Obviously they needed it to automatically renew the membership after the trial period expires). I entered the details of my Egyptian credit card together with a US billing address (a friend's address in GA). Instantly, Xbox refused the details of my CC. I reset the Xbox and chose UAE as my region (remember that Egypt is not even an option). This time, I entered the details of the same Egyptian CC together with a real address in the UAE (again, a friend's address). This time, the CC was accepted, and the Gold membership was successfully activated. I downloaded a couple of free games using my Gold membership (Chariot and another game), and we played happily for few hours. I forgot to tell you, the console came with a Forza 5 voucher (not a disc), so, I scanned the QR code, and fired the 40-GB download.

Next day, less than a 24-hour period, my trial Gole membership vanished from the console! It was easy for me to figure out that it has something to do with my region and billing address. Called MS support, and got a new code for a 1-month Gold membership. The agent was not able to explain what happened, and she found that it would be much easier and faster for her to give me a new code than to troubleshoot the problem, although I told her that I suspect the reason may be something related to my region. Anyway, I was not at home at that time. When I got there, I tried the new code, didn't work because of an "Unkown error" according to the Xbox error message. I started to worry that my account has been blocked or something, as why would a brand new code not work except if something serious has happened?

It was then when I did some research about the problem. Although I had not come across this thread, I did almost all what's been recommended here. I am not sure which of the following was necessary and which could have been skipped, but this is all what I did in order:

1. I first cleaned all my profiles on commerce.microsoft.com and billing.microsoft.com, and removed all my CC details.
2. I used the Xbox Live website to do an "Account Migration" for my account from UAE to USA.
3. I connected my Xbox to a VPN in the USA (Probably I got this from an Xbox 360 community)
4. I reset the console to its factory settings.
5. Chose USA as my region
6. Entered the Gold membership code I was given by Microsoft support. VOILA... It worked!
7. I then purchased a US $100 Xbox gift card from Amazon using my Egyptian CC. I am not sure how it passed through but it did. (I was on the US VPN while shopping from Amazon, and I also have a long history of shopping from Amazon, from the year 2000, and some of my purchases were actually done while I was in the USA as I lived there for some time). I am not sure if any or all of this helped the purchase to succeed or it was unnecessary at all.
8. I loaded my US account with the $100 voucher. It worked successfully as well.

Now, every time I use the console, I connect it to the US VPN first. This is inconvenient. I was even thinking of getting a router that can act as a VPN client instead of having to switch on my PC and running it as a VPN hub every time I need to play on Xbox. But that would cost me a couple of hundreds of dollars. And it is still not very convenient. But then I came across this thread. You guys say that I don't need to worry about my Egyptian IP address as long as I am just using the Xbox to play games or run apps (even if those games and apps require you to be online, such as Xbox Fitness), but I need to connect to a US VPN while downloading a game. Is that right? Then, why do you think my trial Gold membership was revoked? I cannot actually think of any reason for this except that my IP address did not match with my region (UAE at that time).

As I said in the beginning of my post, the revoking of my trial membership is what makes me worried, and until now I cannot explain it in light of what you guys are suggesting in this thread (that it is totally irrelevant to have an IP address that matches the region you claim you are from).

 

Yes, it does. Bought 2 games last night with zero issues.

 

Pretty sure this is no longer working directly for instant region changes... Lifted from the xbox website just as I was about to region swap to purchase Madden 15:
[h=3]You can only move between Xbox Live regions once every 3 months.[/h]

Unless someone knows of a way i'm not doing?

 

Support pages indicate the same:

You won’t be able to change your region if any of the following conditions apply:

• You changed regions within the last three months.

 

I don't think this has been answered yet, sorry if it has.

I want to purchase EA UFC from the US store at $13, compared to £18 here in the UK. I don't actually have my Xbox One console yet, but this deal is going to run out tomorrow I believe.

Is it possible to purchase a US gift card, redeem it, and purchase from the US store using only a web browser, then download my game on my console when it arrives?

Thanks for the info already posted in this thread, it's really helpful.

 

lots to read here.
do I need to change my xbox to usa first can I not just go to usa xbox.com store and buy the games I want?
I got a paypal linked to my usa account says I will be charged $13.20 plus tax how much tax?

thanks
v00d00d

 

Thanks for help so just to make sure I don't have to change console to us. I can just buy from us.xobx.com?

and what about tax?
and am I right to think you can't use paypal anymore?

cheers for a great guide

 

and I must say tis very good.

what address do people recommend for lowest tax?

 

thanks
got the hobbit for 12.60 last night

 

hi everybody I'm new here

I'm from Italy and from what I see Microsoft stopped purchasing from other stores only with prepaid/credit cards but if you redeem a Gift Card it works

I've found out that the best Stores where to buy games is the Russian one, because ruble is very low these days.

The problem is how to find russian gift cards because on the russian sites is not possible to buy them with an european credit card, they allow you to buy it only with a russian one.

I've bought some only because my wife is russian and his brother done it for me

 

While I can go through the US.Xbox.com website and browse all the way to wanting to purchase something. When I move on to the actual purchasing it immediately redirects me to my local regions purchasing page.
I don't currently have a US gift card to use, but I don't see how that would make any difference in this process at the moment. Anyone have any thoughts?

 

Hey I want to purchase Madden off the US Marketplace, I can get the US GIft card but do I have to Change the address and Billing information on the account to a US address. Do I have to switch region on the xbox one for it to download when purchasing from the US Xbox.com. Is there any issues with playing the multi-player on these games after they download