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

[Hoffman]

Step by Step Guide to purchasing content from US Xbox Store from any region
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This Step by Step Guide will take you through how to purchase Game’s from the US online Xbox Store on your Xbox One from outside the US.

There are a few reasons you may consider doing this:

• Take advantage of cheaper game prices from the US Store. Due to the weaker dollar and poor pricing outside the US on the Xbox Store, you can buy games a lot cheaper if you purchase them from the US in Dollars. An example being any newly released Xbox One game cost’s £59 in the UK, where’s in the US it’s $59, with $59 when transferred at time of writing is only £38, (That’s a £21 saving on a game!).
• Break Launch Dates for regions outside the US. While most publishers are decent these days and appreciate the global connected world we are in, there are a few which are run by backwards idiots who feel European or worldwide users should wait days, if not weeks for a game after the US version has released. One prime example is the upcoming Titanfall published by EA (Electronic Arts), who feel that users in the United Kingdom and the rest of Europe should wait 4 days later than their US counter-parts for no apparent reason.
• Or if you live outside the official Xbox Store supported regions, if you do not have access to the Xbox Store in your native country, you need to attach yourself to one. I’d recommend based on exchange rates for best value and a bigger range of content that it’s worth attaching yourself to the US store.

Before you do this, you will need to be aware of the following requirements:

You will need a US Billing Address. This can either be totally made up (and has been confirmed working by many people), or can be a real one. For the purpose of this, I actually used a friends address in the US just incase later down the line Microsoft wanted to verify it (they haven’t yet), at least then my US friend can just confirm the address on my behalf.

You will need some form of payment which can be used in the US Store. You can use any of the below (only need one) -

• Pre-paid Xbox Store codes in US Dollar’s which can easily be purchased online, or by friends/family who live in the US
• A PayPal account (doesn't matter if its registered in the UK, Australia or anywhere else).
• A Credit Card which works in US site’s regardless of the billing address not matching (Some of my UK one’s worked, some didn’t so it’s a bit hit and miss).

However, you DO NOT need a VPN or an American Proxy to complete this.

Once you have everything you need, you are ready to go ahead with this guide. You will be shocked how easy this is, it appears Microsoft have gone a long way since the original Xbox 360 days and opened up accounts to jump between regions on the fly quite easily. Since following this, my UK based Gamertag now has UK and US billing information attached to it allowing me to jump between Stores as and when needed. It also has NOT affected any of my current UK bought games so this at time of writing is perfectly safe to do.

Please note this tutorial is for the Xbox One, not the Xbox 360. To digitally import Xbox 360 game is a bit more complicated and requires the use of a VPN. We have a tutorial for that also. Have a read of it here: Xbox 360 VPN setup for Xbox Live - Buy DLC & Games on Demand from Other Regions


Step 1: Pointing your Xbox One to the US Store

This is the easiest step to complete, all you need to do is turn on your Xbox One and open up the Settings Application. In there, select ‘System’ and then select ‘Language & Location’. Once done, set your current location to the United States like below and press restart:


Once done, you’re Xbox One will reboot and connect you to the US Marketplace! If you attempt to buy anything at this stage, you will find your payment methods don’t exist and it will ask you for new ones. This is because your payment methods and current credit (if you have any) are attached to your previous region’s store. Don’t worry, you haven’t lost any money you previously had on your account, if you switch back to your old region you can go ahead and use them. That’s what’s so great about the new region options, you can jump between them on demand.



Step 2: Adding some Payment Methods to the US Store

For the next step, we recommend doing this on a web browser as it’s a lot easier. Head on down to Xbox.com and sign in with your account. Once signed in, scroll to the bottom left and you will see your country, select it and it will bring up the Change Locale Screen.





Select the United States and the page will refresh. Once this has done, select ‘My Account’ at the top and then select ‘Payment & Billing’.

Please keep an eye at this stage and make sure your location hasn't changed back to your original locale. You can either check in the bottom left or look in the address bar and make sure ‘en-US’ is still present.



If at any time it isn't, you need to switch it back. If you find your browser keeps going back often and making it difficult to proceed, I’d recommend trying another one, or using Private Browsing mode if your web browser supports it. I find I had this a lot when using Chrome but managed with no problem’s in Firefox (could be a cookie related issue, but I didn't want to clear all my cookies).

Here you have a few choices depending on how you wish to purchase:

Pre-paid codes
If you already have pre-paid codes just go ahead and select Redeem Code.

What I did for this, was ask a US based friend to purchase this (multiple price points available): Newegg.com - Microsoft Xbox Gift Card $60 US (Email Delivery)
They will usually receive a code in less than an hour and all they need to do is tell you the code and you are all set. Please note however that Newegg requires a US Billing address before completing the order so it will require you to know someone in the US who can do the purchase on your behalf (unlike Xbox, Newegg seem's to actually try to verify the address in some cases for those of you thinking of faking it!).
There are sites out there which can sell you US Gift Card's outside of the US, but they either add a premium to the cost, or don't look entirely trustworthy. As such I won't be linking to any, but if it's your only choice then by use of a search engine you will find some. If you do find a good priced and trustworthy site to purchase them from, please by all means share with everyone by posting a reply to this Guide.

PayPal
You can pay with PayPal regardless of the region your PayPal account is made in (it doesn't need a US address or US bank account attached to it). You will just be charged in US dollars for purchases and the exchange rate at the time of purchase will factor into the total cost.

If you wish to add PayPal then you need to click 'Add PayPal' on the left hand side.


It will at this stage ask you for your billing address before it will let you connect with PayPal. Either use your friends/families address if you have one, or alternatively make one up.
If you are making one up, please be aware that some US states have sales tax, where others do not. Oregon is a good state to pick if you can which has no US sales tax. If you are struggled to make one up, I've heard people use Google and find a hotel or restaurant and use their address. Be aware, making one up is entirely at your own risk however! Try to use a real family or friends address if possible.
Once the address is entered just select ’Next’ and go ahead and link it up to your PayPal account.
I did this even though my UK account was linked to PayPal with no problem allowing me to use the same PayPal on both my home region, and the US region store. I even left my UK address on the 'Postal address' on the PayPal screen below with no problems.



Credit Card
Alternatively if you want to try your credit or debit card, you can select Manage Payment Options and click ‘Add Credit Card’. Again you will need to put in the billing address and then your details.
Just like with PayPal guide as above, be aware of states that have added sales tax and try to avoid them, and if possible try and use a real address of a friend or family member living in the States.
Using a non-US credit card here with a fake billing address could cause the payment later to fail when you try to purchase content, so I would usually recommend avoiding this unless it is your only option.
I found my Debit Card worked fine, and one of my credit cards did, but the other didn't so it is honestly hit and miss here.


That’s it, you are now ready to purchase some content!



Step 3: Purchase and Download content from the US Store

Now you have some payment methods attached and your Xbox One in the US store, you are free to go ahead and purchase content to your heart’s content. Please be aware that while games are region free and not location blocked, you may find Apps and Media may be (for example Netflix, Hulu, Xbox Video etc). However for games so far I’ve had no problems.

When purchasing games, you can either do it on the website (though make sure your locale is set correctly as per step 2) or via the console (again make sure it’s pointed to the US store as per step 1). I personally recommend that until the game is fully downloaded onto your Xbox that you keep it set to United States location and for the first time you run the game. The reason I recommend this is because I've heard reports from some Australian user's that because they purchased a game that hasn't been released in their region yet (was due for release 2 days later) it got stuck at 99% downloaded until it was released because their console region was set to Australia, but by deleting it and switching the console region to US then re-downloading it, it unlocked instantly (This ONLY affects games not released in your region yet however).
Once you have run it once, feel free to switch your Xbox’s location (as per step 1) back to your original country and enjoy.



Hope this guide helps you, and not only saves you lot’s of cash but also break street dates for those publishers who feel non-US people aren't entitled to enjoy games on launch day!


Extra: Managing your account and balances across regions

Just to first note, while this guide talked about the US Store, you can repeat these steps for any other regions to. This includes getting games that only come out in Japan, or by taking advantage of deals in Canada for example. There is no limit to the amount of regions you can add onto your Xbox One account, providing you have a billing address and payment option for each.

However, now your account may become a little confusing with all these different balances and region's store, especially if down the line you wish to remove any payment methods or see your balances without having to constantly switch regions on your console or the Xbox.com website. The good news is that Microsoft has a Commerce site where you can view your balances as well as add and remove payment methods easily per region.

In your browser just go to: Microsoft Commerce

Once here, you can change the billing account you wish to modify on the right hand side, as well as Add or Remove payment methods, add pre-paid codes and so fourth with ease. Also if you used a fake billing address for example, here you can change it if you now have a valid one or if you wish to clear it.



Any question's just post below. I'll keep this guide updated if there is any changes down the line or new discoveries.

If you liked this guide and it worked for you, please help spread the word! The more and more people who have awareness of this, the more we can show to publishers that we won't take being overcharged outside the US and that same-day worldwide releases need to become the standard (looking at you EA, it's not the 1990's anymore). Please share the URL to this guide on forums, reddit, social media etc Take a stand for fairness!

 

[Hoffman]

Implications

I've seen some questions asked on Reddit and the Xbox forums regarding the legal status and implications of purchasing games from the US Xbox One Store from a different region. As far as I can see there is two entities which are likely to be concerned with this, your local government and Microsoft themselves. I've done some research and come to the following conclusions that I've shared below. However it's important to note these are just my opinions based on the information available and do not form as legal advice. As always, make your own judgement based on the facts that are available.


Microsoft

The main concern Microsoft will have is regarding fake billing addresses. This is committing fraud to a degree as it is lying on a transaction and is against Xbox Live's Terms of Use:

6.3. Billing. By providing Microsoft with a payment method, you represent that you are authorized to use the payment method that you provided and that any payment information you provide is true and accurate;

Source: Xbox Live Terms of Use - Xbox.com

As such, it's important that you use a real billing address to avoid any breach of the Terms of Use.


However in terms of Microsoft Billing terms and conditions, I've browsed and browsed and cannot find anything about restricting where you can spend goods. All it says is you cannot use currency from one region in another:

You cannot use your Microsoft account to make purchases at participating Microsoft online stores that use other currencies. The balance in your account, which is denominated in a specific currency (like $ or €), can only be used at Microsoft stores that accept that currency. For example, if a Microsoft store accepts Euros (€), then you may only use the money in your account if it is denominated in Euros (€).

Denominations in a certain currency may only be added to a Microsoft account registered in the jurisdiction that recognizes such currency as an official currency, and then may only be used at Microsoft stores available in that jurisdiction. Your account balance may not be converted to another currency.

Source: https://commerce.microsoft.com/PaymentHub/Help/Show/toc_link_no_50?lang=en-US

As such, providing your Microsoft account has credit in the relevant currency, nothing is stopping you from using it as far as I can read.


Lastly from the Xbox Enforcement Website, the only information I could find was listed under 'Marketplace Theft' and said the below:

Marketplace theft includes, but isn't limited to: Using a system glitch or loophole for financial gain

Source: Enforcement - Stay Safe!

This is a difficult one, it's not a glitch at all but could it be considered a loophole for financial gain? It does offer the opportunity to get games at a reduced price if you are lucky with exchange rates, but the publisher is still getting the full asking price they asked for and importantly a sale. Financial gain could also be defined as you gaining money from it, which you certainly are not unless you count the saving as gaining (but then depends how you define the term 'financial gain' - the problem is its so open to Microsoft's interpretation based on how they want to enforce it). If they applied this rule they could 'permanently suspend' your account but to date this has only been applied for people who used the Oman glitch to get full games for free (not for people purchasing games in a different region). It's also worth considering if it really could be considered a loophole, it's something they implemented (region free and easy region switching) so that doesn't sound like much of a loophole, more intended by design (though more so for people moving regions than people just switching them on the fly while not actually travelling).


Also it's worth me mentioning two important quotes, one that Albert Penello (Microsoft Director of Marketing) said in an interview with EuroGamer:

"You can use one of the 13 digital marketplaces corresponding to our launch markets, assuming you have a valid payment instrument for those countries. Lots of people in Europe specifically travel, move, and visit family," he continued before slyly adding "Now, of course, if you were using Pre-Paid cards..."

Source: Microsoft explains how Xbox One importing could work - News - Xbox One - Eurogamer.net


And from the Official Xbox Wire website:

In addition to buying a disc from a retailer, you can also download games from Xbox Live on day of release. If you choose to download your games, you will be able to play them offline just like you do today. Xbox One games will be playable on any Xbox One console -- there will be no regional restrictions.

Source: Your Feedback Matters


Based on all the information available on their terms of use on the Xbox site, Microsoft Billing's website, and the Xbox enforcement page there is no specific mention that this specifically is against their terms and conditions. Combining that with the quote from Albert Penello and the Xbox Wire site as well as the fact that they are the ones that took down the regional lock outs which DID exist with Xbox 360, I would say it's safe from Microsoft's viewpoint providing you have a valid billing address. For those of you making addresses up though, it's risky but then I guess it would depend on how likely they are to look up your address and try to validate it (there are millions of members of Xbox Live after all).

My ultimate advice to play it 100% safe though is via the use of Pre-paid codes which you get a friend/family in the US to purchase for you either in retail stores or online via say Newegg, and use that US friend's address for your US Billing address to be safe if you can. Then in a sense it is no different to you visiting your friend/family and purchasing the game while you are out there.



Local Government (Tax)

This is a difficult one to give advice on because it's different depending on the country in question.

It's important to understand that if you purchase goods outside your own country, you're usually liable for some form of 'import tax' which is added at the border. If you have ever ordered games from Play-Asia or a US store you likely got a bit of bill shock when the bill from the post service arrived (while this isn't true for goods inside the European Economic Area, it is for goods from regions outside the European Economic Area). This is to make up for the fact you didn't pay the sales tax (also known as VAT) for the goods in question when buying from a different country.

By buying the games (or should we say, 'goods') from the Xbox Live US Store you are affectively avoiding sales tax / VAT for your purchase (which is one of the reasons why it's a lot cheaper for you). However as it is all digital flowing over the internet it's next to impossible for your border control / tax office to know of the purchase and attempt to charge you 'import tax'. That doesn't mean you're not liable for it, just you haven't got caught. Also, if you paid US sales tax on your games, that doesn't make you not liable for import tax in your own country for the record. If you bought goods from a US retail store while aboard, that doesn't exclude you from then having to pay your own countries sales tax / VAT on your return.

However, this then brings us to a possible loop hole. When you visit another country for whatever reason, you can buy goods and then bring them back home and never pay the 'import tax'. This is what's known as a personal allowance. Providing the goods are not being brought back home with the intent to re-sell, your allowed a set 'amount' to import free of sales tax / VAT. If you have ever gone on holiday with a smoker, you're likely to know they tend to bring back as many cigarettes as possible up to a 'personal allowance' for that very reason. The personal allowance varies per country, but that is one possible 'legal' reason to say you don't need to pay any tax. However whenever or not that applies for digital goods when you never visited the country is a whole other question. Sadly if you ever looked deeply into laws, your realise they are terribly out of date when it comes to the modern day and the internet. It's a difficult one, and one that there is no firm answer for. If you went aboard to the US and purchased an Xbox One game and brought it back with you, you can play it with no additional tax, but does this apply to your digital games?

Also a key point to know, is looking back at the early days of Steam, on its first few years of launch there wasn't regional stores. Purchasing games from Europe or elsewhere in the world results in paying in US dollars and has no sales tax. You didn't see your local government come chasing you for payment for missing sales tax or tax avoidance. That has changed as Steam grew and it now has regional stores with the relevant sales tax but the principle is the same.

So ultimately, if you want to play it safe you could always declare your purchase to your relevant tax office / border control, but at the same time I believe there is a very good argument it could come out of your personal allowance. Use your own judgement, and follow the laws of your own country.

It's also worth noting long term, the United States and Europe are busy currently negotiating the world's largest free trade agreement. If this ever takes force, then this practice will become entirely legal and protected under law for Europeans (but still questionable for those not in Europe).

 

[Hoffman]

FAQ

I've reserved this post for any questions later down the line. I will keep this updated based on questions posted below on Digiex, or asked across reddit or other forums/sites that link back to here.


I've seen reports that Microsoft are region locking games from different regions, disabling access and showing the error message 0x87de07d1. Are Microsoft adding region locks?

Sadly these reports were blown out of the water by some news sites with inexperienced news writers who were either focusing on click-baiting users for views or didn't understand the situation.

The facts of the situation were as follows:

Some eBay sellers were selling a large number of Forza 5 and Dead Rising 3 'Game' codes. By game codes, I mean 25 digit codes that you can redeem on your console and the full game unlocks. These codes were advertised as region free and for a period of time worked. However sadly 10 days later or so after these were sold people started finding the games were no longer unlocked on their accounts and their Xbox's were asking them to purchase again displaying the '0x87de07d1' error.

Sadly it appears the codes were not suppose to be region free, but Microsoft made a mistake and instead of just rejecting the code saying 'it's not valid in your region', it accepted them then later 're-adjusting' so to speak and invalidating the licenses. In Microsoft's defense, everyone that contacted them based on the Xbox Forums managed to get a new code issued correctly for their region, and the seller offered refunds (so actually many of them ended up with free games...). However Microsoft never officially commented on what the long term plan is, are they either going to enforce region locks on full game codes and reject codes upfront, or was it just a bug and there system will fix itself in the long term and allow region free game codes.

It's important to understand the key difference here, this isn't region locking of games or locking down purchasing of games from different regions. It is just locking down pre-paid codes which they already do for other Xbox One codes. For example, I cannot redeem a $10 Xbox Live pre-paid code on the European Store Xbox One store. However what I can do, is switch my Store region per the guide on this site to the US store then go ahead and redeem it. It just means making sure codes are redeemed in the correct region.


I've heard Microsoft banned people from downloading games from different regions. Will I get banned for this?

Let's first clear up the situation: At the time of writing, no one has been banned for switching to a different region and purchasing games. If Microsoft ever changed this stance, trust me I would update this guide straight away and remove it because the last thing I want is for anyone to get banned for this. I like many of the people purchasing games from the Xbox One US store have a lot of content legally assigned to our gamertags, as well as saved games and years’ worth of achievements. Getting banned would be a terrible situation and one I would like to avoid myself, and avoid anyone going through.

In the history of Xbox Live, there was one ban wave which was regarding regions and that was to do with the 'Oman / Bosnia' glitch. What this involved was actually switching your account to one of those regions which didn't even have an Xbox Live Marketplace, exploiting cached search data and then taking advantage of an Integer overflow to effectively download content which should have cost, for free.

To provide further re-assurances, this was the process that involved getting banned for region exploiting:

- You have an account in a country with an Xbox Live marketplace. You can browse the marketplace just fine and buy games at whatever your region's prices are.
- You create an account in another country without an Xbox Live marketplace. If you try to browse the marketplace it won't work because there is no marketplace in the country the new account is in.
- Because your console has cached search results from a region with a marketplace, you are able to use the search function to access marketplace entries on an account that is supposed to be in a region with no marketplace.
- Because those items have no pricing information, they will show up with an insane price. -98295793498734298 Microsoft points (integer overflow). Of course the console will not let you buy this, problem solved.
- Uh oh! Microsoft switched all their pricing to dollars, not points. Problem being that because MS Point prices were signed integers and cash prices are unsigned, some items show up as being free.

As you can see, this was completing different situation to the current one about legally purchasing with your own money games from a different Xbox One region. That was purposely exploiting a bug in the Xbox 360 Marketplace to steal content and as such I'm not surprised Microsoft issued account bans for it.

Of course, I cannot guarantee 100% that they won't change there mind down the line and come down on people for purchasing games from the US Region from outside the US, but based on the facts of the last 11 years of Xbox Live and the information I posted up in Implications part of the guide I am of the opinion it's extremely unlikely.


What if I use this workaround to break a street date of a game in my region when it's not yet released but is in the US (like Titanfall)?

This is a good question, and one I cannot provide a 100% guaranteed answer. You may have heard in the past when GTAIV released, many people illegally downloaded the game early and got banned which is fair enough, but we also know many legit users who got the game early like Amazon UK customer's (who accidentally shipped the game for delivery on Saturday before, not the Tuesday release date) received both account bans and consoles bans. We know this is factual because a trusted member of Digiex had the disc and receipt to prove they got the game legitimately and played one day before general release and got banned (with no modifications to his console at all or any other infringement issues), and Microsoft were not interested in the evidence to prove it and the ban for "Xbox LIVE account privileges have been permanently suspended due to playof pirated or otherwise illegally obtained titles" was never overturned.

However, GTAIV had a worldwide release date so it wasn't people taking advantage of other regions to purchase games, That is the main difference. Also GTAIV had so much press coverage and Rockstar didn't want anything from the game leaking early and were using legal methods like DMCA to take down any leaks from people who played early and didn't provide any news sites with review copies before general release. If you are buying a game from the US, it means the games already released somewhere in the world and news sites and gamers will already have all the information they need from US based reporters and gamers as such I personally doubt they will be as motivated to actively ban people for it in other regions.

Though it is important to note, Microsoft will be VERY aware that you are playing the game outside of the United States. Your IP address (Internet address) will clearly not be American (unless you use a VPN, but use of a VPN is very much against the Xbox Live Terms of Use so don't ever do it!). Combined with the fact your game will likely try to connect to the local Xbox Live servers in your region and not the one's in the US by default (though this doesn't stop you playing it online, you will just end up playing with American's which is no problem if you speak English). So Microsoft WILL know your playing it outside the US and could decide down the line to take action if they so desired. However, there is legitimate reasons this could occur in a few cases, Armed forces members from the US for example who are deployed across the world regularly play Xbox and Microsoft has been very supportive of this. If they used there Xbox Live account's to purchase games while stationed over sea's that is a legitimate use. Likewise for any American's who are traveling oversea's and took their Xbox with them. However this is one other key difference, although you can have multiple billing accounts in different regions which this guide enables, your 'Microsoft Accounts' region and your primary Xbox region will be your country of origin unless you have done a full on account migration per the 360 method, they could use this as a detection method when it comes to issuing enforcement action on people playing an unreleased game outside America.

I'm not trying to say don't do it at all if you want to, there's a very good chance they will do nothing in terms of enforcement of this for the very reasons that they only cared about leaks in the past and the region free stance discussed all over this guide. But this is one of the more riskier actions you can do with regards to purchasing games from the US so please do be aware. It's one thing to do it for cheaper games or to get round censorship (like in Germany), but to do it to break street dates is risky. At the time of writing, those who did this for Rayman Legends, Tomb Raider or Plants vs Zombies: Garden Warfare have not received any bans and the games did work outside the US, however for example with the upcoming Titanfall release, this is the first major game release this is likely to happen on (though saying that, most major releases from decent publishers have worldwide same-day releases anyways so this wouldn't be a concern). Based on the outcome of the Titanfall release, this will likely set precedent going forward to how Microsoft will handle this situation.

Update 16/03/2014: It's been confirmed as working fine for Titanfall and no bans have been issued at time of writing. The game downloaded fine and no geo-location blocking took place.


Have you (the author) tested all this and can confirm it worked and can I share this with others?

I've personally tested all the methods of payment listed in the guide to come up with the conclusions I've written up about. All in all, to make this guide has taken over 15 hours of my time researching, testing and documenting my discoveries so that I can write up here the fact's of the situations based on my findings. This includes many purchases on Xbox One content I didn't really need or want for the purpose of testing, so ultimately it's taken 15 hours + my own money to bring you this as it stands. As such, I hope you find it helpful as well as the documentation regarding Implications and FAQ questions very informative. Of course, everything legal is from my own personal view and interpretation of the information available from my research into the issue so please do come to your own conclusion based on the information I have provided (I am not a lawyer, just a gamer who wants to share knowledge).

I'd love to you share this with others, but as an author I do have one request I would hope you are able to follow. When sharing this guide, please do not just lift the content by copying and pasting it elsewhere, it's taken a lot of my own time to complete this guide to the level of detail it currently stands and seeing your hard work ripped away in a 5 second copy and paste job and seeing someone else take credit is a horrible feeling. Therefore please do share this with your friends, family, other gamers, social media and even other websites if you feel its worthy but please link people to my guide here on Digiex instead of lifting the content. In return, I will keep this guide updated with new discoveries as they happen, as well as the changing landscape of Xbox One purchases from different regions (like if Microsoft change processes in Xbox One updates, change the rules or terms and conditions). I will also keep the FAQ up to date based on questions I commonly see across the internet or posted here on this thread. I want this to be the most up to date, feature rich and most helpful Step by Step guide and information bank on this topic. Thank you


Update 18/03/2014
I'm purchasing via PayPal and getting the error: "Your purchase can't be completed with this payment option. Try a different or new way to pay."?

It appears shortly after Titanfall released and thousands of people across the internet took advantage of this to get Titanfall 4 days early outsite the US, Microsoft took steps to stop obvious abuse of the system with the PayPal option. As such, they seem to have strengthened the PayPal protections in place, checking the registered PayPal address in the connected account in some cases. As I had a confirmed American address on my account I have had no problems, but I've seen posts over Reddit for those who do not have a US address suddenly finding they are unable to purchase goods with PayPal recently.

Reports are mixed, some people still use it to do this day with no problem, but others are now unable to use it at all since Titanfall. A few people even had their Xbox Live accounts flagged with a 'Risk Block' due to all the invalid billing addresses they lied with to get this working. When this happens, they got the error message "Your purchase cannot be completed at this time. Please try again.". It's important to stress there has only been a few incidents with this, and while it could be connected it's also more likely they suddenly added a new address and payment method and unexpectedly made large purchases which caused the account to be flagged as possibly hacked. If you do end up in this situation, you have to phone Xbox Support and they will confirm a few things and review the account then remove the 'Risk alert' and allow you to purchase goods again. My advice with this as always is to use a real address because if you have to phone support the last thing you want is a totally made up address.

However, all is not lost. If you do not have pre-paid codes or your own credit card (which still works perfectly for the record, the issue is only with using PayPal from a different region) you can still use PayPal to purchase the goods, but you will need to rely on a US based family member or friend. What you do is send them the amount of money via Paypal that you wish to get in Xbox Gift Cards, and when sending them the payment be sure to ticket 'I'll pay the fee', it's only around an additional dollar. They can then use that PayPal balance to buy gift cards direct from newegg digitally, at the below URL:

Gift Cards: Newegg.com - Microsoft Xbox Gift Card $10 US (Email Delivery)

This way, they don't need to go into a physical shop and you don't need to use expensive international bank transfers (which take days). The Gift Cards will come as a code which you can then just redeem on your US Billing Account (I recommend doing it at the Commerce site as detailed in the 'Extras' section of the original guide, to ensure your redeeming the code into the correct billing account.

I must stress than Newegg do insist on having a US Billing Address, and attempting to use PayPal from outside the US will cause the transaction to fail. Also as a new account (if your doing it yourself) your order is more likely to require verification which will fail, vs getting a genuine US based person to purchase it legally for you.

It does add an extra hurdle to the process, but still means your using PayPal and your friend doesn't have to do anything like banking the money or going to a shop and paying sales tax, they can just use the funds you sent them to directly pay for it on newegg. It takes them up to an hour to get the digital pre-paid code, unless newegg decide to 'verify' the payment method. This happened to one Digiex member once but they still got the code within 48 hours and hasn't happened since. If you want to avoid delays and possibly annoying your friend in the process you could just do it for say $120 (2 games) and just keep the balance on your account. This is also more in line with the Xbox Live Terms and Conditions and isn't fraudulently putting an address on your account, so is most likely a safer option down the line...

I should also add that some people have reported being able to buy Gift Cards directly from Amazon US from outside America taking away the need of relying on a US friend:
Amazon.com: Xbox $10 Gift Card [Online Game Code]: Video Games

Again the codes are delivered electronically, so you get them almost instantly. However unlike Newegg, Amazon do not seem to do much validation and people have used a non-US Amazon account with a made up 'US Shipping address' added to it to complete the purchase. This isnt as legal as getting a US friend to buy on your behalf from Newegg with PayPal, but it does provide an option for people who do not have access to US based friends to complete the purchase unaided.

 

[Januzaj]

Tried paying via paypal and got an Error code. Did not work for me :/ Follow it step by step as well.

Update:
I think i got it to work! I just sent money to one pay pal account then back to my main so i am not paying with my CC, and it just let me buy some micro DLC on ghosts. Tomorrow will be the real test though, will i be able to buy Titanfall? i freaking hope so

 

[Hoffman]

Tried paying via paypal and got an Error code. Did not work for me :/ Follow it step by step as well.

I think i got it to work! I just sent money to one pay pal account then back to my main so i am not paying with my CC, and it just let me buy some micro DLC on ghosts. Tomorrow will be the real test though, will i be able to buy Titanfall? i freaking hope so

Interesting, I've never had that problem. Though my PayPal account is linked to my bank account so it uses that for funding if I don't have the balance (the bank account isn't US at all).
This could be interesting if this is just related to having a CC on file or if it's just an isolated issue with your account. Do let me know how it goes and I can update the guide if it's the case and others experience it to.

 

[amsalo]

I have created an American billing account, attached my PayPal account to it and changed my location on my XB1. I have made a trial purchase (Forza 5 100 tokens, cost $0.99), which went through fine. So with fingers crossed Titanfall will work.

 

[Hoffman]

I can confirm it has worked for Titanfall Game on!

 

[Majorofminors]

I can confirm it has worked for Titanfall Game on!

I feel like I have tried every single part of the guide and yet still cannot get this to work, I've used a fake billing address, got my paypal on the xbox one, changed to USA but when I try to use the paypal it says 'your purchase can't be completed with this payment option". Someone else in this thread seemed to have a similar and they fixed it by moving money in and out from their paypal so I tried that but to no avail. I've got more than enough money to purchase the game in my paypal so I have no idea why this isnt work and its pretty frustrating, help would be much much appreciated.

 

[Hoffman]

I feel like I have tried every single part of the guide and yet still cannot get this to work, I've used a fake billing address, got my paypal on the xbox one, changed to USA but when I try to use the paypal it says 'your purchase can't be completed with this payment option". Someone else in this thread seemed to have a similar and they fixed it by moving money in and out from their paypal so I tried that but to no avail. I've got more than enough money to purchase the game in my paypal so I have no idea why this isnt work and its pretty frustrating, help would be much much appreciated.

Have a look at the 'Extras' bit, and verify you have a US Personal Account (as well as your home regions) and that PayPal is on there as a valid payment method on the Microsoft Commence site.
Once you know all that is there, do the purchase on the console (with region set to United States) and let us know the outcome?


Update: Guessing by the lack of reply, I'll assume he figured out the part he was missing..

 

[Trisha Takanawa]

Sorry, been so busy playing I forgot to come back here and say it worked a treat! Good stuff.

 

[David Deus]

Hello from Italy!
Worked first time for me, with PayPal! Thanks Hoffman.

 

[InsaneNutter]

Although i've already told you before, I just love the amount of detail that went in to this guide! very well done indeed, I found it extremely useful.

Just wanted to share my experience to show that this A) does still work, and B) can save you a lot of money depending where in the world you are.

I personally could not get the Paypal option to work, I added an American address to my UK Xbox Live account, I also used this address as the delivery address when asked by Paypal. Despite that however I simply got told "Your purchase can't be completed with this payment option. Try a different or new way to pay", likewise when using my Visa Debit card I got the exact same error.

However I can confirm using a US "Xbox Gift Card" will let you purchase and download content from the US market place perfectly fine, with no questions asked!



All i did was set my console to the US region as instructed in the tutorial, ensured I was on the US version of Xbox.com, then redeemed the Xbox gift card code. Finally i was able to purchase the game on the Xbox.com website, using the $100 I had in my Microsoft account.

The hardest part of this is actually getting a US Xbox Giftcard, as most popular US based websites like Amazon / Newegg are pretty strict about who they will sell these gift-cards to. Thanks to a long time US member here on Digiex though I was able to Paypal him the money for a giftcard, he purchased on one Newegg using Paypal and just forwarded the code on to me later that day, basically as suggested in the original tutorial. Simple enough and worked fine here in the UK!

As for saving money here's just an idea of how much you can save:

Watch Dogs:

• Digital Download UK - £60
• Physical Purchase UK - £44
• Digital Download US - $60 which in £ is £35!

So basically you can save £9 over buying the game on disc, and £25 on purchasing a digital download copy of the game... pretty nice!

Worms:

• Digital Download UK - £20
• Physical Purchase UK - £25
• Digital Download US - $25 which in £ is £15!

Even with cheaper games you can save £5-£10 here and there, which soon adds up!

Great stuff

 

[Epic.]

The hardest part of this is actually getting a US Xbox Giftcard, as most popular US based websites like Amazon / Newegg are pretty strict about who they will sell these gift-cards to. Thanks to a long time US member here on Digiex though I was able to Paypal him the money for a giftcard, he purchased on one Newegg using Paypal and just forwarded the code on to me later that day, basically as suggested in the original tutorial. Simple enough and worked fine here in the UK!

Hey mate, I've had an eye on this guide for a while and was waiting for someone to try it with a giftcard code
So all worked out good for you?
I was planning to do the same however I need someone in the U.S for the code. Any chance you could message me his username?
Thanks

 

[Epic.]

Also, OP, can you just confirm one thing?
If I plan to use a prepaid code and redeem it after I set my xbox.com to US whereas originally it is AUS, after I redeem the code, will I then have two accounts under commerce.microsoft.com? Like would I have AU - Personal Account and US - Personal Account since the prepaid code would be a US code?
Much like the red box you have highlighted in the top right in this picture:

 

[HawkMan]

This does not seem to work anymore.

I added a PayPal account and got the aforementioned error. This Xbox one was bought and set up yesterday so its a brand new one account with my old live account, which is not blocked. I checked the commerce site and have a us "account" there that the PayPal is registered to.

Tried buying through the webpage, but it locks up on the "window" that opens when you click buy now, the green thing spins for a bit, then freezes.

So I tried adding my credit card instead nice supposedly some credit cards don't say they're from another country(fairly sure that won't be the case for paranoid Norwegian banks...). and can't because it won't accept my Norwegian phone number no matter how I enter it and with the international prefix. Seeing as MS accounts sometimes use phone numbers for verifications, you can't fake that either.

So seems I'm stuck buying boxed games form the next few months.

 

[HawkMan]

Well...

I added the credit card on the commerce site, and it accepted the phone number, and the Xbox accepted the car and is installing...

Very slowly with no percentages even yet, but that's probably nothing to do with this

 

[InsaneNutter]

I added the credit card on the commerce site, and it accepted the phone number, and the Xbox accepted the car and is installing...

Very slowly with no percentages even yet, but that's probably nothing to do with this

Interesting you got it to accept your card, was that a credit or debit card? I might have to try adding my card on the Microsoft Commerce website and not the Xbox website to see if it makes a difference.

Download speeds are generally very slow on the Xbox One I find, likely nothing at your end as a lot of people have found this to be the case.

 

[Epic.]

Can confirm US Xbox Live Cards off pcgamesupply.com work fine, just change the site region to US on account.xbox.com, add a US billing address (Preferably Oregon as no tax), redeem the code

 

[MunkyMagikUK]

Hey mate, I've had an eye on this guide for a while and was waiting for someone to try it with a giftcard code
So all worked out good for you?
I was planning to do the same however I need someone in the U.S for the code. Any chance you could message me his username?
Thanks

I've done this as well mate. I set up an amazon.com account, just used an Oregon University halls address on both this and my Xbox American store billing address. 0% sales tax and they'll never trace it, and never send you anything as it's all done electronically.

Amazon.com accepted payment from my UK Mastercard credit card no problem, bought a $60 Microsoft gift card thing, and they sent me the code via email. Took a while to come through as they check the authenticity but within a couple of hours I was downloading WatchDogs for $59.99 instead of £59.99.

 

[andreasmoreno]

Hey i have a question about this, do you think it's possible to buy two games in denmark with a preorder code i get. And then change my region to the usa and still keep the games i got?