Changing my Windows Phone Store region

[Marcos Morais]

Hello!

I've just got my Windows Phone 8 and logged in with my Microsoft Account, which has my Xbox Live account. And my question is, my local Windows Store (Brazil) has really few apps and games available. I want to buy Sonic CD and Civilization Revolution, but neither of them are available at the Brazilian Windows Store. If I change my region in the Settings hub to US and restart my phone, am I going to be able to use the US store without any problems? I have an international credit card, and even PayPal.

Thank you so much! Have a nice day. :excited:

 

[sakahn]

Yes. I have been using the US store from UAE. Just change the region to the US. To get the Nokia Collection, I had to set both the region to US and the language to English (US).

 

[Marcos Morais]

Yes. I have been using the US store from UAE. Just change the region to the US. To get the Nokia Collection, I had to set both the region to US and the language to English (US).

Thanks! I'll try it here. And for apps/games purchases, did you have any problem using a credit card or PayPal?

 

[Zamir Yusof]

it's not that simple. the u.s marketplace and buying apps in u.s marketplace require you to have u.s live account registered to your phone, and you credit card to support international purchase. simply put, if you already registered brazil as your region, you can't buy app from u.s store (not sure about free download are affected or not)even after change your in phone setting to u.s. you can change you live account region by following these steps:

1. login to xbox.com using your windows live account
2. click 'My Account' which will show you your account detail.
3. click 'Change Xbox account region' which located near the bottom-right corner of your screen
4. fill in the detail, you can use your true identity and info, the only thing matter is the postcode. you need to fill in real u.s postcode.
5. the rest of it, just follow the instruction.

hope this helps

 

[IceDree]

it's not that simple. the u.s marketplace and buying apps in u.s marketplace require you to have u.s live account registered to your phone, and you credit card to support international purchase. simply put, if you already registered brazil as your region, you can't buy app from u.s store (not sure about free download are affected or not)even after change your in phone setting to u.s. you can change you live account region by following these steps:

1. login to xbox.com using your windows live account
2. click 'My Account' which will show you your account detail.
3. click 'Change Xbox account region' which located near the bottom-right corner of your screen
4. fill in the detail, you can use your true identity and info, the only thing matter is the postcode. you need to fill in real u.s postcode.
5. the rest of it, just follow the instruction.

hope this helps

Just a heads up , You can Change your region in the Xbox ONCE every 3 months !

 

[IceDree]

Yes. I have been using the US store from UAE. Just change the region to the US. To get the Nokia Collection, I had to set both the region to US and the language to English (US).

Did you add a Credit card ? if so how ?

Im using the US Store from Saudi Arabia (Hi , We are neighbors) , my xbox is also set to the US .

 

[Marcos Morais]

it's not that simple. the u.s marketplace and buying apps in u.s marketplace require you to have u.s live account registered to your phone, and you credit card to support international purchase. simply put, if you already registered brazil as your region, you can't buy app from u.s store (not sure about free download are affected or not)even after change your in phone setting to u.s. you can change you live account region by following these steps:

1. login to xbox.com using your windows live account
2. click 'My Account' which will show you your account detail.
3. click 'Change Xbox account region' which located near the bottom-right corner of your screen
4. fill in the detail, you can use your true identity and info, the only thing matter is the postcode. you need to fill in real u.s postcode.
5. the rest of it, just follow the instruction.

hope this helps

Hey, thank you for the answer!

Even if I use PayPal as the payment method? I didn't want to change my region on Xbox Live, I thought I could just change my region on Windows Phone 8, because Nokia and Microsoft announced last year that we wouldn't have this regional restrictions.

Thank you!

 

[Marcos Morais]

Just a heads up , You can Change your region in the Xbox ONCE every 3 months !

This 3 month thing sucks. But thanks for the answer! rly:

 

[sakahn]

Did you add a Credit card ? if so how ?

Im using the US Store from Saudi Arabia (Hi , We are neighbors) , my xbox is also set to the US .

Hi,
I didn't have to change the region of my live account. It is set to UAE. I just added my UAE PayPal account for payment, and gave my shop and ship US address for billing. Works great, and I can buy all the apps from the US marketplace.

 

[IceDree]

This 3 month thing sucks. But thanks for the answer! rly:

No problem ! Agreed , it sucks ! my brother is stuck with that !

 

[IceDree]

Hi,
I didn't have to change the region of my live account. It is set to UAE. I just added my UAE PayPal account for payment, and gave my shop and ship US address for billing. Works great, and I can buy all the apps from the US marketplace.

Hi
You used a US address for the billing address with a UAE PayPal account info ?

Thanks !

 

[sakahn]

Hi
You used a US address for the billing address with a UAE PayPal account info ?

Thanks !

Yes, it works fine

 

[ammarmalik2011]

If you have a UAE credit card you cant purchase apps using a USA marketplace. Because when it asks you to enter CC details the country US will be hard coded. It may work if you use a fake USA address, but I think that's a dodgy practice.

 

[sakahn]

If you have a UAE credit card you cant purchase apps using a USA marketplace. Because when it asks you to enter CC details the country US will be hard coded. It may work if you use a fake USA address, but I think that's a dodgy practice.

They will charge your credit card, you will pay for the apps and apps are not delivered physically. I can't see anything dodgy in it.

 

[ammarmalik2011]

They will charge your credit card, you will pay for the apps and apps are not delivered physically. I can't see anything dodgy in it.

what billing address are you going to put in there then? isn't that also verified when making a CC purchase?

 

[Exotic Hadron]

Interestingly, using Windows Phone you can have as many Personal accounts from multiple regions as you want. For example, you can create a personal profile that belongs to Spain. This allows you to have different payment methods depending on your profile. You can have your PayPal account associated with US account when your credit card are associated with ES account. This allows you to use US only service while saving ability to use Spain market and CC issued in Spain if your Billing address is in Spain. If you, like me, have living places in multiple countries, this will help you resolve issues when US services are not available to you because currently you are in Russia or in Spain.
This will also allow you to use payment methods that aren't available for your country. For example, PayPal isn't available in some countries.

Here's how you can create a Personal profile in the CountryName country:
1. Open Settings|language+region.
2. In the Country/Region drop-down list choose the region of your desire.
3. Restart your phone by tapping restart phone button.
4. Open Store app and choose any free app.
5.Tap install.

Voila! Now open commerce.microsoft.com in your browser and check that the CountryName appeared in the profile list.


Having the necessary country profile you can use payment methods available for this country. For example, US and some EU countries have wide payment options where you can choose from CC, Debit or PayPal accounts whereas other countries are limited to Credit Card payments only.

It also helps to pay for services when you don't have the card issued for the country that is specified in your Microsoft account.
For example, if you Microsoft account has United States specified as a Country/Region of this account, you have access to multiple services available for the US. Consider, you've moved to other country and have no access to the card that's been issued in the US but you have a card that is issued in the country of your residence. To pay for your service you can follow the guide above and switch from the US to the country of your new residence and be now able to pay for your services. Just switch to the profile for this new country and add a payment method to this new profile. That's it.

 

[omgitsnick]

^ I was gonna post this a few months ago when Rovio offered their games free on select countries. I noticed this checking with Microsoft commerce account (where account billing, all transactions are handled). Apparently the country for your Xbox Live account and your Microsoft account can be different.

The country set for your Xbox Live account is essential for pulling media content that is available in your country. The country set for Microsoft Account is flexible, meaning it will adapt to your Xbox Live account and your Windows/Phone Store purchases. So whenever you change countries on your Xbox Live, it will change content mostly related with Xbox Live services, while changing the country on your Windows/Phone device will affect Windows Store app availability. By doing either one, Microsoft Commerce will generate a Personal Account for every country you change to and purchase content from.

Below is my one, notice GB and TH, that's where I bought the other free Rovio games. NZ is my main as you can see with both Personal and Business (developer) account, and I'm currently using US.

 

[Exotic Hadron]

Microsoft Commerce will generate a Personal Account for every country you change to and purchase content from.

Yes, you are perfectly right! The key to get a new account for a specific country is to purchase a service, like an app, when this particular country/region is specified in your Microsoft device.

 

[sarim_xyz]

Hi, I was wondering if there is a way to revert this? I mean, I purchased some apps (yeah you guessed it right, Rovio's Angry Birds and all ) from Malaysia and China region (they were promotional free in that region) and so, they show up in my Microsoft commerce accounts, along with India, where my xbox live account was set to earlier. I am now using US account. I want to delete all other accounts (all except US) somehow (or just make them disappear, I don't wanna see them). Is that possible? The reason is that it by default shows my CN account when accessed via e.g. OneDrive's get more storage and shows the price in Chinese Yen. Any idea?

 

[Malabo Brad]

How will i change my store region from china into us region ? Can someone help me please