International PSN Store Accounts: Full Instructions

[JP]

This may well be nothing but I'd rather be cautious and post the info here for other people who may have used the site.

I received a phone call today from my bank stating they had put my account on hold due to a suspected fraudulent claim on my account. When they called they were asking for account information and I was uncomfortable giving it to an overseas advisor who called me so I decided I'd phone back when at home on their listed phone number.

Anyway the call was genuine and after spending time going through a list of transactions it seems that after buying points from Maximus Cards on the 21st they've attempted to take the same amount of money from my account again today.

I don't see how but I'm not ruling out that it's somehow happened by accident and I'll email them in a bit and let people know what happens. I'm not sure how long it'll take to get a reply and what the response will be but I'm in going into hospital on Monday afternoon for an operation on my back and I'll be in there until at least Wednesday and I have no idea what sort of internet I'll have while it's going on.

As I said, I'm not suggesting for a second that MaximusCards have attempted to commit fraud but I did feel it was best to make people aware who may be considering using them.

[Darwock]

That's very odd, because my debit card was put on hold after I tried to use it at Maximus Cards. The transaction was rejected the first time (without payment getting taken), and then I had to call to get my card unlocked. I bought from them using my credit card instead and didn't have any issues.

Is your bank Abbey/Santander? Maximus Cards might be on some kind of blacklist with them or something. I haven't had a problem with their service but my bank didn't like it.

I guess if they are potentially trouble then the US PSN card thread needs another update, as they are the current best solution for getting a US points card :/

[dttdtt]

www.japan-codes.com also has PSN cards for Japan store. You can pay by PayPal or credit cards (which is also processed by PayPal). So everything is safe.

[JP]

Have been doing this for a while but completely forgot to mention it until I used it earlier.

Amazon.com (USA) now have a PSN Store on their site, you can use it to buy both $20:00 and $50:00 codes. Once you've bought the codes they'll then be added to your Digital Orders section of your Amazon.com account and you'll get an email advising you that they're ready to use.

The advantage of doing this instead of using a reseller is that you'll only pay the points value for the code instead of paying that and also paying the reseller to do this for you and unlike buying them directly via the PSN, Amazon.com are happy to accept non US credit/debit cards.

When you set up your Amazon.com account you'll need to fill in your detals but of course the form they use to ontain these details will be formatted for US addresses which is no good for UK cards.

Having checked my address details, this is the format that I used for my postal/billing address...


I've had an Amazon.com account for ages as I used to import films from them but I presume that it's still possible to add addresses in the same format.

The first time I placed an order of this kind it did take about 24 hours for the code to turn up in my account as it was the first order I'd placed for years and it was a new credit card and I was advised it was being checked so I presume that it's standard practice for things like that.

I've not done it myself but you can also buy games directly in the same way such as these:

• Parasite Eve $5:99
• Xenogears $9:99
• God of War Collection $29:99

SCEA have 298 items listed here including PSP/PS1/PS3 games as well as PS3 DLC.

As I said, I've not tried the direct downloads yet but can't see any reason why they would work any differently to the point codes. I don't even know if Amazon.com/SCEA know that people are able to do what I've been doing and they could well stop it from happening at some point if/when they do find out.

I hope it works for people as well as it has worked for me and I'd recommend posting here if you've been able to open a brand new Amazon.com account and got it to work using the same address formating and maybe if you've managed to get the direct downloads to work also.

I've not looked at Amazon.jp yet as I don't think I've ever set up a Japanese Amazon account but if somebody has one they may want to try it there also.

[Family Fry]

Don't you have to have a US debit/visa card registered to a US address?
Sure it didn't work for be on Xbox live games as they sell the codes sometimes on the cheap for live games. If it works for psn I will grab some games

[JP]

Nope, I've used a UK registered MasterCard (Credit) as well as a UK registered Visa (Debit) and it's worked fine with both. It does ask for a billing address each time you do it but I've just used the same mix of my real address and a US postal address that I showed above.

I couldn't resist any longer and tried one of the direct downloads and bought Arc The Lad III as I've already got the other two and that worked perfectly for me.

It all seems far too simple and it's not a one off as I've used it a few times with no problems at all. My only concern is that until somebody else confirms otherwise is that it could be something to do with me having an account before all this digital stuff was added.

I forgot to mention previously that it does add tax onto the order, Arc The Lad III was $5:99 and it added tax of $0:52.

I know when buying PSN stuff using other methods the address location can decide whether sales tax is added or not but I don't know even know if this is sales tax or some other kind of tax and I don't want to risk messing around with the address in case I lose access to the service.

I suppose it goes without saying but if you're starting up a new Amazon.com account, it won't allow you to do it with the same email address as you've used for Amazon.co.uk or at least it didn't a couple of years ago when I set mine up.

There's a decent selection available but they don't have everything available, they have Ridge Racer Type 4 which is new as well as Final Fantasy VII and Final Fantasy IX but they're missing Final Fantasy VIII, or at least I can't find it.

I'm not sure if that's missing due to sales figures?

I noticed as well that you can gift codes to people which is nice.

EDIT:
Just noticed a link by the tax which leads to this...

Orders Subject to Sales Tax
The amount of tax charged depends upon many factors, including the identity of the seller, the type of item purchased, and the destination of the shipment.

Items sold by Amazon.com LLC, or its subsidiaries, and shipped to destinations in the states of Kansas, Kentucky, New York, North Dakota, or Washington are subject to tax.

For sales tax purposes, electronically delivered products (e-books, e-documents, and electronically delivered software) are considered to be shipped to your credit card billing address.

No sales tax is charged when purchasing gift cards; however, purchases paid for with gift cards may be subject to tax.

So it is sales tax and it can be avoided, still a little cautious about messing around with my registered address though.

[Finsbury Girl]

deleted