US Microsoft Points (and points in general)

[Spatial]

Well, following my system swap of the 360 everything's not quite gone to plan....

As the main profile I set up on my 360 is US based, I can't use UK points or a credit card to buy them.

Clever me thought I'd found a way around that by using a second UK profile to download stuff with points and once they were on the hardrive I could access them.

Clever me has now been bitten in the arse since they don't work any more with other profiles as the console serial number is different (and it doesn't matter if I'm on Live or not). The stuff is still on the hardrive but it won't see them with the US profile and redownloading makes no difference.

MS won't help as they'll only refund points to the original profile which means even if they did I still wouldn't be able to access them.

So, does anywhere know a reliable place that will ship US prepaid points cards to the UK? I've tried the usual places but they don't seem to sell them.

Also can anyone just confirm that once the points from the cards are registered they don't actually expire? I'm pretty sure they don't (as that'd be a rip off of epic proportions) but I thought it best just to double check.

[EvilBoris]

I've just devised and tested a special method just for you that will let it work.

You need 2 pads

Sign in with your main US profile so that it is on the dashboard with its gamercard.
Press the guide button on Pad 2 and sign in to the UK profile.

Uk profile will be signed in at the same time but be on in the background granting your US profile to all the games that are purchased on the UK one!

[Spatial]

Nice one Boris, that works a treat!

I salute you and your cunning plans.

[anephric]

That's really quite ingenious. You are a clever little monkey.

[EvilBoris]

Who'd of thunk it

[randombs]

yeah that's what they've been saying recently - that live arcade stuff (and other stuff you buy with points) comes with two licenses - one is applied to the console itself, allowing any accounts on there to use the game/theme/whatever, and another is applied to the account itself, steam-style, letting any console access the paid-for content but only while that account is signed in.

of course they didn't mention the 2-pad trick

[Rossco]

Thats genius, not that I need to use it or anything but what a brilliant find!

[fahrenheit]

Nifty trick.

Question, can points be used to pay for (extending) Live subscriptions? Would there be any disadvantages to doing so, rather than just using a sub card?

[tom-nook]

Nah, MS Points can only be used to pay for stuff from the Marketplace.

[fahrenheit]

Sounds like a promise broken. I was fairly certain that pre-launch they were talking about points being useable for Live credit. Oh well.