[kutakbash]

Sometimes these arbitrary pseudo-technical restrictions are just infuriating. Once I came across an online store that wouldn't let you ship to one country and pay with credit card of another one (say, you try to order something to the US and pay with Canadian credit card), like no one ever moves between countries. Or Elance.com won't check your address in Belarus because they don't 'support' Belarus (I guess it means they didn't want to find anyone who can read Belarussian), preventing anyone from Belarus from using their service.

It's great the author brought this problem to everyone's attention.

[bigd]

This craziness with CC is the norm rather than the exception whenever the company has international breadth. It sadly due to international treaties, weird taxation and bureaucracy rather than coding. three examples: Apple store Amazon Playstation Store

I agree with you that this is ludicrous, but sadly there's not much you can do. (I keep my french bank account on only to keep my ps games.)

[kutakbash]

Is it really a norm? Most of online stores don't attempt to 'validate' your CC number in this way. Entire reshipping businesses are built on this premise.

[bigd]

for my experience with ps store and apple store: ITA CC FR Account: No ps store, no apple; FR CC US Account: No ps store, no apple; US CC FR Account: No ps store; other combinations not tested. I remember having issues with amazon, but not for the CC, but for shipping outside the country. for what i saw, the issue with foreigners is very bad in france and us. in france your country is usually "constant" and even the gov.fr does not allow you to specify a new residence outside france. US are even worst. someone with no SSN almost does not exist. Or the eventuality of foreigners is not even considered possible. It is sad that then we go around bragging about "globalization" when it is impossible to keep something like the credit score if you move country.