I recently moved to Japan for teaching English and although my credit card is from the US, I can use it internationally and don't intend to get a Japanese credit card anytime soon. Is there a way for me to change my store from US to Japan? It keeps saying to enter a Japanese credit card but I don't have one. Entering my address in Japan doesn't work either :/
Windows 7
You are required to have a valid payment method issued in the country of the store you want to change to, with a valid billing address in the country of the store you wish to change to.
There's no way around this unfortunately.
Also, it would be wise to understand what will happen to your US based purchases if you do indeed change countries:
Change your iTunes Store country or region - Apple Support
What you need know before you change your country or region
When you change your iTunes Store country:
You can not us a US credit card in the Japan iTunes/Mac App Stores.
To have an account in a country you must be a legal resident of the country, supply a credit card issued by a bank in that country with a verifiable billing address in that country.
Late 2012 Mac mini, OS X El Capitan 10.11.5 beta 2; Watch, 38 mm silver AL, Watch OS 2.1; iPad Air 2 & iPhone 6+, iOS 9.3.2 beta 2; Apple Airport Express
The rules are that you can only buy from the country in which you are resident, using a credit card supported by a bank of that same country. I see the difficulty; I suggest you write to iTunes support for confirmation of any alternate arrangements they can make.
My co-worker might let me use his credit card and address so I can switch over, then remove it after. This is really stupid. Google Play is so much easier to switch over as it just did it automatically without me doing anything.
I really can't comment on Apple's way of doing business. I can just try to help you get what you want, where it is possible. You should not do what you suggest because it is not within the terms of business.
That's a bad idea because lots of folks report that they can't remove the credit card info later without replacing it with a different card's information.
Perhaps it would be better to use your US credit card to buy Japanese iTunes Gift Cards and redeem them for credit in your account to make purchases.
Would that change my store to Japan by just purchasing Japanese iTunes Gift Cards?
You should be able to offer the iTunes gift card as the payment method for the Japanese stores.
I'll try to see if that works. Thanks.
No, to redeem Japanese Gift cards you need to be using a Japanese account. I.e you cannot redeem a Japanese gift card onto a U.S. account.
While changing stores/location it asks you if you want to redeem any gift cards, so we'll see.
Yes, that is what I meant, change the account to Japan and use the Japanese iTunes Gift cards as the payment method.
Change store without payment information?
