iTunes store - use in different countries

Gents,
I am an expat, living in Brazil. My bank and account are in the US and so does the plastic money. When I try to buy music in iTunes store it doesn't accept my country of choice. I have to buy from the apple store in Brazil. I can buy anything on-line with my credit-card world-wide but the apple store only allows Brazil. The Brazilian apple-store for songs is pretty limited, so are other applications. Is there a way to get around this?

Cheers

ibiraviking said:

Gents,
I am an expat, living in Brazil. My bank and account are in the US and so does the plastic money. When I try to buy music in iTunes store it doesn't accept my country of choice. I have to buy from the apple store in Brazil. I can buy anything on-line with my credit-card world-wide but the apple store only allows Brazil. The Brazilian apple-store for songs is pretty limited, so are other applications. Is there a way to get around this?

Cheers

Click to expand...

Have you tried to alter the regional settings in OSX from Brazil to the U.S.? Are you using an American or Brazilian address in your Apple / iTunes Store account? Remember there are two addresses - one for shipping and one for billing.

Other than that - I know two workarounds... for the music, that is. One is easy, the other one is a bit more complicated. The latter one entails purchasing the music CDs, waiting for them to arrive (if ordering online), ripping them and adding the files to your iTunes library. The easy way... hmmm... I'm not sure if I'm allowed to write about such things here, but I think you already know what I mean anyway. It's way cheaper than the price you have to pay for the CDs - even when you exclude the shipping costs.

I have visited an Apple store and called customer service (twice) in regards to this very issue.

iTunes is set up (as are all purchases through Apple) to only allow you to use the country that matches the country of your billing address. You can't even order from Apple (by phone or in person at an Apple store) and have a product shipped to a country that does not match the country of the billing address. This is Apple's attempt to combat CC fraud and it has been programmed into the ordering software. I understand it, but it still makes me mad.

I'm not sure if this works, but I've heard people make a new account and pay with American coupons they buy at amazon/ebay. As far as I can see, there is nothing illegal about that.

Periculum said:

I'm not sure if this works, but I've heard people make a new account and pay with American coupons they buy at amazon/ebay. As far as I can see, there is nothing illegal about that.

Click to expand...

Nothing illegal about it, but I would buy the coupons on amazon then. It can be risky to purchase them on ebay, as Apple will close down your entire iTunes account if the coupons are mickey-mouse.

Hi Gents, Thanks all for your efforts.
My billing address is Brazil, even while accounts are in US etc. Changing to US settings doesn't work. It's the address to blame in this case. I best go (stick to) Torbjoern's second option or try the Amazon coupons.
It's not only for the songs but also for new software etc. like iLife 09 etc.
Cheers.

how to get itunes cards in brazil

While I was overseas I began buying my cards from different websites that sell itunes gift cards online.

The way around the above problem is to use a VPN (virtual private network). You might have to pay for a good one that's secure but if you're a US exPAT living outside the US with all your accounts remaining in the US, it will be worth it.