Online video game store? halp

[FireCrystal]

Ok, so here's the thing.. I moved to the US last year and I've been trying to use my credit card, issued at my home country, to buy things online, but not a single website accepted it. I'm guessing tha reason for that is because those stores, such as Target, Amazon, Ebgames are US stores.

So I'm looking for like an asian or european video game online store that ships to the US and accepts International credit cards. (Not play-asia, because they don't accept American Express)

[Tajin]

EB Games does not accept Amex? o.O

[Kaylia]

They don't accept Amex? You must be doing something wrong, or call your credit card company. Never heard of a place that don't accept it.

Another solution would be to get a new credit. So easy to get one it shouldnt be an issue.

[Elesirdur]

A lot of brick-and-mortar merchants (at least in Canada) don't accept Amex. Mostly because Amex is a very small minority of the Canadian CC market, and Amex charges huge use and access fees to merchants compared to Visa/MC based on the number of transactions you'll be ringing through.

I don't know what it's like for merchants in America, but it could be a similar thing. Just not enough people with Amex cards to justify the purchase of Amex systems.

[Charla]

There's an "International American Express"?

[Melena]

another reason stores dont take amex is they charge a boat load for the right of letting a customer use there card at your store. while visa, mc etc charge like 1-2 pennies on the dollar per charge, amex charges 3-4x that amount. that's another reason why stores like best buy, fry's, etc all push there credit card. they don't have to pay that extra fee every time they swipe a cc.

[Elesirdur]

Aren't Credit Cards, by default, international?

When you sign up for one at your local/national bank, it's in a specific currency. But, that's for Visa/MC/Amex etc to sort out when they are billed by the merchant to convert to the required currency. However, I know at least with my MasterCard, I get hit with a 5% surcharge on all purchases not made in Canadian Dollars, on top of the exchange rate.

[Khamsin]

They don't accept Amex? You must be doing something wrong, or call your credit card company. Never heard of a place that don't accept it.

Another solution would be to get a new credit. So easy to get one it shouldnt be an issue.

He's guessing that it's because it's a foreign American Express card, so they won't take it. If he had an American Express card issued in America, they might. But not one from his home country.

As for lack of Amex support in the US, it's just not very popular in this country. They probably get most of their business overseas.

[Keno]

Aren't Credit Cards, by default, international?

When you sign up for one at your local/national bank, it's in a specific currency. But, that's for Visa/MC/Amex etc to sort out when they are billed by the merchant to convert to the required currency. However, I know at least with my MasterCard, I get hit with a 5% surcharge on all purchases not made in Canadian Dollars, on top of the exchange rate.

No. Your card is issued by your bank, which only has your type of currency. Visa/MC/Amex have nothing to do for being billed by the merchant or anything, they merely are a processor and information conveyor to your bank. When you make a purchase using a credit card, the money automatically comes out of the issuing bank's funds. All the credit card companies do is facilitate that electronic transaction. All that to say that perhaps because his card was issued by a foreign bank with a foreign currency, that bank may only accept charges in their currency (as to not have to deal with exchange and such). I could be wrong about why your card isn't being accepted, but I think that's probably it.

[Elesirdur]

Aren't Credit Cards, by default, international?

When you sign up for one at your local/national bank, it's in a specific currency. But, that's for Visa/MC/Amex etc to sort out when they are billed by the merchant to convert to the required currency. However, I know at least with my MasterCard, I get hit with a 5% surcharge on all purchases not made in Canadian Dollars, on top of the exchange rate.

No. Your card is issued by your bank, which only has your type of currency. Visa/MC/Amex have nothing to do for being billed by the merchant or anything, they merely are a processor and information conveyor to your bank. When you make a purchase using a credit card, the money automatically comes out of the issuing bank's funds. All the credit card companies do is facilitate that electronic transaction. All that to say that perhaps because his card was issued by a foreign bank with a foreign currency, that bank may only accept charges in their currency (as to not have to deal with exchange and such). I could be wrong about why your card isn't being accepted, but I think that's probably it.

Good point. I suppose major financial nations that are in the G-8 and EU are likely to have agreements in place to facilitate this kind of monetary transfer, but other nations may not have such abilities.

[Milks]

Try National Console Support.

http://www.ncsx.com/

[FireCrystal]

They don't accept Amex? You must be doing something wrong, or call your credit card company. Never heard of a place that don't accept it.

Another solution would be to get a new credit. So easy to get one it shouldnt be an issue.

He's guessing that it's because it's a foreign American Express card, so they won't take it. If he had an American Express card issued in America, they might. But not one from his home country.

As for lack of Amex support in the US, it's just not very popular in this country. They probably get most of their business overseas.

They wouldn't accept my foreign Amex because the shipping address doesn't match the billing address. So does anyone know any websites?

[Po]

This is another good store for importing, you can check it out.

http://toysnjoys.com/

[Balduran]

I had the same and some similar problems like you, since I am a student abroad using a VISA credit card issued from a different country, to finance my way through life...

First of all, I use amazon.com .co.uk & .de with different billing & shipping address fine. Other than that I stick to Paypal where available. Depending on where your American Express card is issued, it could be possible to associate it with a Paypal account. This way you can shop from merchants that accept paypal and regardless of your billing address, any shipping address could be selected for shipment with no problems!

Ebgames usually doesn't validate orders with different shipping and billing addresses. However you can find some games on ebgames on amazong as well...

For security reasons, some merchants will not accept orders with a totaly different shipping/billing address, which in my opinion is silly, because VISA is VISA, MasterCard is MasterCard, American Express is American Express, take on some different security measures!

Hope this helps!

PS: VISA Skywards FTW!