Windows store developer program payment, please help

Unity Engine
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Hi fellas,
Today I tried to register for windows store developer program. While doing this process I came to know, card information is required. Ok normal. Then I noticed, it must be credit card, no prepaid card is allowed. This is devastating for me! Guys, I live in a country which is not anything like USA. Only big companies with huge $$$ and TIN are eligible to APPLY for a credit card. Want to hear the requirements? Well put atleast 51K dollar in your Bank Account or earn at least 2K dollar every month. Give all the necessary documents as a proof, then they will THINK for a credit card for you. So safely saying, I wont be getting a credit card in near future. Now I came up with an idea. Here in Dhaka, I know some places where agencies pay to abroad via credit card, on behalf of individuals; in return they charge a small amount of money. I am pretty sure many of you faced this situation. I need your advice. What should I do? Should I pay via somebody else’s credit card? Will not be problematic in future? Or I should simply dump windows platform?

I contacted with their customer care chat, they gave me a phone number while saying “it is really beyond
our expertise.”
I will try to call them now. Guys please share your thoughts.

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Am I alone in this nightmare?

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I didn’t realize they changed this in the past few years but looks like they have. I would be weary of third parties for payment unless you’ve researched them thoroughly. That being said googling it looks like some banks in Bangladesh do provide debit cards with a visa logo on it. It might be worth seeing if any of those would work for your needs.

Not sure if the requirements you spoke of above was just for credit or would be the same for debit. If so maybe try contacting Microsoft support before going down the third party route.

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I will be getting a debit card this month from payoneer. But as their(MS) website says, debit card being a prepaid credit card will not be supported. They require it for verification purposes, isn’t it odd? They can ask for other criteria, for example passport,driver license, national ID etc.

As for requirements(eligibility for credit card) I said above, are for credit card, some banks do it for debit card too. Weird thing is, cards from many bank CAN NOT be used for online transaction,they are for people who frequently go abroad. I need credit card, as I already in a process of getting debit card. Those requirements are just ridiculous. However I contacted NCC bank today, lets see if I can manage it from them. Their policy is seems workable. Also I have heard of virtual cards, via which people pay TOEFL, IELTS etc fee. Lets see if they allow paying Microsoft fee too.

I have contacted Microsoft customer care, no luck; it happens to be simply “their out of scope thing”. About paying from another person’s card, I will contact with them again. Lets see what happens.

I am just thinking, still I am trying my best to support their platform. And they are doing their best to repel me from their platform. Really developer friendly!

Edit: guys, lets say my close relative(whom I trust) has a credit card, can I pay from his? Does this mean all of the revenue I earn, will go to that card, with what I registered? Can I can simply delete that card(the credit card while registering) after registration. And then add my debit card or my bank account?

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Not necessarily, for ex., let’s say your app support in app purchases, which you might implement via PayPal, that means those funds would go to your PayPal account.

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Tomas1856, Good to know that! :stuck_out_tongue: After registration, I can delete that credit card and add a prepaid card or bank account? The reason why I am asking, my relative is of course wiling to pay for me via his credit card. But he does not want it to be tied with ms store forever. Is there a rule on win store that you must ALWAYS have a “CREDIT”(NOT DEBIT) card tied with your microsoft account? or the credit card is only required while registering?

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Microsoft I believe does support using a bank debit card backed by one of the major credit card companies (i.e. that has a visa, master card logo on it). There is a difference between having a prepaid debit card (i.e. one you can go to a retail store and pay cash for vs. one that is tied to your bank account AND backed by the credit card companies but yet tied to your bank account funds. A bank debit card that isn’t backed by the credit card companies I’m sure won’t work but some forum threads seem to indicate that debit cards backed by visa/mastercard will.

http://social.msdn.microsoft.com/Forums/windowsapps/en-US/1cf9c88f-6a44-4b73-9fa2-9e7bf3b8c2db/can-i-get-a-windows-store-developer-account-without-credit-card-or-with-debit-card?forum=windowsstore

Because microsoft is actually using the card to confirm your identity I don’t know if it would accept the registration with all your information but then the card of your relative and if it does I’m not sure if you’ll be able to remove that easily. As Tomas stated if you do get your account setup in this way you can always get IAP or ad revenue through third parties but it would limit you to these sources. First party microsoft store payment (i.e. if you wanted to do a paid app) might get a bit tricky and have to go through your relative if you can’t delete the card.

I have used a visa debit card for my registration but I don’t know exactly when Microsoft changed this policy to know for sure if it will currently work. I also don’t know the requirements of the banks in your location to get a debit card that is backed by visa/mastercard. A quick google search did bring up that jamuna and a few others do offer them in your location but I have no idea what balance/fees they might want to do it.

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greggtwep16, among of all of the card offers from jamuna bank, the relevant one is “VISA Dual Currency Credit Card”, noted here. You can see the requirements there. Now the restrictions for which, I am ineligible:

  1. Must be regular employee or if self-employed with business operating for at least two (2) years
  2. Minimum gross fixed monthly income of BDT 50,000 (nearly $617)
  3. Should have at least one (1) landline phone
  4. Residence or office address must be within any area where a JBL branch is located

I have just finished my graduation and I am taking a huge risk spending my time for unity-game development. So 1,2,3 is off for me; and the fact, it is Bangladesh we are talking about. Normally we have starting salary, somewhat near 15000-20000 BDT. And for getting a landphone line is not so easy either; I am not ready to do $$$ bribery for a landphone. That will void my main moral purpose of deving game. And very few actually buzz about landphone here, because mobile is overtaking.

I talked with hsbc today, about their credit card service. The service is similar to dual currency,stated above. And apart from the ridiculous requirements, they added “those credit cards are for people frequently going abroad, for their transaction while in abroad. The card do NOT allow any internet transaction.” Even with mastercard/visa logo, seemed a lot weird to me. For you guys, it might not be so weird, as you have already read about a lot weirder situation;).

So even though I can manage card from jamuna, I suspect it wont serve my purpose.

If the debit card were in my hand right now, I would experiment and see if the card really work or not. It will ship at the end of this month, then I will try. But I do not retain any hope of it. After some searching in internet about “registering windows store with payoneer card”, I only find negative result. So, unless microsoft change policy recently, my card will not work.

The reason I am asking so many questions regarding it, because it is a terminal situation about a platform. I should not invest a lot of time and money, just to discover “I should not support windows platform from the very first place”.

If it is discovered that registered credit card can not be replaced by my bank account(or debit card) after registration, windows platform is game-over for me.

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Yeah that’s really unfortunate I do see now that their visa debit card does mention only within Bangladesh (the one under the link you provided). I can’t find any other suggestions to try and after reading more you are probably correct that it most likely won’t work when it arrives. I agree that hopefully Microsoft changes the policy back.

I couldn’t find any concrete info either way if you do go with your trusted close relative. It appears unknown if that registration would go through and if it does if you’d then be able to delete that one and replace it with the prepaid and/or debit cards. There is a possibility that it might work but I wouldn’t be optimistic. I would also think even if you were able to switch out the card after the fact for payment that Microsoft would still identify the account with your relative which may present problems further down the line. I couldn’t find anything concrete on the topic either way.