Do you get the following error message as you try to buy or rent movies on Amazon.com?
We’re unable to complete your order. Your credit card wasn’t charged. Your credit card must be issued from a bank in the United States. If you have any questions, please contact Amazon Customer Service.
The message from Amazon.com is quite clear and it tells you and me that we need a credit card, a payment card, issued by a bank in the United States for this to work. So, if you are living somewhere else and do not have a credit card issued in the United States, you will not be able to pay for your Instant Videos, no matter if you want to buy it or rent it, or if you want to watch it in HD quality or in SD quality. But, what can be done?
I have already written some instructions related to paying for Instant Videos without an American Card, but I will repeat myself in this article, since it is such a common problem that lots of people face.
Rent or buy Instant Videos on Amazon.com from abroad
To rent or to buy Instant Videos on Amazon.com without a US issued bank card, this is what you will need to do!
- First of all you need to have an Amazon.com account registered with an address in the United States (my advice is that you create a new account for this purpose).
- Secondly you will need to have an American IP address.
- Now you buy an Amazon Gift Card with the amount of money you want to have on your American Amazon.com account.
- After buying it use the Gift Card code and redeem it on your American Amazon.com account.
- Now you have money on your account and you can start buying Amazon Instant Videos, without a US issued payment card.
- For this to work it is very important that you do not have any other payment cards registered to your Amazon.com account, because if you do you will still get the error message quoted in the start of the article. The only payment method available on your account needs to be the Amazon Gift Card amount.
If you want to use a method that is even more sure to work, get yourself a real American issued payment card and use that. You can read more about how it is done in this article.
It is really easy and it works perfectly. I recently used this myself to buy Instant Videos, so based on personal experience I can guarantee you that it works. Should you still have questions or comments, just use the comment field beneath.
For more information in general about watching Instant Videos from abroad, read this article.
mine still does not work …says my payment settings arent complete…whats the best bank card to get that i could use to get round this?
Hello Nicola,
are you telling me that you have a US registered Amazon account with money redeemed from gift cards, but still you can not buy Instant Videos and watch them, but get an error message telling you that your payment settings aren’t complete?
Unfortunately recently Amazon blocked option to buy/rent videos using account credit if you do not have US credit card on file.
It still works if you go to Your Account > Manage Your Content and Devices > Settings then change Country Settings to a USA address before using your credit card to purchase the gift card. Also works for Amazon UK if changed to a UK address.
My payment got cancelled, because the adress on amazon (american) wasn’t the adress on my card (Spanish), now my account is blocked, and i don’t know if i’ll lose the money :l
Sorry to hear that. I am registered like that myself, and still get no error message like that. IF you later need a valid US address combined with a US payment card, this article can help you: https://www.ipaddressguide.org/access-us-services-abroad-us-unlocked/
Does this method still work? This is the most frustrating thing, especially since I’m trying to watch CANADIAN shows that aren’t available on the Canadian Amazon. Why is our money not good enough? : /
Yes, it should absolutely work 🙂
Bro, have you tried this? “It still works if you go to Your Account > Manage Your Content and Devices > Settings then change Country Settings to a USA address before using your credit card to purchase the gift card. Also works for Amazon UK if changed to a UK address.”
Didn’t work for me. I purchased a $4 gift card using my non-US account and credit card (account 1), set up another account (account 2) with a US address using a US IP, and redeemed the gift card using that account. When I tried to rent a video, I got the following error message:
“Your Amazon payment method settings aren’t current. Please update your payment method to complete this purchase.”
Above, Damien said the following:
“It still works if you go to Your Account > Manage Your Content and Devices > Settings then change Country Settings to a USA address before using your credit card to purchase the gift card.”
Am I to understand that the country settings on the account used to *buy* the gift card (account 1) should also bet set to a US address, even if the credit card used is not a US card?
Thanks!
Update: I got it working by setting up a Default Address on account 2, using a US address.
Thanks for your input!
I get this error message with 3 US cards from US banks on file. I am in China, but I used to order all the time abroad. Any ideas? Does it read my IP and think I’m Chinese (even though I use my American Cards)? This must be new with the China firewall…
Same here, unfortunately. I registered a new account on Amazon.com, linked it to an American address, and used an American IP during the process. When I tried to buy a GIFT card, I used my non-American credit card but… I immediately got my account blocked… I then had a look at the other link you provided above, but apparently US Unlocked is not working anymore… 🙁