Has anyone here gotten a Claro credit card?
Submitted by oncidiumfan on Sat, 2012/06/02 - 08:59.
Can this be done without a Nicaraguan bank account? I'm finding that Apple refuses to take US-issued credit cards on line even with a Nicaraguan address as the address of record for the credit card company.
I did find some Apple resellers in Managua through Apple's web site, and buying gift certificates there, if they're available, might be the alternative solution to the problem.
Apple doesn't sell gift cards for the Nicaraguan store
The response from Apple:
Hello Rebecca,
Pardon me while I quietly mutter about Murphy and that law of his. And please bear with me as i go over some things that may help.
First, the gift card idea was a good one, unfortunately store credit is not supported in the Nicaragua store. Why, I do not know.
What is supported in the Nicaragua store is gifting. What that means is if you do want something, someone who has an account with a credit card on it can purchase a gift and generate a gift code that you can then redeem and use to download the item.
They can buy a song, an album, a video, an audiobook, a TV episode or season, a movie, or an application for anyone who has a valid email address. Once they purchase a gift, it will be delivered by email to the person or group of people specified as the recipient.
Here are the instructions to send a gift:
iTunes Gift Options http://support.apple.com/kb/HT2736
Note the recipient will need an iTunes Store account that is associated with the country in which the purchaser purchased the gift.
I realize this is a bit convoluted, Rebecca, but at least we found something that does allow you to get items from the iTunes Store.
Thank you for your patience and understanding.
Sincerely,
Greg iTunes Store Customer Support
This is, of course, dependent on finding someone with a iTunes Store Account in Nicaragua with a Nicaraguan credit card. I only know of one other Apple user in Jinotega.
Rebecca Brown
Anyone know anything about this?
http://nicaragua.card444.com/prepaidmastercard/
It appears to be a virtual Mastercard -- sounds like what I need on a per purchase basis.
Edit: Apple won't accept these, apparently, as they're too hard to verify, as per recent communication with Apple help firewall.
Rebecca Brown
A mess, no matter how you play it
If you have a Nicaraguan debit card and buy something in the US, they will call you to see if you really did buy something. It will work but it is one more step.
The one thing that is reliable is Google Checkout (as opposed to PayPal which is almost 100% unreliable. Because Google "knows who you are" (and, yes, that sounds bad), Google Checkout transactions just work -- no matter where you are, where you order from, where you ship to, ...
I have a Google Checkout set up, I think
I buy apps from the Android store without problems. Most camera places are rather used to international customers except now there's a restriction on sending anything with lithium batteries through US Mail, so some places are insisting on sending by UPS that a month ago didn't have any problem with USPS. I also have an Amazon account that I haven't had any trouble with. When I'm traveling, I call the card company and the bank and let them know.
This is an Apple App/iTunes specific issue. Didn't help my temper that they broke Preview and Finder's viewing of my Panasonic camera's *.rw2 files and the update for Apple Camera Raw required an upgrade to a new iTunes. Turned out there was another solution that fixed it (running /System/Library/Frameworks/CoreServices.framework/Versions/A/Frameworks/LaunchServices.framework/Versions/A/Support/lsregister -R /System/Library/CoreServices/CoreTypes.bundle/Contents/Library from the command line and rebooting).
I think the solution will be to find out where in Managua I can buy iTune gift certificates and just buy a handful of those when I need to buy any single downloadable program and use mules for hardware and major programs.
The issue seems to be that Apple had people use the US store to buy things in other countries and so now they want the credit card and address to match the national store you're using. My address, as the credit card company tells them, is in Nicaragua. I'm at the Nicaragua store, but since the card was issued by a US bank, it doesn't work. I've been told it never worked, but I had a US-issued credit card and a Nicaraguan address when I bought Lion and set up the account (though there were some problems with the form of address I was using, so I gave them both my APDO # and stuck 1 in front of the traditional directions to the house).
Australian friends tell me that they often can't get things because Australian copyright puts things in public domain a lot sooner than Berne Treaty countries allow. And because they have a reputation for being pirates. Because they can't get things by paying the copyright holder's agents for them, they pirate, and lather, rinse, repeat. Amazon can't ship some things to me here or sell some things to me via Kindle downloads, but the majority of books available from them in Kindle formats are available. People tell me I can get legal copies of various things through the iTunes store. Well, no, I can't.
One reason I haven't gotten a bank account here is the US IRS. If it's all in the US, my taxes are simplier (foreign bank acount: no). At this point, everything except Apple works just fine: my CC company and bank know where I am; they've got my Nicaraguan cell phone number. I seriously doubt that Apple takes Google Checkout.
Apple does list some resellers in Managua and I've been in one of the stores earlier and vaguely remembered things Apple-ish, so I'll be checking that out, I suppose, and I'll do "none" for the credit card.
Rebecca Brown
the easist thing..
since u have residency..get a bank acct. and a debit card..never heard of a claro card..there are no banks in waslala or la dalhia..do u guys have a bank up there
Three banks here
Basically, this seems like a lot of trouble to go through simply to make Apple happy. No other place I deal with, here or in the US, has any problem with my living in Nicaragua with a US bank account and card from another bank (I like having my CC separate from my regular bank account).
I'm not going to enter a bank card online anywhere if I can help it.
If I have more than this one problem, I might go ahead, set up a local bank account and apply for a credit card. As is, Apple can fix their problem since I didn't have it when I bought Lion or the other programs I've gotten from the App Store.
Interestingly enough, all the Apple sales appear to be handled out of Ireland. Just got email from them for the change in my credit card to none.
Okay, where can I buy iTunes gift certificates in Nicaragua other than in Managua? Anyone seen them in Esteli or Matagalpa? I'll check possible places in Jinotega.
Apparently, if you give Apple a US address that is the address on the credit card, they don't track IP number and you can actually be anywhere in the world, burn what you download to CDs and sell them in the street. Google lets you know up front that they are tracking the IP numbers and if you claim to be in the US with a Nicaraguan IP, they're not going to accept this.
Funny, I thought I'd have difficulties getting a new card here when the original issuer was absorbed by a bigger bank. That wasn't a problem. Explaining that I have automatic payments to Skype was a bit of a problem, but not an egregious problem (Skype has its banking somewhere in Europe, apparently). Everyone had said that this part would be difficult, but it wasn't.
Apple's being the only problem. I can't believe I'm the only expat in the world whose credit card address is in another country other than that of the issuing bank.
Rebecca Brown