Youth With A Mac

If you have an iOS device, or a Mac, chances are you have a US iTunes account. Other countries have various restrictions(for example, in South Korean store, there was no games allowed until recently), or it is more expansive. But the problem is, you need to have a credit card issued in the US to buy anything from the US iTunes store. The other alternative is to buy iTunes Gift Card. They are available in various stores, but you need to go to the US to buy them. There are online seller on ebay that sell the cards, but they charge more than the face value of the card. Another problem is that sometimes the vendors sell codes(they usually don’t send the Gift Card, they just send you the code) that they obtained from a shady source, and if Apple is not happy with a certain code that you use, they will block your account, and you will lose everything that you bought in that account, including remaining credit.

Now, there is a cheaper and more reliable way of buying iTunes Gift Card online. Bestbuy, one of the largest online-offline seller in the US, sells the iTunes Gift Cards through their website. Since Bestbuy is a name that you can trust, you don’t have to worry about the legitimacy of the code. Also, they charge only the face value. In fact, now the cards are on sale, and you can get 20% discount (I paid $40 for a $50 card).

The problem is, when you check out, they only accept a credit card issued in the US(it seems this restriction only applies to the purchase of iTunes Gift Card). But there is a way around it. First, you need a US Paypal account. You just need to choose US as your country when you make an account with Paypal, and you don’t need the US credit card. Once you have the US Paypal account, then choose Paypal as your payment method when you check out from Bestbuy. That’ it! You will get the code in a couple of hours(if they are not busy, it might come within an hour). Some people tried foreign credit card and succeeded in buying the iTunes Cards from Bestbuy, but most people failed with this method, so using Paypal seems to be a better alternative.