Spain/UK Google Wallet issue! Clarification please!

[marco772]

Hi,

My Dad recently visited from Spain. He bought a tablet online in the UK and had it delivered to me in advance so I could set it up and fill it with the apps he wanted.
This was fine for the free apps. However when we tried to buy one and it prompted us for card details (to set up a Google Wallet) we hit a bit of a brick wall!

The problem is, I think, that while his LLoyds bank account (linked to the card he uses online) is in the UK he resides in Spain. So we put country as UK but had to put a Spanish postcode and phone number.

It did not like this! No error message, it just wouldn't do anything.

I was wondering if putting Spain as the country (even though that doesn't match the bank account) would sort it? In the end we didn't chance and it when he returns with the tablet to Spain next week his tech-savy neighbour will have a look and probably sort it out.

In the meanwhile though, can anyone clear up my confusion please?

We also tried an Amazon app purchase but, even though he buys things from the UK site when in Spain a lot, it wouldn't let us buy anything here!

Any suggestions would be welcomed!

Thanks
Mark

 

[64MarcoV]

Try to contact Amazon about this. I think Amazon 'remembers' the location from where your father ordered the tablet (Spanish I P )

Even with Google this can be the problem. I hope you get help with them.

 

[mikedt]

Sure the problem is really with Google Play and Google wallet, it just can't be used internationally, and is very geo-restricted. Because your father was in Spain, he's getting the Spanish version of Play, and it's more than likely expecting a Spanish credit card from a Spanish bank. And he just can't use a UK card for the Spanish Play store.

Maybe the peeps at the Googleplex, Mountain View, USA never travel internationally or have ever heard of the European Union?

Apple's iTunes Store on the other hand can be used internationally, as long as you have a credit card for the country you want, you're OK. I can buy stuff from the UK iTunes Store even though I'm in China, because I have a UK credit card. Not so with Google Play. I can't buy anything from Play.

 

[SiempreTuna]

Maybe the peeps at the Googleplex, Mountain View, USA never travel internationally or have ever heard of the European Union?

Wouldn't be the first time techies 'forgot' the rest of the world. I worked on part of an SAP implementation for the Japanse and Australian branches a major US company.

They had this awesome plan to run everything on hardware in Boston, which was (kinda) OK until they started taking the system down for a couple of hours at midnight for backups and maintenance, completely forgetting that midnight in Boston was slap in the middle of the working day in Japan and Aus

:rofl:

 

[marco772]

Thanks. Wow, that's a bit of a pain. We'd figured out a while back that his access to the store would probably flip from Uk (as it is while I've had it here in the UK) to Spanish (when he gets home with it), so, I guess, most of the films and books will be Spanish or dubbed. But the apps, I'm hoping, will be by and large the same.
In all my time with Android devices I've only ever bought about 2 apps out of the 400+ I've downloaded so it shouldn't be a big issue but it WOULD be nice for him to have the option!

I was surprised though, as his card works on the Amazon website (the UK one but accessed from Spain), that it couldn't be used for the Play Store or Amazon Marketplace.

Hopefully there's some sort of way of circumventing this (hopefully not too complicated as he's not very technical!).

Seems ridiculous to me that you can't just bosh in your card of choice and, more importantly, simply select the store you want to use from anywhere in the world. Would make things so much simpler for the ex-pats!

 

[SiempreTuna]

Would make things so much simpler for the ex-pats!

The technology may have changed but the problems remain the same

I think most ex-pats get around this sort of thing by having bank accounts in each country. It's a decade since I was an ex-pat but I still have accounts in 3 countries on 2 continents

 

[marco772]

I shall have to ask if he has a Spanish account with a card over there. I guess that way he will, at least, have the option to buy apps! And hopefully they won't ALL be in Spanish...

 

[mikedt]

Thanks. Wow, that's a bit of a pain. We'd figured out a while back that his access to the store would probably flip from Uk (as it is while I've had it here in the UK) to Spanish (when he gets home with it), so, I guess, most of the films and books will be Spanish or dubbed. But the apps, I'm hoping, will be by and large the same.
In all my time with Android devices I've only ever bought about 2 apps out of the 400+ I've downloaded so it shouldn't be a big issue but it WOULD be nice for him to have the option!

I was surprised though, as his card works on the Amazon website (the UK one but accessed from Spain), that it couldn't be used for the Play Store or Amazon Marketplace.

Hopefully there's some sort of way of circumventing this (hopefully not too complicated as he's not very technical!).

Seems ridiculous to me that you can't just bosh in your card of choice and, more importantly, simply select the store you want to use from anywhere in the world. Would make things so much simpler for the ex-pats!

You'd think it would work. Spain and the UK are both in the EU, which I believe was supposed to remove barriers to commerce between members of the EU. Perhaps with both Google and Amazon being US companies they might not understand that?