[Android General] sebachamaca:
YOU WILL NEED A CREDIT CARD (But doesn't matter from where or if it's limited to your country)

This method will get you access to the US Play Store permanently, without the need to fake your location (sort of), so you can say goodbye to those slow and painful proxys!

Hi Guys!

This is my first thread here at XDA, so cut me some slack if it's not perfect, although I'm pretty sure you'll thank me for this.

So everybody likes the Play Store. However, as with most services, a big part of the contents are limited to the US version of the store. While other services like iTunes have this problem, creating a US based account is pretty much painless, and they never really ask after you tell them where you live, even you're lying.

Google, however, is a team of pretty smart guys. The Play Store is a service based on a website that uses your location to tell which is the correct store for the place you're in. However, I've discovered that this method only applies on certain occasions.

You see, the Play Store will only use your location IF you don't have a payment method selected. I'm guessing you know where I'm going with this, but I'll go on anyways. After you set up a payment method, the Play Store will use the location of the billing address of said method to determine the store it has to access.

So what does this mean? Basically, if you set up a credit card in Google Wallet with a billing address with a US zip code (regardless of the real billing address, if you set it up through the Android app you only have to access the zip code) your account will become a US based account.

Of course, this means that you can use this method to access pretty much any Play Store available with a short Google Search of a zip code from the place you want.

Anyways, I'll tell you step by step how I did it. I want to be very clear: there are other methods. Again, you only need to set up a payment method with a US billing address. But some people are fond of Step-by-step tutorials and I want to get this to as much people as possible.

So without further do:

1. Getting the android Google Wallet app. For this I used tunnelbear, an app you probably already know if you've been trying to accomplish what I did, but in case you're not familiar with it, it's an app that let's you surf the web as if you were in another country, so that location based websites (like the Play Store) will send you to that country's version of the site. Anyways, use the app and go to the Play Store to download the app into your phone. If the app doesn't show up, chances are that already have a payment method with a billing address outside of the US, so you must remove that. Don't worry, you can enter it later, and even use it to buy thing (look at the end of the post)​

2. Setting up your payment method. Once you get the Wallet app, use the menu button or the 3-dot menu and go to settings. The first thing you should see is "Credit and debit cards". Tap that and then tap the "+" sign on the top right corner of the screen. Here you must enter the card info. YOU MUST USE REAL INFO, OTHERWISE IT WON'T RECOGNIZE THE CARD. The cardholder name is irrelevant. where it says zip code, you can probably guess what you need to do. I used a Florida zip code, but again, any US code will work.​

3. Final steps to victory! We're almost there! now that you've set up your US payment method, all you need to do is clear the Play Store app's Data (NOT ONLY THE CACHE). To do this, go to your phone's settings app, find the application manager, search for the Google Play Store app (be sure you're on the "ALL" tab on the most right) and tap it, and then tap the button that says "Clear data" (again, don't JUST clear the cache!). Proceed and then go the Play Store app. You should be prompted to accept the terms of service, meaning that everything went fine and dandy. Now feel free to enjoy!​

And there you go! No more proxys, VPNs, and temporary solutions! Again, this method is probably not the only way to achieve this, but I'm hoping that you at least got an idea of what you need to do to accomplish this.

I used my personal credit card, and to be honest, I'm not sure if prepaid cards will work, but I don't see why they shouldn't. Also, regarding the ability to buy apps and other contents, it seem to work just fine. I've purchased a couple of apps and books, so everything seems to be working fine.

The only time I had a problem with a payment was when I wanted to buy 25$ of Play Store credit, where the operation wouldn't go through, but I quickly solved it by buying the credit using Tunnelbear and then I could use the credit without any problems (and without Tunnelbear of course).

I really hope this works for you, It's really a shame that Google doesn't make the Store international (or at least get it to more countries quicker) since that is probably the only thing that is helping iTunes get the upper hand on it.

If you have any problems feel free to PM me, I'm far from an expert but I might be able to help you.

PD: As this is my first post, the title is very barebones. If you want to help me with what I should put up there, I'm all ears, since I want to get this to as most people as possible. Thanks in advance! :laugh: