Locked in vacation country?

[elektrischerpinguin]

Hi.
So I was on a 1 week vacation in Greece and while there I preordered “Return to Monkey Island” for 22,99€ (same price as here in Germany). Payed with a German credit card (newly added).

But - now back in Germany I can’t make purchases any more. Steam says I’m only allowed to change my country every 3 months.

I already contacted the Steam support - they were not helpful so far:

Originally posted by Steam Support:

“ You need to make your purchase in the region where you're currently located, by using a payment method that's associated with a local address. We at Steam Support can't change the Store Country on your behalf.

Steam store prices and currencies are based on your location. You'll see all available payment methods for your region during the checkout process.

You can make changes to your store region only when you move to another region.”

So I found out that since 2020 a purchase in another country automatically changes your store country. Odd: In my settings the store country is set to Germany.

Huh?


Steam? Seriously?
You do a purchase in another country and when you’re back you can’t make purchases any more for 3 months? And support can’t help you?

[Ettanin]

Thank those that abused location disguising technology to get games for cheap illegitimately.

[Ogami]

Correct, you are only allowed to change store country every 90 days.
Also, a 1 week vacation is not a legit reason to switch store country, the Steam guidelines explicitly say that its only recommended if you permanently or for a longer duration move to another country.
You could have left your store set to Germany while in Greece and just shopped like always.

Now you are stuck with the cooldown for another 10-11 weeks or so.

You can still activate keys though, so just buy the games you want outside of Steam at a key reseller.

[Ettanin]

Originally posted by Ogami:

You can still activate keys though, so just buy the games you want outside of Steam at a key reseller.

Legitimate sellers are listed here:
https://isthereanydeal.com/

any other keyseller not listed on that site may source their keys from illegitimate or fraudulent methods.

[elektrischerpinguin]

Originally posted by Ogami:

Correct, you are only allowed to change store country every 90 days.
Also, a 1 week vacation is not a legit reason to switch store country, the Steam guidelines explicitly say that its only recommended if you permanently or for a longer duration move to another country.
You could have left your store set to Germany while in Greece and just shopped like always.

Thing is - Steam automatically changed the country in the billing information.
Probably because I added a new credit card,
I tried to set it back to Germany - but all I got was an info text.

As options I got
- Greece
- Other…

And when clicking “other” I got the option to change the store country. Clicking the button offered nothing but an info text for me.

Try it out yourself.

It’s totally intransparent that you actually do a semi-permanent country change as soon as proceed with the payment.

[Cathulhu]

It also would only have done that if you entered a new billing address in the new country.

[J4MESOX4D]

Originally posted by elektrischerpinguin:

Originally posted by Ogami:

Correct, you are only allowed to change store country every 90 days.
Also, a 1 week vacation is not a legit reason to switch store country, the Steam guidelines explicitly say that its only recommended if you permanently or for a longer duration move to another country.
You could have left your store set to Germany while in Greece and just shopped like always.

Thing is - Steam automatically changed the country in the billing information.

The billing information is your home address especially as it's a German credit card and this has to be manually inputted too. Are you sure you didn't just accidentally add your current location when you were on vacation?

If you are buying in your home store with a payment method tied to your country then you can be on the moon and this wouldn't happen.

[elektrischerpinguin]

Originally posted by J4MESOX4D:

Originally posted by elektrischerpinguin:

Thing is - Steam automatically changed the country in the billing information.

The billing information is your home address especially as it's a German credit card and this has to be manually inputted too. Are you sure you didn't just accidentally add your current location when you were on vacation?

If you are buying in your home store with a payment method tied to your country then you can be on the moon and this wouldn't happen.

I definitely entered my German address - BUT - as I described above - as a country Greece was preselected and I couldn’t do anything to change that.
Chosing “other…” as a country led nowhere.

I think that’s the problem here.
Payment is the only way to change the store country by now.
If you coincidently add a new payment method while in another country you’re forced to switch the store country - as you can’t select the correct home country and have to accept the autodetected one. The UI to change it is no longer there / only leading you to a store change info page.

[J4MESOX4D]

Originally posted by elektrischerpinguin:

Originally posted by J4MESOX4D:

The billing information is your home address especially as it's a German credit card and this has to be manually inputted too. Are you sure you didn't just accidentally add your current location when you were on vacation?

If you are buying in your home store with a payment method tied to your country then you can be on the moon and this wouldn't happen.

I definitely entered my German address - BUT - as I described above - as a country Greece was preselected and I couldn’t do anything to change that.
Chosing “other…” as a country led nowhere.

So what address did you actually add because the billing screen has to be 100% correct? This could also lead to problems down the line when you are making a purchase with the same card on your German home store too. I would've halted the purchase if it didn't allow me to add my legitimate address. If the card was verified and/or added to your account previous then the store location would've been hard-locked to Germany also but I guess that wasn't possible with it being a new card.

This is why no matter where you shop online, they tell you to ensure the details are correct. You may have to wait it out and hope that there is no more conflict. Don't think it will happen if the card isn't saved or was verified from when in Greece though.

[elektrischerpinguin]

Originally posted by J4MESOX4D:

So what address did you actually add because the billing screen has to be 100% correct? This could also lead to problems down the line when you are making a purchase with the same card on your German home store too. I would've halted the purchase if it didn't allow me to add my legitimate address. If the card was verified and/or added to your account previous then the store location would've been hard-locked to Germany also but I guess that wasn't possible with it being a new card.

This is why no matter where you shop online, they tell you to ensure the details are correct. You may have to wait it out and hope that there is no more conflict. Don't think it will happen if the card isn't saved or was verified from when in Greece though.

Yea, eventually accepting that Steam just wouldn’t let me set the correct country for my credit card and continue with “Greece” was probably the reason why I’m in trouble now.

Originally posted by elektrischerpinguin:

I think that’s the problem here.
Payment is the only way to change the store country by now.
If you coincidently add a new payment method while in another country you’re forced to switch the store - as you can’t select your home country. The UI to change it is no longer there / only leading you to a store change info page.

1) https://i.imgur.com/1gWDhDL.jpg

Chosing “other…” leads here:

2) https://i.imgur.com/v6wOEkh.png
3) https://i.imgur.com/PsLGOQy.png

[Callahan420]

Seems steam has changed something, Adding the new payment method is what got you here.

A similar thread where it was asking for a new payment method.
https://steamcommunity.com/discussions/forum/1/3377158861980156293/#c3377158861982266487

[elektrischerpinguin]

Thanks @Callahan420 et al.
I think that explains what’s going on here.

Steam’s backend mess + my stubbornness.
Again - and it even claims right now that my store is set to Germany… but I can’t pay with my German Paypal oder credit card any more. D’oh!

https://i.imgur.com/eFAtq6p.jpg

And support claims they can’t fix my store country issue.

Probably I’ll have to create a second account for the time being and gift stuff to myself.

[Muppet among Puppets]

Sometimes you meet situations that no one thought out and told the machine.

You could ask support why steam says german store, but wont let you buy with your german card. Or word it better, but thats the idea.

[Satoru]

Originally posted by Muppet among Puppets:

Sometimes you meet situations that no one thought out and told the machine.

You could ask support why steam says german store, but wont let you buy with your german card. Or word it better, but thats the idea.

https://help.steampowered.com/en/faqs/view/2B3F-DAEF-846B-A0E8

As long as the payment method matches the country it doesn't matter

[elektrischerpinguin]

Originally posted by Muppet among Puppets:

Sometimes you meet situations that no one thought out and told the machine.

You could ask support why steam says german store, but wont let you buy with your german card. Or word it better, but thats the idea.

I explained the whole situation (incl. the picture of my store country set to Germany) but….

Originally posted by Steam Support:

Hello,

Thank you for reaching out.

The previous message was an automatic reply, please ignore it if it caused any confusion.

I understand your your situation. However, Steam Support can not update the store country for the user.

According to the account record, it shows that you changed the store country recently.

Please note that you can continue to make purchases with a local payment method that matches your current Store Country and you may not be able to update your Steam account country more than once every 3 months.

Let us know if you still have any concerns, thank you.

Steam Support

[Lachuś]

Originally posted by elektrischerpinguin:

Originally posted by Ogami:

Correct, you are only allowed to change store country every 90 days.
Also, a 1 week vacation is not a legit reason to switch store country, the Steam guidelines explicitly say that its only recommended if you permanently or for a longer duration move to another country.
You could have left your store set to Germany while in Greece and just shopped like always.

Thing is - Steam automatically changed the country in the billing information.
Probably because I added a new credit card,
I tried to set it back to Germany - but all I got was an info text.

As options I got
- Greece
- Other…

And when clicking “other” I got the option to change the store country. Clicking the button offered nothing but an info text for me.

Try it out yourself.

It’s totally intransparent that you actually do a semi-permanent country change as soon as proceed with the payment.