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Recently I started exploring a product (called "Google Domains" but that's not really relevant to the question). The point is, this product is currently open to "US residents only" and a few other countries but is not yet open to my country (a EU country).

Since the service is really good and reliable, I would like to start using it, despite not having US citizenship or business in the US. The support team of that product told me a possible workaround would be to use a credit card (Visa, Mastercard) that has a US billing address. I don't have such a card.

I was wondering if there is an online service or a third party provider that solves this problem - by creating a virtual Visa/Mastercard that is connected to my "physical" European credit/debit card or one that I can load through a wire transfer and/or Western Union.

Any european citizen who has experience with such a product?

DJClayworth
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Dzhuneyt
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1 Answers1

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There are in principle prepaid "credit" cards which you could use for that, but you would also have to provide a valid address in the US. Even if you don't intend to receive physical goods there, there has to be a billing address, and also it makes it more difficult to do what you intend to, which is a plus in the eyes of the providers who require it.

There are companies which will sell you the use of such an address as a service. I have only seen it in the context of buying physical goods, where the address at which they are received is a kind of a logistic "node" where a delivery company of your choice receives the package and forwards it to your home address. You can research if there are some other companies which would do it for casees like yours. There is a market for it, so you can probably find suppliers.

Depending on all of the risks and expenses involved, it may not be worth the hassle. There should be ways of getting to do it without committing outright fraud, but you would be breaking terms of service, so the provider of the service you consume would be entitled to pull the plug on you if they discover you. And the credit card plus maintening access to a "billing address" have a cost, plus a risk because you depend on a third party to keep everything going, and that's a third party whose services can be used for more sinister goals than yours. Especially since you mention reliability as one of your reasons to purchase that service, you are probably better off looking at something available through conventional channels.

rumtscho
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