can you buy a game off steam when your in american on holidays

bpb101 wrote: »

basicly can you buy a game off steam when your not in Ireland eg. America

Yes, if you have an American credit card or access to one. I bought a bunch of games with my Australian cc while i was in Oz for a year and they work here fine.

bpb101 wrote: »

i read in the steam contract that you must regiser your game in the country you bought it in .... if you buy a cd of it...

but if for example you buy call of duty in the north and register it in dublin it might not work even though it the same country....


is it steam just trying to scare you...

Hmm well I'm not 100% sure with paypal, but I think you still may have a problem. I seem to recall trying to use my paypal account in the same way while in Australia and it not working. You paypal account has a billing address right? If so, I think you will be blocked by steam if that address is not US but I'm not sure.

Regarding your COD example, they have covered themselves in the TOS so they can do whatever they like, but it so unlikely that I wouldn't worry about it. For example, sites like g2play have been selling keys obtained cheaply in some countries and passing them on to customers in more expensive regions and only once was there a problem whereby the publishers asked Valve to intervene and invalidate the keys used in different regions from where they were sold. It was a one off and Valve have been tolerating this activity for ages. (mobile device, can't dig out link at the moment)

In your case, I can't imagine getting games in the US could be a problem, if you even can.

Helix wrote: »

not completely true, just have an american address set up as an authorised address on your irish credit card and you'll be able to set up an american steam account and use it that way

you cant use paypal for it that way though, which is a little odd

That's a roundabout way of saying you need an American payment method and American mailing details.
The card may be Irish, but you've still made it a semi-American by having an American address on it

If you have a legitimate payment method, there is no problem buying games while in America, and having access to them when you're in Ireland.

I don't know if you can set up a paypal account without a credit card or how it works like that, but if you can set up an American one, you should be able to use it to buy games on steam while in America at the USD prices.

To clarify, I mentioned that I was in Australia, while there, I did indeed set up a second paypal account (But I had an address, and an Australian credit card, I'm not sure what you need if you don't have these). I bought games on Steam directly with my Australian credit card, and also using my Australian paypal account. When I bought games using my Australian paypal account, I was in actuality, transferring money from my Irish paypal account to the Australian one and then paying like that, so the money was ultimately coming from my Irish credit card. The reason I was doing this was partially to experiment with the system, and partially to pay for games at the USD prices which they sometimes were (sometimes priced AUD). I was charged paypal administration fees along the way though, but generally it was cheaper. Also, it was impractical for me to use my Australian credit card because I had relatively little money in my Australian bank account versus my Irish one.

If you can set up an American paypal account you will be fine but as far as I can recall, it takes a number of days to set up, and you won't be able to use it the day you create it. Open to correction on that one. So depending on how long you are there might be a problem also.