iPhone 4 and 4S

[elp]

Hi

I contacted Vodafone yesterday to unlock my iph4 for other sim cards as I have moved from the UK. The customer service person said this will take effect in 72 hours. They added, that if I want to use different sim cards, I need to register a new itunes account. What does this mean? Is this correct? If so, why? And what will happen to my music / aps etc..? I've had this itunes account years before I had an iph.

Any advice or ideas happily received. I'm loathed to register a new itunes account.

elp

[jeffkinn]

That suggestion is utter nonsense - forget it and don't worry about it.

What I will say is that the Itunes stores is country specific and you need a credit card registered in the country to which the store relates to be able to use it. You cannot register an account with the US Itunes store if you don't have a US issued credit card.

I'm not sure if moving your account to another country requires a new Apple ID or not - but I suspect not. 

I have access to more than one Apple ID and I have apps on my phone from all of them. They co-exist quite happily on the phone and on Itunes and when the apps need updating I have to put in the relevant password for the relevant Apple ID. So it isn't a problem to register a new Apple ID and you won't lose anything if you did.

[Neil_Brown]

You cannot register an account with the US Itunes store if you don't have a US issued credit card

My feeling — although I've not tried it myself — is that, if you use a US-issued iTunes voucher, you should be able to work around this.

[jeffkinn]

I've tried it that way and it doesn't work. You have to provide a US based credit card as part of the account set up process. My father lives in the US and has a US based Discover card so I can set up the account and then use American vouchers so his card never gets touched. When his card expired and he was in the UK, I couldn't use the account until he got back to the US and was able to give me the relevant details from his replacement card.

[elp]

Interesting thoughts and thank you for your feedback.

Do you think that I am able to continue to link my itunes account to my uk card -even though I will be using a Norwegian sim card? I have money in the uk. Perhaps not a long-term solution, but surely fine for six or so months.

[Neil_Brown]

You have to provide a US based credit card as part of the account set up process.

There seems to be a workaround for this, although Apple may have fixed it — apparently, if you switch to the US store within iTunes, and do not create an account, but browse the store and then choose to buy something, at that point, you can enter just iTunes voucher details. Apparently it does not work if you choose to set up an account upon logging in.

Again, I haven't tried this, since there's nothing particular I want to watch!

[jeffkinn]

Yes definately. The location of the phone and the network you are using has no bearing on Itunes whatsoever.

[Neil_Brown]

As far as I know, the SIM in the device doesn't matter at all, but it's not something I've tried.

[jeffkinn]

I just tried that - switched to the US store and as soon as you do that it signs you out of your UK account. To buy something you either have to sign in with your Apple ID or create a new account - you cannot create an account without a US based billing address.

There may be a work around but not one that I can see.

[Neil_Brown]

Fair enough — and not wholly surprising!