Creating a USA or UK iTunes Account
So this is the first guide of many to come. In this “How to Make a USA or UK Apple ID/Account” guide I will show you how to make the accounts and give some reasons why these accounts are beneficial.
First lets start with why having an Apple ID for the UK or USA is beneficial. Apple currently boast having “over 500000 apps on the App Store.” However, not all the apps seem to be available to specific geographic regions. Because of this, having an account in either the UK or USA is of benefit, as their respective apps database seems to be of the largest available.
I will be making an account in the USA for purposes of demonstration, but the steps to create one for the UK are virtually the same, except for one or two mouse clicks. I will also be making an account without billing information. This means that there will be no credit card details needed for making this account. I will be honest and say that I have not made an account in the USA or UK with credit card detail, but I am sure If you wanted to add your billing information to the account to purchase apps, that you can just add it in.
[UPDATE] After a friend, also from South Africa, recently tried setting up an iTunes account for the USA with credit card details, she was unable to set up the account and got the following error:
“Your credit card information doesn’t match your bank records. Please enter a US credit card and billing address.”
Unfortunately I haven’t been able to physically try this myself, but at this stage it seems that having an iTunes account in another country besides the country in which you reside is not possible without a valid credit card for the respective country.
To complete this guide you will need:
- A laptop/desktop computer
- Working & connected internet connection
- An Email account that is not already registered with Apple
- An Address in the UK/USA (Don’t worry I will give an address for you to use for either)
- iTunes installed on the computer
Right, so here goes. firstly you will need to make an email account to use for the Apple ID. I have chosen to use a Gmail account, but you can use any email services you might have at your disposal. I like to keep things organised, so that I know which account is for which country’s app store and I also keep the passwords the same, as there are no credit card or personal details on the account, so it doesn’t really matter, but that’s just me…
If you want to make a Gmail account, you can click here for the “Create An Account” page on Google.
Setting up the account is pretty easy, so I’ll get to the next step…
*Please note that throughout the steps below, you can click on the image to enlarge the photo, if needed.Step 1
Open your iTunes and make sure you’re not currently signed into your existing or any existing Apple ID’s By clicking on the menu at the top: Store>Sign Out. if you are not signed into an Apple ID you can skip to the next step.
Sign Out of Apple ID
Step 2
Click on the “iTunes Store” option on the right-hand side sidebar.
Open iTunes Store
Step 3
Next you will be selecting a country to view apps from in your iTunes store. To do this, see scroll down inside Store window, right to the bottom, where you will see the a small round icon and a country’s flag in. This flag will most likely be the flag of the country in which you are currently. If not, don’t stress, we will be changing the country within a few seconds anyways.
Once you have found this round flag, click on it… It should look something like this:
Country Icon
Step 4
Once You have clicked the country icon, the country selection screen will appear. Here you will choose the USA or UK flag, depending on which country you want to make an Apple ID in. Besides this step of clicking the different country flag if you wanted a UK Apple ID instead of a USA one for example, the rest of the steps that follow are the same and nothing else, except the address will change.
Change Country
Right, so now the next few steps are vital in making the free account, if that is a factor for you.
Step 5
WELCOME TO AMERICA… Or whichever country you selected! haha
Click on the “App Store” tab on the top, to the middle of the screen, so that it can redirect you to the section of the Apple Store where all the apps are located.
Selct App Store
Step 6
Once you are on the app store, you need to scroll down slightly till where you see the “Free Apps” section. Reason being, is that if you just click on any app to download and that app so happens to be an app that payment is needed for, you wont be able to skip having to put your credit card details in. Out of the steps for making any free Apple ID, this is probably one of the most vital! The section of the app store you’re looking for looks something like this:
Click Download a Free app
Also important to note here is where you should click. If you hold your cursor over the app, the option that says “Free” with the arrow next to it will come up… Click this “Free” button instead of the app name to skip having to go to the app’s page and downloading it from there, which can just make things unnecessarily messy and lengthy.
Step 7
After clicking the “Free” button to download the app, the screen to either sign into an existing Apple ID or create a new one is displayed. Click “Create New Account”
Create Your New ID
Step 8
The next page is basically a nice to read section if you have the time or interested in Apple’s little “Welcome to our App Store” type of message. Not that relevant, so you can just click “Continue” here…
Select Continue
Step 9
The Next page is the Apple terms and conditions. You are more than welcome to read through these, but you can also just click “Continue.” Make sure, though that you have check the “I Accept The Terms And Conditions” box to be able to go to the next step.
Accept Terms And Conditions
Step 10
Fill in the email account details you either have or the one you made for this Apple ID as I have. You can, however, use your own date of birth and security question. Also, you will need to fill in a password, at least 8 characters in length that contains a number, capital letter and doesn’t repeat the same letter 3 times after each other.
Fill Details
Step 11
Once you have clicked “Continue” in step 10, the next screen will be displayed. This is the billing information. Important to note here is that if you want to make a free account, you should select “None,” under the credit card info, which will be the most right option, as shown below:
Billing Details
Here You will also need to fill in an address. If you are making an account in the USA, use the following details:
120 E 8th Street
New York
New York
NY
10003-6500
012 3456789
You will notice the phone number is not the same as in the image, because I put in a number one character too short and after rectifying the mistake and clicking to the next page, I forgot to take a screen shot of the changes.
If you are making an account in the UK, use the following details:
4 Cloverdale Court
London Road
East Grinstead
Rh19 1QB West Sussex
012 3456789
After clicking “None” the screen will reload and will look as follows:
You are more than welcome to use the address given in the picture. If memory serves me correctly, this address is the address of a public library in New York 😀
After completing this, click on “Create Apple ID”
Step 12
At this point, the following screen will be shown:
Confirmation Email Sent
Now you will have to go back to the email account you made/have to confirm that an actual person made this Apple ID. I had my email open after creating the email account, so go to the email sent by Apple , which should look like this:
Verify Email Click Verify Now
Click on “Verify Now” which will open another tab or page of your internet explorer, which will look like so:
Fill In apple ID Details
Fill in the Apple ID account details that you just made in iTunes, with “Username” being the email address.
Once have filled in the details and clicked on “Verify Now,” you will be displayed the following screen, notifying you that the Apple ID has been verified:
Click Return To Store
Click on “Return To Store”
Step 13
Next iTunes should automatically re-open with the screen shown in the next step, if so, you can skip to the final step, or read further below.
The screen shot below is not always going to come up. You may or may not see this, depending on your Windows version/Operating system and/or type of internet browser being used.
If the screen is displayed, make sure “iTunes” is selected and click “Ok”
Make Sure iTunes Is Selected & Click Ok
Step 14
Lastly you should see the following screen. Click on “Start Shopping” and enjoy 🙂
Start Shopping
I hope you have found this useful.
In the next guide I will show How To Switch Between Apple ID’s on iPhone, iPod Touch, iPad and iTunes.
If you need anything further, please leave a comment on this post, or see my Contact Page and I will do my best to help you.
Always remember, give a jackass an education and you’ll have a smartass!
Signing out.
G™
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