July 29th 2009 7:18 pm PT

nice thanks.

Awesome I’ve been wondering how todo this

Thank you very much for this tip!

Awesome Thanks!

Sweet

I came across that a month or 2 ago, wrote a quick tut and was told by people that it didn’t work.
I gave up hope after that, I guessed the helpdesk would just have to keep on doing the dirty work :-/

Wow. Finally a Xbox 101 that I didn’t know. Thanks. Although I don’t use my Credit Card. I use Subscription only!

Wow, never knew about that. Thanks~

Now could you tell us how to sign into LIVE offline INSTANTLY. I do not mean sign in then go offline. I mean sign in offline instantly.

Wow Major 2012. Really. I guess you also think the world’s going to end so you decided renewing is futile.

That part worked but it still wouldn’t let me remove my credit card from my account. It says there is an outstanding balance which is ridiculous because my Xbox LIVE doesn’t expire until Nov. 2011.

Me too, we don’t have netflix so I also don’t need one for that,

And I’m Dutch as you can see why we getting German E-Mails ?? I poorly understands what there is standing, English would be better then choosing the German Language for us, a lot of people still hate German because of WWII

@IconicSoulJA: If you disable auto sign-in for your primary account, you can go to the Account blade in the Xbox Guide and select to appear offline from within there before you log in on Xbox LIVE.

@IconicSoulJA:
.
Major’s covered this before and online in videos.
.
- Turn off Auto-sign in.
- Start your Xbox, then go to the guide and set your status to “Appear Offline”.
- Now, sign in.
.
An alternative is to edit your privacy settings to block everyone from seeing your online status. Then even with auto-sign in nobody can see that you’re online.
.
(The exception is if you’re in a party, the people in your party can see you)

So this feature must have just been added to Xbox.com. I got my wife the $1 Silver to Gold upgrade last month and when I went to cancel it last week, I was forced to call Support. The ON link in the screenshot wasn’t clickable a week ago. Glad it’s finally an option. Keep the improvements coming!

Finally! My prays have been answered No more call centers!

Seriously though, 50 dollars for a year?
In Sweden we have to pay 600 SEK. Which is 80 dollars !!

That’s not fair.

Gold Member since: 11/06/2009
End date: 02/10/2011
Automatic renewal: OFF

Why does it keep reseting the member since date every time you add a code
i have been a member since 2005 not 11/06/2009

I did this, but I still can’t remove my credit card info.

yes this is a new addon
get in quick to disable auto renewal
i have been trying to get my cc and auto renewal removed
for about 2 years

in the past it wasnt clickable
and you just had to go on a promise by xbox support that it would disable in 2011 in my case

the last time i tried was about a month ago and it wasnt clickable for sure

@Shonk: I wonder that too. I’ve been a live member since the very beginning, I’m wondering if the little gold badge with the new update is going to reflect that.

This payment option cannot be removed at this time. Go to the Payment method information page to view services associated with this payment option.

paid up until 10/2011 on codes

why does microsoft insist on keeping a cc on account
even though its expired

it is well known that microsoft has been sucessfull in taking cash from
expired cc’s

WOW I never knew that thanks Major!!

By the way, why is it 49.99 $ in the US and 59.99 € in Germany when 49.99 & equals 35,6257127 € ???

let say i turned it off and i have MS Point on my account, if i renew with new code will i loose my MS Points or no?

Gold Member since: 09/02/2008

Haha thats funny because i’ve been gold member since 26/12/2007

@lie07 No, if you don’t renew, you’ll simply fall back to Silver. You won’t lose any MS points on your account.

I was trying this just later today and I can assure you all that this did not work! Was this just recently added? Very glad to see it though, forcing people to call up was very annoying, it’s a nightmare to convince those people you want to cancel it.. So thanks!

Sweet! I’ve been wanting this since I realised that using my credit card to order live gold costs me in excess of 20e a year extra compared to deals on redeemable cards.

Additionally, not updating your credit card did not and does not CANCEL your live subscription, but freezes your live account which is held hostage until you renew your credit card and pay up. That is HIGHLY QUESTIONABLE.

Finally we can at least automatically cancel the subscription at the end of the cycle.

Gold Member since: 09/02/2008

Haha thats funny because i’ve been gold member since 26/12/2006*

if auto renew is on
even if the cc is expired they try to bill you
and if they cant get the cash
you go into debt with microsoft
they suspend your account and wont turn in to silver until
you pay the debt

I cant see me ever not having gold but
i dont trust microsoft as far as i can throw them
with my cc data

simply for the way they hold onto them like someone hanging off a cliff
and also in the past the inability to turn auto renew off

also why would i pay £39.99 for live
when i can get it for £20 on the net in codes

Credit Cards + LIVE = FAIL + CALLING XBOX LIVE SUPPORT! I do not recommend it.

Woohoooo! Thank you Larry, this is a great new feature. You just saved me another awkward call to a friendly support rep. I just wanted to switch from CC to using my collection of cards.

Much appreciated. Long time coming.

@ Joergen8

my feelings exactly

its good that major has pointed out this is now working for a limited time only!!
until microsoft realise everyone is turning it off
and they wont be able to hold accounts hostage anymore
to extort another year out of users not wanting gold anymore

it would be even better if major could follow up with the cc problem

Oh yes, and having to pay 59.99€ for something that the yanks get for 49.99$ or 35€ is OUTRAGEOUS. But I suppose somebody has to pay for the hole you people left in the world economy.

@Zacabeb @P00K I guess you guys don’t know what INSTANTLY really means. When I say instantly, I mean sign into my Xbox LIVE account but set offline. You know when you set your IM client to keep you offline until you tell it to put you online. That’s what Xbox LIVE should have. I mean how hard is it to give us the option as to how we want to appear when we sign in.

Now they definitely need to add the ability to remove a credit card that was tied to your Live subscription at some point.

@Joergen8 http://boxeddeal.com/cart.php?target=product&sns_mode=featured_product&product_id=255&category_id=60

There are other sites that sell points and LIVE for cheaper. I got (2) 1600MS points once for $30 total and a 4000MS points card for $38. Look around to find deals. Don’t pay M$ directly.

Prices are never the same between countries. Sales tax and other factors can increase the price drastically. I pay 90 USD for games, but I just have to live with it because sales tax and importing costs more.

Wow, you must have been reading my mind because I was just wondering this while I was checking out my latest RSS feeds. Thanks alot, Major!

This must be a new feature, because a month ago I had to call Xbox Live support to remove my credit card and disable auto-renew.

@IconicSoulJA

we can use usa 12month codes in europe
but not microsoft points codes
the ms points codes are region specific

hey ms live crew or major just asking… i dont see an option on if you have more then one xbox is there a way to make or switch your account on the 2 xboxs on account site or if you have two on you can just make other one sliver but main one stays gold and flop the stats on the x360…

i mean if you can make it like that…

here my issue i got 2 x360 one in my room and one in the living room both hooked to the web every time i log in it tells me i need to re-download the account which takes forever so please make it easier on that part

ps oh i hear we going to get a “when we join xboxlive” date on are stats in the dash can u give the beta testers that was on before xbl launch a basket beta ball for avatar lol i miss having that on the forums lol”we want are beta ball back” thred hehe

@Shonk, how about this… http://boxeddeal.com/cart.php?target=product&sns_mode=featured_product&product_id=259&category_id=60

Is this €21.42 cheap for 2100MS Points?

@Shonk, I also got my LIVE 12+1 Month for $30. I never paid the $50 LIVE price. That was way too high for me.

Again, you just got to look for the deals. M$ won’t give you the deals because they can get money from people who just don’t care for deals. They just want the service and points now.

This would’ve helped me a few days ago when I was automatically charged $20, especially since I have 1 year card laying around.

@IconicSoulJA

nope thats £17.81
i try to pay no more than £13 for 2100 ms points
though latley it has been more like £14 i have paid as little as £10 though

…..
This was posted for the new Gold Member Veterans “feature” of the new dashboard update thats show a stamp on your Gamer Card that tells people how long you’ve been a Gold member.

I hate that feature beacause I was gold member every year since I bought my Xbox 360 in 2006, and my gamertag only shows 1 year!! I hope they fix it to count how many months we were gold, and add a year every 12 months, because I was gold more that my gamer card shows. FIX IT!!!

Thanks Major. I did not know the website could actually do this. Was this just recently added? I remember calling technical support once and asked them to turn off auto renewal and they told me the system doesn’t allow them to do so.

Yea I try to pay $15 max for 1600 points. I know what you mean. I don’t buy a lot of games on the marketplace or DLC so it helps. Out of all the content released this summer, I only like Splosion Man. The Epic Games content is a waste of money cause multiplayer is terrible and the Road to Ruin content lasts like 1 hour for both modes. LOL

i have 145 arcade games + game dlc
i stick to a strict price policy for ms points
and also 800point max per game
if its more they can keep it
the only exception being 1943 as im an
avid battlefield 1942 / battlefield 2 fan and have played thousands
of hours on of it on the pc

Same as Shonk, can’t remove old credit card info!

Yeah I’ve noticed this. I’ve not had to use it though, prepaid cards are the way to go.

@IconicSoulJA: Your reading comprehension leaves much to be desired.
.
I understand what you want – you want the system to auto-sign you in, but as offline. That doesn’t exist, so adjust your privacy setting so it’s blocked for everyone and now you’ll always appear offline.
.
Either that, or boot whoever you’re hiding from off your friends list.

It is unlikely that MajorNelson will answer us about credit card info because he is probably not allowed to. Their is no reason why the billing section of Xbox Live should not give you the option to delete information so you must ask yourselves why they want to retain this information,

Holding onto credit card information when it has been pointed out you want it removed is illegal. Phoning up the support line (in india) will get you nowhere. If you live in the UK write to Microsoft asking them to stop processing your credit card data and they must do so. If they do not, complain to the information commissioner as they are breaking the law.

about time. why did we have to call achmed over in india for so long?

When logged into mine the “ON” is not a clickable link. Any other ideas?

Thanks for adding something that should have been there since day one.

Auto Renewal is for n00bs!

Low priced 13 month online codes FTW

Now I don’t want to sound like a broken record or take the subject to a different matter, but I feel this is at least quite related…

I would LIKE to get Gold… BUUUUT, I created my account in The Netherlands and have since moved to another country… And the billing information does not allow me to update my country there… AND it refuses me to use a creditcard for purchases unless it is from the same country as my profile is set to (The Netherlands in this case) but I do not have a dutch creditcard anymore…

This thread on xbox.com might explain it even better in case I was confusing to people:
http://forums.xbox.com/21816777/ShowPost.aspx

Someone there at XBox… PLEASE allow the country to be changed so I can start using a creditcard again…

(P.S. calling support gives me the advice to create a new gamertag… basically losing 20K gamerscore and 30K MicroSoft Points of purchase history… No dice…)

That may work for a 12mo sub, but I recently got the $1/mo gold and could not for the life of me cancel my subscription or turn off auto renew. I dug around my box account, ms billing. nothing. No way to turn off auto-renew (on/off link was not active – it was there but not active). Believe me, if I could have avoided calling in to cancel my gold subscription I would have. But no, I had to call in, give my genealogy back to the 1600′s, name the countries above the 49th parallel, answer a secret question that I set years ago and explain why I wanted to cancel. Even after being bribed with 500ms points, I turned it down.

I love box live, but I just don’t do multi-player that much, I have way too many games to finish.

It’s about FREAKIN’ TIME! I needed to take my credit card off of my account due to a cancellation, and I spent 2 hours on the phone trying to get it off. All it did was lead to them canceling my LIVE membership, refunding my already paid for time with codes for one-month and three-month memberships, and then I spent an hour typing in all of those stupid codes to bring my Gold membership back to speed. Ridiculous.

Hey thanks MArjo, you just save me from a some money I don’t have right now

Now add the ability to remove all credit cards online and you’ve done us a great service.

Hi

This does not work for people in Sweden and Norway (Europe?). We still have to call Microsoft (Xbox Support) to be able to remove this. Will this function be available for us to in the future?

Forgett what I said ^^

@Exu
Yep, same here. Account expires April 2010, I buy my One-Year Gold in March of 2010. I’ve had a friend let his credit card expire and he could not update for some odd reason, about three months later and a few calls to 18004myxbox, he was able to update it and was back online ready to go.

Thank you for this, it is great to know it is that easy to change our subscription Kudos!

Finally ! It was boring to have to make a call to cancel the auto renew

When i Hover over ON it wont allow me to click on it.
Any idea why?

any comments ??

As normal rest of the world gets screwed, america gets every thing.

“The US is getting a reward for buying all the Summer of Arcade Games by recieving a reward of 800msp”

Why only the usa ?

Thanks for that, Was wondering how to do that!

@Faultychip, according to ‘official’ releases there is NO call centre in india!. They keep telling us this in Australia at least, they even make out that they are not in india when you ring them up, they even have english names to use! Well we all know there IS and did you know they are trained to speak like they are from seattle!
there is a report about this little known fact in the seattle times, do a search for it, it’s funny stuff

@Big Guino: That’s the way it is. We Europeans get only about 70% of Xbox LIVE’s services, but we pay about 1.68 times that much as US citizens.

The ON option is only a clickable link on the dedicated membership level page, but not on the account summary page.

Now let’s just get one thing straight. If I turn the auto-renewal OFF, and my subscription expires, Microsoft will NOT try to charge my credit card again, is this correct? And when the subscription expires, my account will simply go back to Silver membership. Not suspended, not cancelled, just Silver. Is this correct?

I want to be able to remove my credit card details as the card expired ages ago
I’m now on my second 12 month subscription card and that is how I will renew in future.
What is the point in keeping the credit card info and not let me remove it?
Come on Major we need to be able to delete this info if we want.

I added my cc on xbox1 as you didnt have a choice then
i have never paid by cc and never will
the card expired 3 years ago
but they still insist on keeping it

Great inclusion,It can be a pain getting connected to customer support sometimes.. thanks Microsoft.

A step in the right direction but!!
It’s my credit card so why can’t i remove it?
Why switch !auto creditcard renewal” back on if i use a prepaid card?

low money-grabbing shoddy behavior imho!!

this would have helped me a few months ago when i was on the phone with support trying to get my cc info removed. They finally did it but this feature is long overdue.

You only posting this because when you *call* customer service they bribe you with 500 MS pts to leave it on? Hmm?

I dont usually get excited, but I could make love to you right now. Thank you so much. My account has been held hostage many times.

Major, can you instead show me how I can change my credit card details if I am now living in a different country? ow, you can’t change country details…. fail!

@dreampage: That would be correct, yes. Your friends, points, achievements, and whatever you can think of stay exactly the same. Your account merely turns Silver. And if you some day want to renew, just do so and everything’s back to the way it used to be.

@ Photolysis, Your right, thanks.

Looks like MS has it in for me, my subscription ended on the 28th but I wanted to cancel it a few days before (my Xbox had red ringed and I was sending it in for repair), phoned them but it didn’t process until after the account was renewed (account renewal was set to on with no option to change it) for another month. Then a day later this post appears and now account renewal is off – after paying for another month I didn’t want. Sure it’s only £5, but I would have preferred to have the choice of keeping it.

Hey Major I have a complaint, i told my credit card providers that doesn’t accept charges so i my gold subscription couldn’t charge so…. my account was suspended because of this, what do i do?

Thank you very much. I’ve been waiting for this option.

It works! Here I was thinking you had to call the support center. Why was this not made publicly know ages ago? So much easier!

Oh I should ask…Why in gods name do I get charged a half a month later when my sub is due?! Every month! Lets say my sub is to renew on July 21st. My card was charged this morning on the 2nd. Happens every month! WTF is up with that?! I’m just gonna buy sub cards from now on.