Does French App store work without a French bank card?

Reader Question: Can I get French apps in the Apple App Store on my phone without changing my country in the settings? If I do change my country, will it block me from using my non-French bank card?

Unfortunately, the only way to get apps localised to France is indeed to change your location through your smartphone.

This is easy to do but requires a few steps. If you have permanently moved to France, you should change your location to the country where you are now living.

You mentioned the App Store, so are using an Apple phone, meaning you must change the location of your Apple Account. 

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Things to check prior to the change

Apple provides a checklist of things you should do prior to changing your location. This includes: 

• Spending any balance you have in your current currency on your Apple Account

• Cancelling any subscriptions that are blocked or changed in France (for most common apps this should not be a problem). You will need to wait until the subscription period ends to change your account location, or you will not be able to use these apps in your new location

• Wait for memberships, pre-orders, rentals, or Season Passes on apps to complete, and wait for any pending credit refunds to process. Pre-orders can be cancelled

You may need to redownload certain apps, although this may not always be the case. 

You change your Apple Account location in your phone’s Settings tab – step-by-step instructions are available here. 

You may need to provide additional information such as a French phone number and French address, and add a payment method.

Read more: Why bank cards are changing in France

Multiple payment methods possible

You do not need to have a French card to use the French App store. 

Apple states that ‘most debit and credit cards’ work when using the French App Store, including non-French cards.

You can also use other payment methods including Apple Pay, PayPal, Apple Account balance (adding funds to your account from a card), and in France via certain mobile phone network providers. 

If you change your payment method because your old one does not work in France, subscriptions tied to it will cancel or may face other issues. 

However if you do not need to change your payment method when changing location, they should continue being billed to the original payment method

The process is similar for using an Android smartphone and the Google Play store, however you can only change location once every 12 months. You can find a step-by-step guide in English here. 

Similarly, most credit and debit cards, including non-French ones, will work on the French Google Play store.

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