UPDATE 2: You can now just add your PH-issued credit cards to SG and HK PSN accounts.
UPDATE: I have been able to add my PH-issued credit card to my Hong Kong region PSN. My PH-issued card still doesn't work on any other region, though. If you want to use a PH credit card, create a Hong Kong PSN account.
Until recently, there was a work around to get Philippine-issued credit cards to work on PSN. As long as you used a Hong Kong account, you could easily sync up a Philippine card with no issues. In fact, I had mine synced up since the PS3 days. One day, after an update, I couldn't pay with my PH-issued card anymore. I couldn't even go through PayPal and through that service. If you're from the Philippines, that sucks because when you create a new PSN account, you cannot pick Philippines as your country. Despite there being an APAC/SEA PlayStation office based out of Singapore, which covers the Philippines, and there being a Philippine Sony office, which also handles the PlayStation locally, there's no way to sign up under the Philippines. There just doesn't seem like any official support apart from hardware sales.
I tried creating PSN accounts in other APAC countries, like Thailand, and if your credit card info doesn't match the address you put in, you can't add that payment method. But again, since you can't create a PSN account with a Philippine address, your credit card info will never match your PSN info. That is literally bonkers.
I understand why they did it. I understand why they had to halt the workaround. It's for security, I get it. But please, PlayStation, let me pay with my credit card! Make it easy for me to give you our money, and by extension, our loyalty.
Thankfully, there is a way to make transactions with your credit card from the comfort of your own home to pay for PSN stuff. It's just a bit (a lot) of a hassle. There are two methods.
Method 1: Buy PSN cards online.
1. Find your preferred online PSN card seller who will send you your code. I have been using PCGameSupply.com for years for my US account. But you could go for one of the following:
- Amazon (this is even more complicated because it involves some more address shifting)
- Offgamers
- Play-Asia.com
- Card Delivery (US only for now)
- My Gift Card Supply (US only for now)
- PCGameSupply (only US, Canada and and EU right now)
- The Card Closet (only US for now)
- MTC Game
- SEA Gamer Mall
- Lazada (SGD 20)
- Lazada (SGD 50)
2. Get your code from your vendor. They usually email it to you or it sometimes appears in your dashboard. A code should be an alphanumerical hodgepodge of characters.
3. Head to https://store.playstation.com and then click on your username and then click on "Redeem Codes."
There are a number of problems with this. First of all, PSN cards are of a fixed value. The increments depends on the region. For HK, there's HKD 80, HKD 200, HKD 500, and HKD 750. For SG cards, I think there's only S$20 and S$50. Problem with this is that game costs aren't always fixed at those increments, meaning you will always buy more than you need. For example, Days Gone costs HKD 468. So to be able to buy it digitally, you'll have to shell out HKD 500, and you'd be left with HKD 32. What can you buy with that? It's just money you'll keep in your account until the next purchase comes around.
Add that on top that, there's also the issue that any PSN vendor, whether online or offline, needs to make money off these cards. That's understandable, that's commerce. While some make their money off buying in bulk, some do make a profit by putting a markup on the face value of the card. Let's take the HKD 500 card. At the current currency exchange rate, HKD 500 is equal to PHP 3,331.84. But one vendor is selling it for Php 3,438.93.
Method 2: Make a Hong Kong PayPal account.
1. Create a PayPal account, but use a Hong Kong address for a Hong Kong account. Best if you have relatives in Hong Kong whose details you can use - address, ID #, that kinda thing. If you don't have Hong Kong info, I've heard that you can just fake these, but I would advise against doing that because that's technically fraud.
2. Link your PH-issued credit card to your Hong Kong PayPal account
3. Go to https://store.playstation.com and click Add Payment Method.
4. Add your PayPal account.
The caveat to this is that I tried it and it gave me the "Check your credit card details" error. I'm guessing it's because my PayPal account address is Philippines. Maybe that's why. But a lot of people swear by the Hong Kong PayPal method. It should also work for SG accounts.
Here's my question, though - WHY CAN'T SONY GIVE US THE OPTION TO REGISTER WITH A PH ADDRESS?! Why do we have to go through these hoops just to be able to GIVE THEM MONEY!?
I've been working in marketing for 15 years. If there's one thing I know for certain is that convenience trumps everything. That's why businesses like ride sharing and Netflix and McDonalds and Amazon are thriving. They're not just selling you their products at face value - they're also selling convenience. One of the biggest things you have to solve as a business is how to make it incredibly easy for your customers to give you money. That's how online stores do it. Or at least, that's how they're supposed to do it.
Consider Lazada. My credit card info is stored on Chrome, like the irresponsible lazy person that I am. When I find an item I like, it literally takes 4 clicks and 3 keystokes to buy it. With PlayStation, I'll have to first go to a card store, canvass for the cheapest price, buy a card, wait for the email/ check my dash for the code, load it into my PSN, and THEN buy the item, and have change left over that I won't be able to use. How is that acceptable user experience?!
Come to think of it, the Nintendo store lets me use my Philippine-issued credit card. So does Steam. So does Epic. So does Origin. So does Discord. So does Humble Bundle. So does GOG. So does UPlay. So does Battle.net. I haven't tried the Xbox store, but I'm fairly confident it would accept my PH-issued card, too. So why the hell can't PlayStation just make it easy for me to give them my money? I don't understand it.
I get that the PH is probably a tiny market compared to SG, HK, TH, but we're still customers and we'd still like to give Sony our busienss. I'm a Sony fan boy through and through, but sometimes they seem to try so hard to make you not like them.