Here’s something that would have been very useful to those of us who were *gulp* fraudulently using Xbox Live for years before it finally launched in South Africa; Microsoft has reinstated the ability to turn off Xbox Live membership auto-renewals via Xbox.com.
When you sign up for an Xbox Live Gold Membership using a credit card, the system automatically enlists you for automatic renewal – so if you’ve signed up for a year, a year later you’ll automatically be signed up for another year. It’s great for convenience, but it caused a huge headache a few years ago when it was found that South African gamers credit card details didn’t quite match the faux UK or US addresses they used to subscribe. This lead to the auto-renewals failing, and the gamertags involved subsequently being banned or put in to limbo for non payment.
Back then, the only way to turn off auto-renewal or remove credit card details was to phone Microsoft’s support and convince them that you had valid reasons for cancelling. Now though? You can do it right from Xbox.com – but only if you’re a UK XBox live subscriber. To do so, just access your Accounts section on Xbox.com and follow the on-screen process. Those of you still accessing UK accounts from South Africa? It’s best to keep using subscription and points voucher from places like www.evopoints.co.za and keeping your credit card details far away from Live.
I know a handful of people who lost their gamertags in the past. Were any of you unlucky enough to have lost yours?
Source : Gamerzines
Last Updated: July 13, 2011