The Nook has been the most shipped item by far this past December through US Unlocked. Many first adopters craving to try out the Nook have found their way to us and are now reading their books on it.

Now that the first reviews have been on the web and they have been very positive, people that were reluctant at first are now also getting keen on owning a Nook eReader. B&N only sells the devices inside the US, but if you follow the few easy steps below, you will be able to place your order seamlessly:

1) If you haven't already: sign up with US Unlocked for the US Unlocked Card. This pre-paid virtual debit card comes with your own US billing address.

2) Get a US shipping address where the Nook can be shipped to.

3) Go to the B&N website while connected over VPN.

4) Set up a Barnes & Noble account with your US Unlocked Card address as your billing address.

5) Now purchase your Nook (don't forget the accessories), using the US shipping address of your choice.

6) The package forwarder of your choice will ship the order to your country.

Downloading eBooks:

1) Unbox your Nook and register the device to the B&N account you had set up with the US Unlocked Card billing address while connected over VPN when you ordered the ereader.

2) On your Nook, go to shop for books.

3) The book of your choice will download straight onto your Nook and you can start reading within a after of minutes

This has been tested and it works!

If you need more information, please contact info@usunlocked.com.

NOTE: You might not be able to sign up for magazine subscriptions as the current MasterCard is not set up for recurring payment. Neither, might you be able to download any free books.

Last Update: Most cards have been up and running since last week. Initially existing card holders (at the time of the switch) were showing incorrect card details, but these have been corrected. If you were having issues getting your card accepted right after you initially got your MC details, please re-try using the correct card details. There is a small number of about 30 card accounts that we are currently struggling with. Cards to these accounts were assigned but somehow not registered at Nxpay, causing them not to be accepted. Also the balance on these cards are showing incorrectly and new loads have not been able to clear. If you think this applies to you (after you checked the trouble shooting list) please contact us.

Update: All new cards within the 2-4 business days window have been assigned. Previous Visa card holders have received their new MC details. Some error code appears on the bottom of their US Unlocked Card page and balances show zero. At this point in time we cannot determine how to fix this as we need NXpay for that. This shall be dealt with on Monday. If you want to have confirmed what your balance was, please email info@usunlocked.com. - Update: Cards are being assigned to the new users in the order of first in/first out. All new users: please, check http://www.usunlocked.com/troubleshooting.php if you run into issues. If you are setting up iTunes, you need to do it according this tutorial: https://www.usunlocked.com/blog/?p=431 - Update: Cards to existing Visa users who had balance on their cards have been assigned in Nxpay. NxPay is now in the process of transferring the balances. Once complete, the card details will be uploaded to our system so that they show to the card holder. On our side we are testing the issue and load part. When successful, cards will assigned to new US Unlocked Card users - Update: Balances have been pulled off existing Visa cards and put on a temporary internal account. New cards are being assigned throughout the course of tomorrow November 18, and Visa balance transferred to them. We will update here again when that task is complete. The next task will be assigning cards to the new users and transferring pending card load to them.

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Due to unforeseen and sudden circumstances, the Visa card program we launched in the summer has been terminated as of today which explains why your card is suddenly not being accepted.

What happened?

The processor for the US Unlocked Visa Card, Denarii was forced to partner with a different issuing bank due to the fact that the bank which has been issuing the cards received a 'cease and desist order' related to regulatory issues. Their new sponsoring bank does not wish to issue virtual cards like the US Unlocked Card and therefore the program as it exists cannot be maintained. We are quite unhappy (understatement) that Denarii failed to inform us in a timely manner about the termination of our program with them.

What happens next?

NXpay has provided us with an intermediate solution and will switch over all current card holders who have a balance on their card to a MasterCard. As we speak we are making preparations to do so. The switch will be happening in batches and we will be updating user card information in those batches as well. If your Visa card currently has a balance, your card details will be updated in the course of the next 48 hours. Once the type of card says MasterCard on your account, you will know that a new card has been assigned and the balance has been transferred to it.

If your current Visa card has zero balance on it, a new (Master) card will be issued when your next card load payment clears, just like you are used to.

If you are a new US Unlocked Card user and are waiting to get your card issued, please note that the above developments are causing a slight delay in assigning your card, but we are working around the clock to keep the delay as minimal as possible.

This solution that is provided to us by NXpay is only temporary. A new solid program is in the works and we will keep you updated on those developments.

Again, these circumstances are completely unforeseen. Together with NXpay, we are making sure to minimize any interruption and to accommodate every single card user to the best of our abilities.

We will be updating this post while more details become available. If you have any questions of concerns, please contact us: info@usunlocked.com.

Apple has among the strictest rules that are geared to preventing fraud but mostly to protect their US market. Although any nationality can have an iTunes accounts, the US iTunes version is where really everyone wants to download from since it has much more to offer, especially movies and the iBooks for the iPad. If you have tried to set up a US iTunes account you probably gave up pretty fast. It accepts US billing addresses only and only US billing addresses. Here is the solution: the US Unlocked Card. This is a virtual pre-paid Discover**debit card with US billing address. The card costs $15 to create. As soon as you have loaded the card with the desired amount you can start making online payments with it. For iTunes, however, we have found out that the balance on the card has to be at least $51 for the card to be accepted during the account set up. The use of an IP shield is crucial!

Step by step instruction:

1) Sign up with US Unlocked, if you haven't already

2) Apply for the US Unlocked Card by paying $15

3) Make your first card load payment of $51

4) Once the funds have cleared your card is assigned and you can register the card to the iTunes account:

• Use Hotspot Shield to enter the iTunes site (shield should be green, top right of the screen)
• You will need to start fresh and create a new iTunes account with your US billing address

When iTunes says 'please, enter valid security code', it means that they are not accepting the card. Check the following:

• Card has a balance of min. $51?
• You have used a vpn connection/ip shield? For Hotspot Shield: red shield means 'disconnected', click connect.
• You have filled in all the data exactly the way they appear on the US Unlocked Card page?
• Does the email address you are using to set up the account have anything other then '.com' to it that might reveal your non-US location?
• Have you logged out of your existing (local) iTunes account if any? (Also helps to clear browser cache and start over)

• Have you tried to make any other payments with the card in the last 48 hours? If so, that store might have put a temporary hold on the funds, causing the available funds to be insufficient/less than the minimum of $51.

* card load payments can be made after ID verification status is accepted. To get the accepted ID verification status upload a recent bill or statement showing a matching address and a scan of a government issued ID.

** The US Unlocked Card is now a MasterCard (Discover Card program was terminated in the summer of 2011)

UPDATE December 13 2011:

At US Unlocked we are big fans of Netflix. We love the ease of it, watching movies either on TV, laptop or iPad (even on the Wii or Xbox).

Netflix is currently only available to US customers since a US billing address is required. Fortunately, we have found a work around for the non-US customer, just as we did for iTunes. The difference is that Netflix does not accept debit card payments, so paying on Netflix with the US Unlocked Card will not work.

To work around Netflix:

- apply for the US Unlocked Card - download Hotspot Shield - go on Netflix while Hotspot Shield is connected - set up your account using your own non-US credit card details but using the US billing address from the US Unlocked Card.

This has worked for many customers. Please, be advised thatwe do not provide mail forwarding services and thus cannot send you actual movies.

Disclaimer: If your credit card is UK or Canadian above method might not work. The US Unlocked Card creation fee is non-refundable. The above method works in 80% of all cases but we do not guarantee it will work for you too.

NOTE: watching Netflix is only possible while connected to Hotspot Shield, for streaming Netflix to Internet TV's like Apple TV, Sony internet TV or Logitech Revue, have a look at this tutorial.

UPDATE October 5: The US Unlocked Card is not accepted by HULU Plus nor is any other prepaid or gift card. For more information, please check this statement: http://www.hulu.com/support/article/171122. For movie and tv show streaming, there is also Amazon VOD and Netflix.

UPDATE September 9, 2011: Please, read below message from Hulu support:

Thank you for reaching out to us via the survey. I'm afraid we will not be able to process the credit card you used during registration. This bank has been known to facilitate getting around international restrictions on our content, and Hulu Plus is only available in the US at this time. I'm also showing that the IP address you have written in with is recognized as an anonymous proxy, which is another tool used to circumvent our international restrictions. For these reasons, we will not be able to accept the payment method you provided. Please use a different credit card during registration. I'm sorry for the inconvenience.

So far the new US Unlocked Visa Card has not been accepted on Hulu Plus, much to the frustration of many. While we cannot control a merchant's card acceptance policy, we have been researching (with the help of users) what seems to be the issueWhen opening a ticket at Hulu this is the response a user received:

Thank you for your interest in Hulu Plus! I'm sorry you're having problems completing your registration, I know it's time consuming to repeatedly enter that information. Upon reviewing our records it looks like the system believes your zip code you provided did not match the one your credit card company has on file. I've made a tweak to your account, so if you attempt once more, it should go through. Please let me know if you have any further trouble activating your account.

With the 'tweaked account, this user could finally watch Hulu again! When inquiring further:

Thanks for your response. Glad you got it working! The tweak we applied basically just makes our server a little less picky about the way an address is formatted. Sometimes this error can also pop up if you're using your nickname instead of your full name, or if the formatting (periods, spaces) in the address or name are a little different from what your bank has on file.

This is valuable information although we still do not exactly know what the tweak was exactly. However when looking at how the data in this user's account was filled out, the second address line in the billing address was empty.

We are still waiting to hear back from other users whether omitting the second address line did the trick, but we did not want to wait to give you the much wanted update on this topic as we believe we are getting closer to the solution.

Also, if you do run into a problem setting up the account at Hulu Plus, opening a ticket with support could be your 'ticket in' as the above customer experienced.

We invite you to share your experiences!