If you have purchased games or bought some apps or subscriptions in the app store, then you should have heard of the concept of the "bargain zone".
If you happen to have this need, then congratulations, this will provide great help for you to become a "cloud Turk". If not, you can also try to find out if the software or service you are using is sold in the "bargain zone" and the price is much cheaper than buying in the "national zone".
This time is a record, recording my operation process, applying for a "Turkish virtual credit card".
The reason why shopping in Turkey is cheap is because its legal currency, the lira, has plummeted, and it can basically be exchanged with the Chinese yuan at a rate of "0.4:1".
What is OlduBil#
Oldubil and Ozan are both apps that provide virtual credit cards in Turkey. They have the following restrictions:
- It is difficult to provide real-name information
- Non-Turkish phone numbers (+90) registered without 3DS verification
- Unverified accounts are limited to a monthly recharge of 1250 lira
But there are the following benefits:
- Support services such as AppStore, Netflix, Steam, and Spotify
- The issuing country is Turkey
- Registration is relatively easy, and recharging is not too troublesome
Register for OlduBil#
Search and download "Oldubil" in the app store on your phone, it used to be available in the AppStore national zone but not anymore.
Note: After installing on an Android device, remember to block root access to the app.
After entering the app, choose "Register".
The first line is "Name", the second line is "Surname", and leave the third line blank. The content here can be fabricated.
Just check the last one, then choose "Next", and it will ask for mobile phone verification.
It supports many countries. I tested the phone number in the United States (Google Voice) and it didn't work, but there are tutorials online that say some numbers can work.
Get a verification code#
I used Sms-Active for temporary phone number verification. It supports direct payment via Alipay and has a very cheap price. I spent about 4.5 yuan.
If you are interested, you can use my referral link to complete the registration: https://sms-activate.org/?ref=3339469, and you can get a 10% cashback on your first recharge.
The website provides Chinese, but it is machine-translated and the translation is not very good. However, you can roughly understand and operate it. After registering on the website, search for "any other" in the left search bar:
Choose "Any other" without "call forwarding", and then search for the country you need.
Oldubil provides many countries for registration. Here, I use a Turkish phone number to complete the registration.
Search for "turkey" and choose Turkey. The price is 45 rubles. It is about $0.63 (excluding fees) according to the current exchange rate. Please adjust the amount according to the exchange rate to ensure that you have more than 45 rubles.
After purchasing the number, you will be redirected to the receiving page. Enter the provided phone number in Oldubil (remember to remove the international area code), and then wait for a while to receive the SMS. If you don't receive it, the platform provides a free chance to re-receive.
⚠️ This method is for temporary phone number verification. Basically, you can only receive one verification code using this method. Please protect the account logged in through this method. Oldubil can only be logged in with a verification code, and it has not been verified whether iCloud backup can restore login.
It is not necessary to use a Turkish phone number. Other regions may be cheaper and can also meet the registration requirements.
Understand your card information#
After entering the app, choose "My Wallet", "Card Settings", "View Card Info".
You can see the "Card Number", "Expiration Date", and "CVV". Save them, you will need them later.
You can see the transaction records in the "Wallet Transactions" on the wallet page.
Recharge the card#
OlduBil supports direct remittance recharge via "IBAN". It may also support single-currency credit cards issued in China, but I cannot test it because I don't have one.
Register a trading account#
Register two accounts on any platform, one with the region selected as "Mainland China" and the other as "Non-Mainland China". Complete the basic information verification, and you can fill in random information for the non-Mainland China account. For the Mainland China account, complete the verification according to the situation.
Because once the account has traded in RMB, it seems that it cannot trade in lira.
After purchasing some USD tokens in your Chinese account through your preferred method, transfer the USD tokens to the "Non-Mainland China" account through account-to-account transfer.
The general path is: "Assets" -> "Withdraw" -> "Choose the platform itself as the method"
This kind of transaction is fee-free, if not, please check the transaction method.
Find a buyer#
Now comes the slightly troublesome part. After the transfer, log in to the "Non-Mainland China" account and sell the tokens.
During the process of recharging for Oldubil, non-verified accounts accepting account-to-account transfers require a 5% fee, and transfers from non-Turkish banks also require a 5% fee. So we need to find someone who can transfer money from a local bank.
When selling, read the "Buyer Tips" carefully, especially pay attention to the part that says they do not bear the "Oldubil 5% fee":
In this case, I talked to the buyer, and in this example:
The buyer had already recharged in Oldubil, but this fee is not charged by Oldubil, but is deducted by the buyer when making the transfer.
Through discussions with friends, I learned that if the fee is charged by "Oldubil", a separate billing statement will be generated.
So you need to find buyers who indicate "no fee" or don't mention it but support transfers from local Turkish banks. For example:
Translate it and you will know that the buyer does not require a fee.
Like this, it directly states that there is no fee. Buyers with "Oldubil" in their names are usually specialized in this and can be actively explored.
Based on the above principles, find the most cost-effective exchange rate for the amount of lira you need to recharge and complete the transaction. (The higher the better)
Exchange lira#
Before the transaction, go back to the "OlduBil App" and choose "My Wallet", "Deposit money", "Deposit via Bank Transfer/EFT".
Choose a bank supported by the buyer. You can see it in the payment methods next to the buyer:
Here, "Ziraat" is "Ziraat Bank", which is the second to last in the list. Look for other banks by yourself. If you can't find it, you can ask the buyer if they support any banks when placing the order.
Copy the "IBAN" number provided by OlduBil and add it as a receiving account in your platform. Just fill in the account number and recipient name.
When making the transaction, provide your virtual credit card number to the buyer. After the buyer completes the transfer, you will receive a notification from OlduBil, informing you that the money has been received.
With this, the card recharge is completed.
Start using#
After testing, it is completely fine to bind Netflix and AppStore. The exchange rate obtained through this method is relatively favorable compared to buying gift cards.
Of course, if you don't want to go through the trouble, you can continue to buy gift cards 😂
Just dealing with the transactions between two accounts took me an afternoon, and I really got confused.
Have fun~