I was hoping to buy one of these. But i just read about it needing a credit card just to get it working. I don't use credit cards. Is this still needed? If so how easy is it to get around this? Cheers.

I bought mine before the Credit Card option was made.

From reading other posts, you don't need to register your
Credit Card unless you intend to make purchases directly
from the Roku. Meaning, if you have Netflix, Netflix takes
care of the billing not Roku. But some of the indenpendant
channels can use Roku for the billing.

Thanks for the reply Arwen. So when i go to set it all up it wont ask me for any cc info. Or if it does i can still carry on without it?

I know a number of people who have gone to the roku support page and used the online chat live feature.
Live support will then register an account with out a credit card if you request it. They will then email you the user name and password to the account.
You then just login and change the password to be safe. And presto an account with no credit card
I know not ideal but still a work around.

Thanks. Thats all i needed to know. Thanks for the help.

chat or phone support can set it up without if you ask.
you could alternately use paypal or a visa/mastercard branded debit card. you can always remove the payment method immediately after creating the account. if you use a debit card it does a temporary authorization [i think it's a $1] to ensure that it's a real card but the charge drops off after a couple of days.

You don't need to go through Roku's support folks to set up an account without a credit card. I didn't have a card attached to my account until recently, and I definitely didn't need one initially. It's been a while since I've seen the setup screens, but when you set up the box, it does prompt you to enter a credit card for purchases... but there's an option to skip it right on the screen. You can just continue without one.

beaveyOne wrote:

You don't need to go through Roku's support folks to set up an account without a credit card. I didn't have a card attached to my account until recently, and I definitely didn't need one initially. It's been a while since I've seen the setup screens, but when you set up the box, it does prompt you to enter a credit card for purchases... but there's an option to skip it right on the screen. You can just continue without one.

That is only true for previously set up accounts. New accounts do not have the "skip" button displayed. That is unless it has been added within the last few weeks and I doubt that it has.

A long time ago, like two years or more, the CC was not required but it has been required for some time and the only way to skip it was to contact support.

Question: When you call support, is this something that they expect and will oblige to or is there a chance that I'll get someone who will try to force me to put in my credit card info?

sometimes, prepaid gift cards that no longer have any balance on them might work as a credit card... just saying...

ManicRaider wrote:

Question: When you call support, is this something that they expect and will oblige to or is there a chance that I'll get someone who will try to force me to put in my credit card info?

No one has ever reported being pressured here. I'm sure they would if they had been.

Maybe it was when creating the account on the web site that you could skip the CC# entry... I can't remember anymore. Anyway, I'm sure I helped someone through this within the last year and we made it work. Someone from Roku want to weigh in here?

beaveyOne wrote:

Maybe it was when creating the account on the web site that you could skip the CC# entry...

Those of us who had a Roku account before the channel store and the CC requirement came about do see a skip button when when going to that account. New accounts do not
have that option. They require going through customer service to open an account without a CC.

kc8pql wrote:

ManicRaider wrote:

Question: When you call support, is this something that they expect and will oblige to or is there a chance that I'll get someone who will try to force me to put in my credit card info?

No one has ever reported being pressured here. I'm sure they would if they had been.

+1
When you call 'em up, just tell them you don't have a credit card but you need to have an account to activate your box.
Should be dead easy for them to comprehend if they understand english all that well. Just saying.

Just tried registering a new account without CC. Chat support could not help out, claiming CC or paypal information was mandatory.

Submitted an additional support request through the webform. If I receive a negative reply, I will have to return the box.