App Store Region Restrictions Make My iPhone Practically Unusable, Need a Real Solution

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Level 1

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App Store Region Restrictions Make My iPhone Practically Unusable, Need a Real Solution

I’m running into major issues with App Store region restrictions, and it’s affecting my daily life as well as my ability to use my iPhone properly.

I have a Colombian bank account, and the app for my bank is only available in the Colombian App Store. However, I live in Europe and also need several EU-only apps that require my App Store region to be set to the EU.

Switching regions constantly isn’t realistic. Every time I change the store, I lose access to apps, need to re-download them, and often need to re-log in — which is especially problematic when it’s my bank app that I use frequently.

On top of that, payment methods make the situation even worse. I can only use my Colombian card for subscriptions, even though my primary account is European. This causes many payments to fail, my apps stop working, and Apple and developers lose revenue. Nobody benefits from this setup.

I’ve been juggling three phones for the past year just to work around this problem, but it’s becoming unsustainable. I genuinely feel stuck, and if there’s no real solution, I might be forced to move back to Android, where this isn’t an issue.

I really need guidance on whether there is any workable solution from Apple’s side. This situation has become extremely frustrating.

iPhone 12 Pro, iOS 18

Posted on Dec 11, 2025 11:58 PM

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Answer 1

Top-ranking reply

Limnos

Level 10

426,923 points

Dec 12, 2025 4:14 AM in response to Doqmike

Unfortunately there is no other solution other than one you are probably using using multiple devices, each configured with an account set to the different countries (don't know why 3 though). Developers can decide on the regional distribution of their products. As suggested already, ask your app developers to make the apps available in other regions. Click on this link to learn how to contact an app developer - How to contact an app developer - Apple Support

I know that my banks have online access with a web browser which doesn't have region restrictions.

As for card use, the system appears to be set up to prevent users from abusing the system by doing things such as creating an account in another country and using a payment method from their actual country of residence (and no, true legal dual residency is not recognized and likely pretty rare anyways on the global scale of things). Apple rarely makes statements as to why it does things the way it does, but they do say: "If you're using an accepted payment method but your Apple Account is set to a different country or region, change your country or region."

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Answer 2

muguy

Level 10

91,166 points

Dec 12, 2025 3:07 AM in response to Doqmike

Your device supports only one region.

you could, ask the bank to make their app available across regions or open and use an account in your home region.

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Answer 3

Doqmike Author

Level 1

4 points

Dec 12, 2025 3:39 AM in response to muguy

It's not just one app that causes issues; it's 100s of apps that are region specific. This is an Apple-only problem that does not arise on Android phones.

And secondly the other problem is regarding payment methods. Why can I not use my EU card to pay for my subscriptions if I'm on the Colombian app store?

It's just a ridiculous system.

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