Microsoft Points currency switch: you won’t lose money
Update: while you won’t lose money, you better spend all your converted new “local currency” within one year of the transition, as they will expire after that! Pretty sneaky, Microsoft:
The purchased funds you deposit into your account after the transition will not expire. However, the funds we deposit into your account at the time of the transition will expire one year from the deposit date.
With the impending switch from points to a local currency value for Microsoft’s payment ecosystem, you’re probably wondering “how much will I get?”
Microsoft’s official statement on the matter (see here) is as follows:
To make this a seamless and positive experience for our customers, we have considered many factors to ensure that the amount deposited in your Microsoft account will be of equal or greater marketplace value than your Microsoft Points.
So there you go, you can’t lose, and in fact it might pay to stock up on any cheap/discounted Microsoft Point deals that you see in the meantime. The “sign up for Xbox One preorder email notification, get a $10 Microsoft Store coupon” debacle comes to mind…
At current rates that means that, for people in the United States, every 80 points you have (or a lesser amount) will be required for every US$1 of new value.
