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 DSI HOW TO GUIDES
 How to buy Nintendo DSi Points
Cos DSi Points means DSiWare games
Product: Nintendo DSi | Publisher: Nintendo
Our favourite money is Monopoly money because it comes in pretty colours and when your brother's back is turned you can steal some notes without him noticing. Our second favourite money is dollars, but only because it reminds us of Monopoly money.

We're not sure whether we like Nintendo DSi Points yet. That's the made up currency that Nintendo charges you if you want to buy/download DSiWare games from the DSi Shop.

For some reason, DSi Points aren't the same as Wii Points, and you can't transfer your Points between your different Nintendo consoles (although before too long, someone in China or Nigeria will probably claim they can do it for you.)

And unlike Monopoly money, you do have to give Nintendo real cash in order to get your hands on DSi Points. At the moment, Nintendo charges £9 per 1000 points.

This is how you swap money for points.


To buy your DSi Points you have to switch on your DSi and select the Nintendo DSi Shop option.




In order to do this, you must be able to connect your DSi to the internet using a wi-fi network. Check out our How To set up wi-fi on your Nintendo DS guide if you haven't done this yet. We have previously connected though, so we just have to wait...




Here we are in the Nintendo DSi Shop. We can see some Recommended Titles to download but in order to buy our points, we need to Start Shopping.




Now we click on the Add Nintendo DSi Points button.




There are two options. If you have a Nintendo Points Card, bought at a retailer such as Amazon, you just scratch the silver area off the back of the card and enter the number into the box (as shown two below).






Sadly no one has been nice enough to give us a Nintendo Points Card so it's going to have to be the Credit Card option.


Here you can see the conversion rate between real money and Nintendo money. We're going to buy 3000 points.




Now the choice is between MasterCard and Visa card.




Fill in your details. They aren't saved onto the DSi so you will have to enter them every time you want to more DSi Points but that's best in terms of security. (N.B. You can also lock down use of DSi Points via the DSi's Parental Controls).




We think this legalese is funny because Nintendo is about to charge us £27 for something it says "has no momentary value".




A transaction is made.




We've now added 3000 DSi Points to our Shop account, which combined with the 1000 points Nintendo gave us for buying a launch DSi, means we have 4000 in total.




Being careful though, we check the receipt and find out that Nintendo of Europe is based in Germany.

Okay, now it's time to get spending...



You can check out more of our How To guides here.

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Reviewer photo
Jon Jordan 3/4/2009
Have your say!  
james | 5 April 2009
can't u download DSI points of the internet
Joined:
Oct 2006
Post count:
683
splat | 6 April 2009
Well effectively that's what you're doing on the DSi, but the point is, you have to use a DSi to download them. You can't do it from your PC.
James | 6 April 2009
I dont like the fact you can use only a credit card. Why no debit card option, are they trying to get us all into debt?
Samej | 10 April 2009
I agree with James, a debit card option is much more effecient for me. I don't even have a credit card and don't plan on getting one. If you can't buy something with your debit card, don't buy something with a credit card. They're debt-bringers, I say, debt-bringers.
Dave | 13 April 2009
Thats all ok. But how do you purchase a "DSi Gift Card"? And how much does that cost?
Sid | 13 April 2009
You can buy a DSI card online or at stores like Toys R Us and Gamestop. They cost about $20.
nick | 19 April 2009
Yes you can only buy 2000 points for $20 which if you ask me I think that the stores (gamestop,and other stores) should sell 1000 and 3000 points, because if you ask me I think that the credit card way would take too long.
Amy | 19 April 2009
I think its a bit expensive considering you could only get a few things of good quality from them.
Joined:
Dec 2008
Post count:
947
klouud | 19 April 2009
LOL! Good show Nintendo, good show! The prices are outrageous - considering the 1000pts per game that works out to be roughly $15.00 for a substandard game (even for iPhone games!) Plus the process of purchasing points is a total pain! And re-entering info every time you want to purchase points is just ridiculous!

I see a bright future for the magnificent DSi. Three Cheers for Nintendo... Hip Hip Horay! Hip Hip...

^ dripping with sarcasm if you didn't notice.

tim
Danny | 19 April 2009
to all you dsi haters does it really take forever to put info every tim damn yall make me sick
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