Some Xbox 360 users have found that signing up for Xbox Live Gold while also having another Microsoft premium service, like MSN Music or MSN Direct, causes the following message to be displayed. The not quite literal quote:

“Your account has been suspended due to a problem with your payment option. Please use a different payment option or update your current information in Account Management.”

Even worse, when trying to troubleshoot the problem with Microsoft Xbox tech support, some of the reps have recommended deleting the Xbox profile and creating a new one, leading to the loss of customers’ saved games. Microsoft community liaison ‘Major Nelson’ said they were testing a fix on the first of December, but it has yet to show up.

If you’re running into a similar problem, check out this thread on the Xbox forums, where people are banding together to try to get the problem worked out, so that they may use all the features Xbox Live Gold membership affords.

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