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How to Activate a Roku Account Without a Credit Card

You can also watch this video on YouTube here.

In one of our previous videos which can all be found here, we showed how to watch American Netflix on Roku from outside US.

And as you already know, when you activate your Roku for the first time, you need to enter your credit card or PayPal details. But guess what, there is a way to bypass credit card section on Roku and still use it.

Well, before we get started, it should be clear that Roku does not involve any payment for account activation or installation of device. It asks for your billing details, in case you want to see paid channels in the future. The activation is free but entering your billing details is mandatory.

Well, not necessary - here is a workaround to bypass credit card section on Roku.

If you are already using Roku, then reset the device, by going to system > Advanced system settings > and Factory reset. Enter the 4 digits you see on the screen to reset your device.

Or if it’s the first time you plugged in Roku, then you should see the setup page.

So, select a language, and connect to your Wi-Fi network, let it detect the best screen resolution for it.

Once that’s done, it’ll ask you to activate Roku by going to the web browser.  Just write down the 4-digit alphanumeric code on a piece of paper because we’ll need this later.

So, to do this, you need to use your computer and, instead of going to the link it showed on the TV, go to the custom link you can see on the screen (you can also find it in the description of the video).

Create a new account by entering your general details like name, email, password etc., just like you did, when you first set up the device.

In the next section, it’ll ask you whether you want a PIN code before making a purchase, I suggest that you set up any 4-digit PIN that you can remember.

And that’s it, your new Roku account is created.

In the account section, you’ll see the option to update your payment method. In the future, if you decide to watch paid channels on Roku, you can update your billing details from here, and then if you go to Roku channel store, you can download the Roku paid channels from there.

For now, let’s skip it and let’s set up your Roku without a credit card.

Do to this, go to roku.com/link and enter the code you can see on your screen.

In the next screen, click on ‘I already have a Roku account’ and sign in the one you just created in the previous step.

In the next step, you might have to refresh the browser if you can’t see anything on the screen.

Next, it’ll ask you to enter your payment details (wait what?)

Well, fortunately, if you scroll down, you should see an option to ‘skip, I’ll add later’

Give a name to your device and you are done.

Now, head over to your television where we have set up your Roku device.

You’ll notice that Roku will update your channels. You can download channels like Netflix and log in.

Now, what about Amazon Prime videos or Hulu?

Well the downside to this method is that you can’t watch US or UK channels on Roku.

In a nutshell, if you just want to use Roku without a credit card, sign up with the special link, but if you want to see geo-restricted content on Roku, you need to enter your credit card or PayPal details.

We have complete step-by-step videos on how to watch US channels like Netflix and many other tips on how to make best use of our services so if you are interested, click here.