With so many amazing indie games hitting the Nintendo Switch eShop every week, it can get quite costly to purchase all of the games which pique your interest. We know many of our readers for whatever reason are not able to connect a credit card to their Switch eShop account - or feel it would be too dangerous to do so.
If you are in that position, then we've put together a helpful guide so you can easily buy Nintendo Switch eShop credit online and control your spending more effectively. You could even point your friends and relatives to this guide ahead of your next birthday.
Please note that some links on this page are affiliate links, which means if you click them and make a purchase we may receive a small percentage of the sale which helps support the site. Please read our FTC Disclosure for more information.
North America - Nintendo Switch eShop Credit
In North America we're big fans of buying our eShop credit from Amazon. The code is delivered to you instantly and cards can be purchased in a variety of denominations. It doesn't get much easier than this.
UK - Nintendo Switch eShop Credit
In the UK your options for buying eShop credit are a little bit more limited. We'd recommend using cdKeys for digital codes which are sent instantly to your inbox. GAME is a good alternative if you'd like to get sent a physical gift card through your letterbox.
Japan - Nintendo Switch eShop Credit
One of the great things about the Nintendo Switch eShop (compared to that of the Wii U or 3DS) is that you can create additional accounts to enable you to buy games from other eShop regions. If you live in North America or Europe, we'd definitely recommend creating a Japanese eShop account to take advantage of cool Japanese exclusives which are yet to be released in the West.
Once you have your Japanese account, you can easily buy Japanese eShop credit for your Switch from Play Asia in a variety of denominations. The code will be sent directly to your inbox too, so no waiting by the mailbox for a pesky physical card to be delivered!
Nintendo Switch Online Membership
Of course, it's not just buying games from the eShop which will require digital credit. If you wish to play Switch games online then you will need a conveniently named Nintendo Switch Online Membership subscription.
Are you a fan buying eShop credit to top up your Switch account? Let us know which eShop games you feel are worth spending your virtual cash on with a comment below.
Comments (20)
I feel like it's an ad. You can buy eShop cards (physical or digital) at tons of different retailers.
Unfortunately no eshop cards here in South Africa. Credit card is being maxed out
I bought a £25 card from sainsburys to use up some of my secret stash of bonus ball winnings and there had been huge mess up with serial numbers when printed and I had to get in touch with nintendo to sort it out. When I looked into it it had been a common problem
anyone knows where to buy mexican eshop codes? i bought usa and japan code in G2A because it's cheaper but i really don't know where to buy mexican codes
@kirbygirl It -is- an ad. Those are affiliate links, so NL gets a portion of the proceeds if we buy this way.
I don't mind seeing articles like this if there is some kind of deal, but everything here is regular retail price. It hardly qualifies as a "guide".
Why would anyone buy a physical eShop card when you can just buy currency directly from the shop?
I recommend Zeek in the UK. 5% saving on there.
@thesilverbrick Because you need a credit card to buy from the eshop... oh right, same on Amazon.
In all seriousness, I think it's either for a gift or to build some kind of collection with those cards.
I want that Wario card, shame I live in UK.
@thesilverbrick I usually pay with Paypal but there are a few reasons I'll occasionally buy eShop cards/codes.
1. As a gift
2. If a retailer has them on sale
3. If I'm buying games from other region eShops
@BensonUii Is there even any place to buy Japanese eShop codes without a significant mark up these days though? I miss when we could get them from Japanese Amazon.
@thesilverbrick I usually buy them as digital codes because I'm not comfortable using my credit cards directly on any game system, at least not since 2011. (Thanks, Sony!)
@cmlobue Yeah, I don't mind ads sometimes, but my point is that this "guide" is not really functioning as a guide of where to buy at all because it's only linking to a very few selected retailers. The only option listed for NA cards is Amazon. Come on, seriously.
No Nintendo eshop cards here too. I thought it was in my country only, didn't know other countries don't have Nintendo eshop cards, as well.
This "guide" isn't even necessary. Seems like pretty much every store that sells gift cards has the Nintendo eShop cards. (even the drug stores which don't sell games, aside from those AtGames consoles and we don't count those )
@thesilverbrick For the same reason i don't use my credit card on the PSN store. If my account gets hacked, there's no payment details available. Ok, i'll lose my games but my money is safe.
If only Walmart carried all of these as Target, Best Buy, Vintage Stock does. I haven't seen the $5, $15, $35, and rarely $70 one in any physical store. If anyone can provide which stores carry at least the $70 one, that would be much appreciated. Wish everything wasn't online exclusive though, but sadly that's probably the case since everything is trying to go digital in this day and age.
Of course Wario is the most money you can get on one card. It makes way too much sense!
I would get them in real life not in games sense more tax..
Raise.com is the best place for U.S Digital Eshop Cards. They send you codes for an extra 5% or 7% off their already discounted card prices and a $10 off code every once in a while. Here are their EVERYDAY DISCOUNTS WITH NO CODES.
Digital Eshop Cards
$20 are 6% off
$35 are 8.9% off
$50 are 9.9% or 10% off
So if you also use one of the codes they send you from time to time you can get 17% /$8.50 off a $50 card.
Tap here to load 20 comments
Leave A Comment
Hold on there, you need to login to post a comment...