Community Discussions

Microsoft Silver/Gold Partnership

Main Post:

Hi All, not sure if this is the best place to post this, however, I'm finding it a hard topic to find simple definitive info on. I work for a small MSP (12 staff) and have been tasked to lead the team in obtaining Silver MS Partnership status and then, onto Gold after that. I've found snippets of info on Silver needing 2 x certified techs but there seem to be some rules around this. Can anyone point me in the right direction for a 'straight to the point' requirements document that outlines what's exactly required for both partnership levels, including fees? Or is there a MS department that you can call and have someone help you through it?

Top Comment: The requirements vary depending which competency you want, I’ve just renewed gold for us in three competencies this year, it cost about £3500 in the UK. But the benefits include $12,000 of Azure spend plus all the licences we need for the entire business for the year, works out in our favour really.

Forum: r/msp

AMEX Gold to Morgan Stanley Platinum

Main Post:

Is there a way to upgrade my account from the AMEX Gold Card to MS Platinum? I currently have a targeted upgrade offer for the vanilla Plat in my “pre-selected offers”.

I just wasn’t sure if the gold account could be converted into MS Plat so I don’t have to cancel and ding the average account age.

TIA

Top Comment:

Nope. Ms and schwab do not have any product change ability. You can get the vanilla plat.

Forum: r/amex

Is it against MS TOS to do this?

Main Post:

My mate sent me a link to CDkeys to purchase 3 years of xbox live gold for Brazil and since he made a new account he says he doesnt care if it gets banned...my question is this against MS TOS since he had to use a VPN to redeem it from brazil store? Thanks

Top Comment:

It’s against TOS. A ton of people do this without issue but that doesn’t guarantee no issues. He’ll probably be fine but technically it can result in a ban.

Forum: r/xboxone

Gamepass Ultimate on MS Rewards - Best value redemption method

Main Post:

As has been pointed out previously it is now possible to redeem MS Rewards points for Game Pass Ultimate (GPU) - however, the points required seem quite high for the amount of GPU given.

I have therefore calculated the points / GPU day for all of the available methods of obtaining GPU through MS Rewards:

As can be seen, most efficient way (least points redeemed per GPU Day) is to redeem a 3 Month Xbox Game Pass, which is converted to 2 months of GPU when added to your GPU enabled Xbox account. (see conversion rates: https://www.xbox.com/en-gb/xbox-game-pass#faq)

If that is not available, then Xbox Live Gold Membership is the next best method, followed by the actual GPU Rewards. (3 months better than 1 month in both cases)

Lease efficient method is (as I would expect) to redeem gift cards and then purchase GPU.

Notes:

¹ 3 Month Xbox Game Pass is not showing up in list of rewards when I search, however it is still available for me as a previous purchase... not sure how long that will last for...

² GPU Days / cash has been calculated by taking (30 days / (cost for 1 month / value of gift card)) - this is in GBP, possibly may differ in other currencies / locations, and assumes 30 days are credited for each month purchased.

TLDR:

Don't redeem the new Xbox Game Pass Ultimate rewards as they give the least efficient conversion rate (other than redeeming Xbox Gift Cards)

Redeem the legacy 3 Month Xbox Game Pass reward if it is available - or the 3 month Xbox Live Gold Membership if not.

Top Comment:

Ultimately, the best way to do this is to save your points for when the 12 month Gold Hot Deal is active. 22k for a year. Buy three of those and you have yourself a year of Ultimate.

Forum: r/MicrosoftRewards