Replying in general to the issue of international purchases from Barnes & Noble:
I set up an account with B&N using a US address and phone number, but with an Australian credit card but, as expected, my puurchase was rejected. After reading this thread I signed up with StrongVPN then went back in and was able to download a couple of free books without any problem, and have just bought a cheap book too, so my credit card works, even though the account address is in the US and the credit card Australian with a Australian address.
Aside: In case anyone read this pre-edit, I thought it didn't work, but forgot I'd logged off the VPN.
