Google Checkout US only?

It appears that the new Google Checkout only support US merchants. How did I find this out? I signed in with my Danish AdWords account and they helpfully filled the sign up form in with my address and AdWords account details, only they changed my country to the US and won’t let me change it.

Now it doesn’t really suprise me. US payment processors are really scared of foreigners, so Google Checkout aren’t really that much different from most other vendors. However there is at the time of writing ZERO information on their site mentioning this tiny but relevant fact. It brings me back to the early days of the web, when 80% of all web forms would require a valid state, zip and US phone number for signing up for their free web services. This because no one tested non US services.

Actually come to think of it when I tried to buy TurboTax earlier this year to do my US tax return, they wouldn’t sell the downloadable version to me with out a US address.

The other funny thing is that Google already have the infrastructure via their AdSense program to handle international merchants. I guess I should be patient. It is the first release.