Unable to use my MS account balance

I have about a $12 MS account balance connected to my xbox. The account balance must be used by the middle of this month or I will lose it. Of all the games I was looking at, they all cost more than $12. When I try to split the cost of any game between my
account balance and my CC (available as a purchase option) the transaction does not go through. After a lengthy chat the conclusion came down to since CA sales tax is charged on CC transactions I can not split the purchase. I can add money to my MS account
but only in blocks of $10. By doing so I will never be able to bring my account balance to $0. The unfair racket is this: in order to spend my remaining balance, I need to add more than I want to spend to my account. If I don't add more than I want to spend
I loose my entire balance. If I do add more than I need to spend then I end up with another account balance which I will not be able to zero out and will eventually loose as well. MS needs to allow us to add smaller increments to our account so that we can
zero out our balance or install the correct software that will allow us to make a split transaction. Our account balance is our money but due to limited options available to us the customer, MS ends up taking our account balance for themselves. It's not fair,
it's not just and there should be more options!!!

:)

 

Balance greyed out

I'm unable to use my account balance to pay for things in my Xbox! The balance appears greyed out. What can I do?

 

Why can't I use my MS account balance?!?

Yes, I was trying to make the purchase on the website. How am I supposed to know that I can't use my MS account balance on the website? Not everyone stalks the forums before making a purchase!

The website was more than happy to accept the prepaid code!

If I can't make purchases on the website with my MS account balance, it should

#1 - clearly state that I can't use MS account balance to pay for purchases via website

AND

#2 - it shouldn't accept the prepaid card code on the website!

Now how do I use the MS account balance?