Well that runs into another problem - I can't get any paid apps. They don't show up in search, and if I navigate to their pages directly, it tells me I'm not in the right country. I've downloaded some of these paid apps on my iPad, so I doubt they genuinely are region locked. I had hoped adding a payment method would make it recognize my location.

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this exact same thing happened to me a few weeks ago - made a new side bank account for Tax Reasons and removed my old account before adding the new one. like what other folks in this thread are saying, AdSense prompted me to add a new payment method once i surpassed $100 threshold, which just happened today. suuuuuper annoying. More on reddit.com

If the country you're living in is eligible, you need to go through the PayPal app. You'll find an option to install/activate Google Pay in the settings. This generates a virtual credit card that you then can add to Google Pay. More on reddit.com

Inside the Google Play app when I go to payments methods, I have the option to add new payment method but I also have more payment settings like you say. If I press it, my browser launches and I can choose to remove my debit card. Maybe you have to cancel your subscriptions first if you have one? Or if you wanted to add another debit card, you might have to add that first before removing your current one. More on reddit.com