[mothered]

get a 1 year code and try to se MS into applying the credit to the account
I remember before with amazon a method people did was to send the rep the barcode of the card and say the code was unreadable

Rather than complicating matters and as an alternative approach, you can SE an Item from any company for a refund and then sell the SEd Item.

Then with the cash you receive from the sale, purchase the one year code from MS.
Depending on the Item value, you may also have money left over.