You may not be allowed to add debit or credit card issues in India to your Apple account. You will also not be able to make new payments with these cards even if your Indian card details were already stored in your Apple account.
Sounding quite strange, isn’t it?
Apple App Store will stop accepting debit and credit cards issued in India for app purchases and subscription services from June 01. Even ad campaigns on Apple search can’t be run using any Indian cards. The Cupertino giant has made this move after finding it difficult to deal with transactions triggered through Indian cards due to the new auto-debit guidelines issued by the Reserve Bank of India last year.
At the moment, net banking, Apple ID balance, and UPI are the only options Indian users can make use of to pay for services, such as iCloud, Apple Music, and app purchases, from the App store.
“Due to Reserve Bank of India (RBI) regulations, Apple Search Ads will soon no longer accept payments from credit cards issued by banks in India,” Apple said in an email to users.
The new Auto-debit rules went into effect on October 1, 2021. It requires that everyone register again for recurring payment services such as Netflix or iCloud. These new rules are implemented with an intention to keep users more cautious about upcoming transactions, including a reminder of due dates and the ability to cancel payments before they are debited automatically. A new e-mandate must be created for each recurring payment, and it would have required Apple to make changes to its payment gateway to comply with the RBI guidelines.
However, the latest update from Apple indicates that Apple has decided either not to implement the required new changes or has delayed the implementation for an unknown duration.
The new RBI mandate related to the subscription business has impacted many businesses in India as well as individuals who have been opting for services from various providers on a monthly basis. International merchants, small enterprises, and startups who may not have a sizeable share of revenue coming from Indian customers have decided not to forge tie-up with local banks in order to comply with the new RBI mandate. They have requested their customers in India to look for an alternate mode of payment.
Struggling with Apple App Store Payments?
Are you among the ones having trouble paying for Apple services? There is a simple solution though.
For a seamless experience, go to your Apple wallet and top up your Apple Account balance, equal to the amount of your subscription service each month, in advance. The charged amount will be deducted from your account automatically on the due date. This may seem like an extra step in comparison to automatic payments though. UPI can also be used for Apple-related transactions, but it is limited to adding funds to an Apple ID.
For the moment, you need to either say good buy or arrange a card issued overseas for recurring iOS payments. Apple will send you an email every month about a payment failure. You can add money to your wallet to get around this problem. You can add more money to continue uninterrupted services after the initial amount is exhausted.
