Q: "There is a problem with a family member's previous purchase"
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Mar 28, 2015 1:23 PMby Shredded Wheat,Mine is one I've had for years with my credit union but was recently re-issued. So I've updated twice with the new expiration date. Still got the same error message so I again updated to a debit card from my bank that I've also had for years. Same error message. Can updates apps. Can download even the "free" music track from iTunes....AND I believe it is keeping my wife from from restoring her iPad since I'm the family organizer.
Can anyone help?
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Mar 28, 2015 2:34 PMby Debbie76,Turned off family sharing and credit card accepted. Clearly this is yet another Apple glitch. Hopefully it's fixed soon.
I've been an Apple user since iPhone first came out - have four active iPhones - three active iPads - and two active MacBooks ... and still think it's ridiculous to have to pay Apple to find out how to pay Apple.
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Mar 28, 2015 2:45 PMby Dah•veed,When you have an issue like this it's easy to set it up so that Apple calls you and when the issue is your account and not a warranteed Apple product there aren't any charges for the help.
Apple ID security issues -
Account security issues almost always require you to speak directly to an Apple representative to securely establish your identity as the account holder. You can set it up so that Apple calls you, either immediately or at a time convenient to you.
1. Go to http://www.apple.com/support/appleid/
2. Choose Contact Support and click Contact Us
3. Choose Other Apple ID Topics and choose the appropriate topic for your issue (Security questions or password)
4. Choose, No Thanks, Continue
5. Choose the best method for you for contacting Apple
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Mar 29, 2015 10:17 AMby willywill2,This was happening to me. My credit card on file got hacked so I had to cancel it. In the interim, my wife purchased something on itunes and the payment didn't go through. We owed 99 cents. I tried updating the card on her account but it still would not update. Called Apple - sat on hold for 1/2 hr, got transferred twice but finally got a guy who told me the only 100% way to fix this is to buy an itunes gift card and redeem it on her account since she had the charge. WORKED!
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Mar 29, 2015 5:42 PMby Debb3,Turning of family sharing will only clear up the problem if it is your account that has the discrepancy. In my case, I turned off family sharing and was able to update my account but as soon as I add the family back - same problem.
Like willywill2 - mine was caused by a purchase my daughter made (had to have billing to tell me this but I guess I could have done this with all the kids). We could have fixed it by adding an iTunes gift card to her account but instead, we just removed her from the family share, updated the credit card info in her account then added her back.
Now everyone's accounts are working.
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Mar 30, 2015 2:14 AMby travislawton,I had the same problem. My credit card was reissued by the bank due to possible identify theft of the other card. My wife then tried to make a purchase and it was declined. I'm the family organizer and tried everything I could think of to find out what the problem was. I read somewhere that you HAVE to go to iTunes on a computer and go into your info to see if you have an unpaid balance. I did this and nothing was showing.
After a bit, I thought, "even though my wife is on my apple family thing, maybe since she bought the declined item, I have to log into her iTunes. I did this, went to account info, purchase history, and sure enough, it had an outstanding balance. There was a button right there to update the payment info and upon clicking that, it had my new card info in there (which I'm assuming it grabbed from when I updated that on my account) but just needed to confirm the CVV on the back. After doing that, the balance was paid immediately, and within 10 seconds of that I hit "update all" on my phone.....and they started updating right away.
So there key here is that you have to log into iTunes using the specific account that made the purchase that didn't go through.
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Mar 30, 2015 7:19 PMby sake899,I had the exact same problem. I cancelled a credit card that was used as my iTunes registered card. Even though I'm the family organizer, I was not able to update my credit card info to my new card: I received the annoying "Ask your family organizer to update their billing info" message. After spending 45 mins on the phone with Apple Support, they found the problem. There was a pending credit card charge that my wife had made on her phone that needed to be paid before any changes could be made to the account. The problem was that she was unable to provide credit card details as long as I was the family organizer and I was unable to provide credit card details as long as she had an outstanding balance.
The solution suggested by Apple was for my wife to leave family sharing temporarily, update the credit card info to pay the outstanding balance and then re-join the family. This worked. The downside is that there is an annual limit on how many times (2?) that you can join a family so this workaround is clearly not a sustainable solution. Apple needs to fix this bug in their payment system to (1) make the error message describe what is happening and (2) provide a way of updating credit card details without having to leave the family.
