Q: Your payment method was declined

I have been waiting for apple itunes support to answer for several days since I received their machine generated formletter response telling me they're investigating. Finally after trying everything I could think of I figured it out myself. As suspected and confirmed by Visa, this isn't a problem with the credit card or the credit card information, but an itunes store desktop application bug. First it is displaying a misleading and inaccurate message on entering valid credit card information for an available credit card with more than enough credit (your credit card has been declined). This message implies that apple sent the request to your credit card vendore which wastes your time and the credit card vendor's when you contact them to investigate.

It turns out the whole issue is caused by poorly coded integration between itunes store desktop application and apple store web application. I found an old apple knowledge base article which said that whenever you update account info on itunes store, it automatically updates apple store.

What was really happening when itunes store displayed the CC declined message was that it was trying to update apple store's information to match, but the apple store account info has different options and validaiton than the itunes store accounts info (in my case the apple store doesn't have an option for my country, Jordan). So when a validation error was encountered by itunes desktop app as it was trying to update apple store information, it just falls back to displaying credit card declined simply because the apple programmers did not bother (too lazy I guess) to take the validation error from the apple store and display it in itunes.

So what I did was open apple store account management, change my email and save. Then open itunes login with the new email, then itunes will ask me to re-enter account info (not just billing info) this allowed my cc to be accepted immediately.

I tried with 4 of my cards and also paypal account, 4 different apple id, 3 different apple computers (iMac, Macbook, Powerbook G4) with different version OS (10.6, 10.5, 10.4) and 3 versions of iTunes (9.0.3, 10.0, 10.1), and THE PROBLEM HASN'T BEEN SOLVED.

I was so desperate, and the last thing that came to my mind that I haven't tried is.......WINDOWS.

Believe it or not, I tried on my dad's PC, I downloaded the latest iTunes on his PC (he doesn't has iTunes before, my dad is an andriod guy), then register a new account, and IT WORKS....I really hate to say that but PC saved me this time...

If you need to update your credit card info from an iphone and you get the message "Your payment method is declined" and you have tried entering the correct info many times, to no avail, try the following:

For payment type (ie Visa Mastercard etc) select NONE. Then select DONE.

Then it all works..
Don't ask me why just does..

Cheers

I wonder if Apple doesn't know about such problem (Problem will affect the sales on Apple stores) for many days and maybe weeks,

Are they able to keep our credit cards information safe ? !!!!!

Dear Apple: I hope your watching these threads closely and will send an answer immediately. I updated all my apps today, successfully. But now it 3am, and I am trying to download a free sudoku app, and my credit card has been declined. I'll call my bank and Visa tomorrow and ask them way Apple is allowed to do this.

This is happening to me right now. I live outside of US so I'm not sure if this is some IP related issue but I'm hoping it isn't. Apple, please fix this. We'd really appreciate this.

For payment type (ie Visa Mastercard etc) select NONE. Then select DONE.

Thanks! Did the trick for me!

Still doesn't work with me in Egypt

THIS IS REALLY BEGINNING TO ANNOY ME! I HAVE THE EXACT SAME PROBLEM, I HAVE TRIED EVERYTHING! CHANGING CARDS', ALL MY INFO IS CORRECT... I JUST DON'T UNDERSTAND! PLEASE SOME ONE HELP THIS ALL BEGAN WHEN I GOT MY NEW 64GB I-TOUCH 4, WITH THIS I PURCHASED A £25 I-TUNES VOUCHER. I HAVE £8.75 LEFT BUT I CANT EVEN THE VOUCHER IT STILL ASKS ME FOR PAYMENT INFORMATION. PLEASE HELP SOMEONE, PUT ME OUT OF MY MYSTERY!!!

**** off I can't apply for this
pooring system always show up " Your Payment Method Was Declined"
Suck

I just fixed this problem.

What was wrong, was I was using a debit card without keeping track of my expenses (silly me), so I ended up having pending payments that couldn't be afforded.

By charging up the card with more money, signing out of the apple store on my iPhone 4 and re-doing all of my information on the online apple store, the problem was solved after about a 15 minute wait.

Maybe I should download the budget tracker app......?

im getting the exact same thing all my bank details are correct and then, i click done and i get a error messege saying your bank details are declined can someone help x

Let me paste here what I just wrote on some other site:

"Hey dude. I have the same problem, and propably there's something wrong about what You wrote during registeration, i mean that page, where you're supposed to chose your payment method, etc. App store still asks You for it if You haven't solved the problem. It could be Your telephone number (I'm from Poland, and we have +48 prefix here - I wrote 048, then my number and it works). Also very important thing is about Your card. It don't have to be a credit card, I don't have credit card, I have only Visa Electron, for long time I couldn't find what's wrong, and why they still think, that my payment method is declined, but here's what is all about:
You have to change your internet transaction limits, they're propably too small, so raise them. In Poland it don't work under 10 zł (it's about three usd), so maybe If You raise Your limits to 10 dollars it will work. I did it yesterday, and now I'm happy to download all the apps I wanted, it's just great. I hope it will help You."

PS. Maybe it's all obvious, what I wrote here, but who knows, maybe someone don't know it. And don't forget, that security code is the number next to Your signature on reverse of Your card.

Greets.

Why we are not able to create apple id using Master card.Please Sort it.

Im starting to get so frigging annoyed.. on my iphone 3g, it will not let me go onto app store/itunes!! it let me buy music/apps and now its declining my card! no buggar seems to be helping me! i thought with such a high reptuation theyd have superb customer service obv' not.......... SOMEBODY PLEASE HELP ME?!