How do I cancel a pending payment on the App Store?

You cannot cancel a pending payment. You must allow it to successfully complete.

Add a verifiable payment method to your account to allow the pending payment to complete. Once that happens you can request a refund for it.

click here ➜ Add a payment method to your Apple ID - Apple Support

then here ➜ Request a refund for apps or content that you bought from Apple - Apple Support

You will not be allowed to use the App Store until the pending payment completes successfully.

Apple did not let anything go through. If you initiate a charge, Apple attempts to charge it. If it cannot be charged correctly it stays pending. The fact it is pending, means it "did not actually go through".

Also, Apple is not in the business of managing your finances, the automated system does not know whether you have the money for something or not. It just attempts to charge whatever you tried to buy, or any subscription that tries to renew.

You should know if you can't pay for something and not try to buy it, or let it renew.

You still owe that money now though, because you started the transaction.

If you did not want the app, the only one that can cancel its associated subscription is you. Nobody else has the right to cancel anything you start but you. People would be up in arms if Apple cancelled subscriptions unilaterally because they could not be charged. Apple has no way of knowing you want something cancelled unless you cancel it.

When you download an App you agree that apple will charge you until you cancel it. You agree to this and are bound by the legal agreement. If you want something cancelled, you need to do so yourself. Don't expect anyone else to do it for you.

Now you need to let it complete, then cancel whatever caused the charge and request a refund as has been mentioned many times in the very thread you replied to.

click here ➜ If you want to cancel a subscription from Apple - Apple Support

click here ➜ Request a refund for apps or content that you bought from Apple - Apple Support

InterFy wrote:

The thing is that i didnt consent to that.

You did. By trying to purchase the item you entered into a legal agreement with Apple where you consented to have them charge you the full amount. If you did not have enough money to cover it then you should not have attempted the purchase. You owe the entire amount whether you had enough for it or not.

I wanted to make an ingame purchase and the purchase i made went over the limit, i didnt have enough money for it. Instead of apple declining that purchase for insufficient funds, they signed me for a debt and i didnt consent for that, they didnt even notify me, the owed purchase is still hanging there and i found out only recently.

Notify you of what? You made a purchase it was unable to be completed entirely, you owe the amount that was not covered. Are you saying you need to be to told you owe money on a purchase you accept you made and that you accept you did not have enough funds for?

What is that? Youre telling me thats completely legal to do that?

Yes. As per the terms and conditions of the iTunes and App Stores you agree to by using them, you are responsible for the entirety of the purchase amount when you initiate a purchase.

Im still a minor and i dont even have that amount of money that apple signed me for. This never happened before, if i didnt have enough money the purchase just wouldnt process, but now i just randomly owe apple almost $40 for what??? I never agreed to that, i dont care if i lose my stuff ingame but i need to cancel this, i cant even use app store or anything related to it anymore. And the worst part is that i cant even contact a real apple employee to report this, they simply dont have a chat or support email to report this problem.

If you are a minor, then tell your parents or legal guardian to give you the funds to cover the debt. You owe that money now and it cannot be cancelled.

To contact an Apple Support person directly use the methods described in the support document linked below.

click here ➜ Contact Apple for support and service - Apple Support

or use the Message or call options in the support website by clicking here ➜ Contact Apple Support

Beverly-419 wrote:

I am unable to update or download any apps due to a pending purchase I never received the purchase and need any pending purchases removed so I can use my phone properly

You cannot cancel a pending payment. You must allow it to successfully complete.

Add a verifiable payment method to your account to allow the pending payment to complete. Once that happens you can request a refund for it if you don't need whatever you bought.

click here ➜ Add a payment method to your Apple ID - Apple Support

then here ➜ Request a refund for apps or content that you bought from Apple - Apple Support

You will not be allowed to use the App Store until the pending payment completes successfully.

You have not received the purchase because if the charge is still pending, you have to yet pay for it. You need to successfully complete the payment to get the object that was purchased.

StephenmMcCall wrote:

Im like 15 years old and I got a gift card for christmas and I bought stuff till it said I was out of money, I accidentally click a deal on a game and now I have that purchase pending. So your telling me im in dept on a gift card?

You are in dept. Period. Whether you used a gift card or not, is not relevant to the incurred debt. Yes, you can redeem another gift card and cover the debt you have currently. But the reality is you have to cover it in some way. You legally owe that money to Apple now. Whether it was a mistake or not.

Until you cover the amount owed, you will not be allowed to make use of the iTunes & App Store services which includes updating apps.

Once its correctly paid for, you can request a refund for it. But you need to complete the payment first.

Sorry, but the real world does not condone debt because you made a mistake.

niyah134 wrote:

Mines has been there since the beginning on 2024 and i cant cancel it

Nor will you ever be able to cancel it. You need to let it complete. Then you can request a refund for it.

Any pending payment you have your are legally responsible for. You

entered into a contract with Apple for a service or app. You owe that

money until you pay it.

I had a pending charge of $17.97, for some games I did not purchase, and I tried endlessly to find a way to cancel it, because I needed to update some apps, unfortunately there is not a way to cancel it, also, there is not a way to contact Apple, ultimately I had to pay the $17.97 and submit a refund request.

adrain117 wrote:

Then the only option is to pay Apple?

If you have a pending charge, yes, the only solution is to pay.

Once completed you can request a refund.

click here ➜ If you want to cancel a subscription from Apple - Apple Support

click here ➜ Request a refund for apps or content that you bought from Apple - Apple Support

elysia82 wrote:

I don’t get it. They’ll leave a pending payment for 6 months or a year continually trying over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over against even though you’ve cancelled all subscriptions.

”Make a new apple ID.” Yeah, make me a new computer and team of people who aren’t in the slave category.

~ Enna Riddle

Any pending payment you have your are legally responsible for. You entered into a contract with Apple for a service or app. You owe that money until you pay it. The purchase was initiated an Apple needs to either pay the developer and absorb the loss or lie to the developer not tell them their app was purchased or subscribed to. Do you honestly think they are going to just absorb the loss on literally millions of dollars of purchases people never complete?

It is a financial contract, and you are responsible for that charge until its been satisfied. This is not slavery. Nobody forced you to buy or download an app that had a subscription that then tried to charge you. You did that on your own.

As mentioned you can request a refund after its been payed correctly.

Not if you sign out of your iPhone or iPad and App store. Then create a new Apple ID with a new email address, then use that new Apple ID as if you were signing in to your phone for the first time. When asked for a payment method out of the 3 options listed (Credit/Debit, PayPal, None) select “None”. After going to App Store it’ll ask you to sign in then will redirect you to iTunes to also sign in there with new Apple ID. So practically you’re starting from 0 and existing apps stay the same. Make sure to cancel ongoing subscriptions from existing apps so the problem does not occur again. You’ll be able to download new apps and use your App Store again.

Hey Phil0124,

I noticed that you are part of the Apple Community+ Program, I was just thinking, why don’t you try to suggest to Apple to make a way to opt out of “unpayable depts” or pending payments due to insufficient funds. I personally think that this would do a lot of good for Apple since as I can see a lot of people have frustrations with this problem and the most common reason for this issue is younger kids purchasing either apps or in game purchases without permission. I already know, people shouldn’t be putting kids in a situation where that can happen accidentally but accidents happen all the time, we might as well make it an accident where we don’t have to create a whole new Apple ID or pay and hope that the refund you requested actually comes in. I am fully aware that there is a refund method and you can state a reason as child purchased without knowledge but that is not always trustworthy to majority of people since they do not “trust technology” Apple will not be losing a ton of money by doing this since it will make other people’s experience with Apple purchases a lot less annoying which will lead to better reviews for Apple. I’m aware that this is easier said than done and there may have been some attempts or thought to this idea but as an Apple user myself and someone who has been a victim of this where a purchase made by a younger sibling is trying to go through but there is not enough funds I would say that it is worth trying to get this in motion rather than having people struggling and stressing, and telling people what they have already heard and seen hundreds of times. Now I have to pay for the dept and cross my fingers that I get a refund.

Thank you

Signing out of your apple ID does not delete any data.

But all Apps and purchased content will remain tied to the Apple ID that downloaded it, so you will still be unable to update your apps, and you will lose access to all purchased movies and any active subscriptions.

Creating a new apple ID is probably one of the worst suggestions to try to resolve this. It will just cause more issues than it may solve. Don't do it.

I don’t get it. They’ll leave a pending payment for 6 months or a year continually trying over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over against even though you’ve cancelled all subscriptions.

”Make a new apple ID.” Yeah, make me a new computer and team of people who aren’t in the slave category.

~ Enna Riddle

Im like 15 years old and I got a gift card for christmas and I bought stuff till it said I was out of money, I accidentally click a deal on a game and now I have that purchase pending. So your telling me im in dept on a gift card?

The thing is that i didnt consent to that. I wanted to make an ingame purchase and the purchase i made went over the limit, i didnt have enough money for it. Instead of apple declining that purchase for insufficient funds, they signed me for a debt and i didnt consent for that, they didnt even notify me, the owed purchase is still hanging there and i found out only recently. What is that? Youre telling me thats completely legal to do that? Im still a minor and i dont even have that amount of money that apple signed me for. This never happened before, if i didnt have enough money the purchase just wouldnt process, but now i just randomly owe apple almost $40 for what??? I never agreed to that, i dont care if i lose my stuff ingame but i need to cancel this, i cant even use app store or anything related to it anymore. And the worst part is that i cant even contact a real apple employee to report this, they simply dont have a chat or support email to report this problem.