Credit Card is Declined

As already noted and as my experience has also confirmed, go the the support page and send them the very necessary support email. There was an issue with the credit card authorization due to the requirement of the Security Code from the credit cards (and I suspect needed emails account in lieu of old Apple ID for the new iPod Touches FaceTime app). It took mine a bit longer but most people are being helped within 1 to 2 days (maybe I helped them identify the issue as I took a lot of time to test and work with several Geniuses at the Apple Store and asked my Apple Business Managers to escalate the issue as much as possible). This obviously a legacy bug as most folks who have this have had an account for a while. I wonder if anyone else had this same bug AND had the following things true:

1. Had an old Apple ID that was NOT my email address (some of us older folks!)
2. Had a password that did NOT contain both letters and numbers with 1 letter upper case and 1 lower case (mine was all numeric and only 6 numbers)
3. Had PayPal set up, so no Security Code was required or changed their credit card to a card that required it from PayPal?

In any case, I am using a credit card and have all of the latest security settings. I can tell you that iTunes does not have a support number of any kind.

This is a huge deficiency and I discussed this with the Apple Business Managers from 3 stores and they agreed to escalate it. I am evaluating an iPad for use at my company for my CIO and CEO. This will most likely lead to 100 to 300 iPad being deployed if this goes well at my company and I can make the justification. I can see us rolling out up to 500 to 700 of these in a corporate setting and at our medical manufacturing facilities.

My fear is that my CIO/CEO/CFO/Senior Directors have an issue with their iTunes account and I cannot support them because I am left to say, please submit an email to iTunes support and wait 24 to 72 hours for a response, hoping they can fix it. Not a good feeling or level of support for executive management. I do not think if Steve Jobs has an iTunes account issue, he is forced to just email them and wait the same time. I suspect he can and would call someone. I suggested that they consider this as a business partner level support contract or something. They want the iPad to be a business tool, then it needs to be supported as a business tool with business grade service contracts... just saying. 🙂

My experience with corporate iPads is that iTunes will lock the credit card out after the fourth iPad/configuration gets set up on the same day (on the same credit card). I've found that if I space the iPad setup on iTunes out to 2 iPads every 3 days, it seems to get by without the lockout coming into play. But my corporate iPad rollout has been slowed down considerably as a result of Apple's poor planning and poor implementation of credit card authentication!

I think Apple never realized corporations rolling out 30 or more iPads would have one master credit card for all of them. You would think since iPads in quantities greater than 2 have to be purchased directly from Apple Corporate through a support rep, they would flag the iPad serial numbers in that large order so that they would pass the iTunes "lockout" protocol!

I too am having this issue. This is not the first time it has happened either. I'm so sick of iTunes and Mac in general. I am in the US with a US CC and all of the sudden BAM "DECLINED". No responses as of yet from customer service and it's been 3 days. Apple really needs to get their act together. 😟

Same problem here - I'm currently traveling in China and I'm suddenly blocked from using my US iTunes account. The only thing I seem to be able to do is to download podcasts.

I sent an email to Apple today, I really hope they can help me... 😟

Message was edited by: ixs22

I hope that everyone who is having this problem sends a complaint to the proper place EVERY DAY that it continues to be a problem.

Apple support will take forever to solve this (it still hasn't, in my case, after more than one hour with them last week).

Workaround in SOME cases:

a) Best option while they are at it is for you to buy a gift card and aply it to the account. Ask a friend to use her own iTunes store account to buy a gift card for you (in this case, your friend's account must be in the same country than yours; in the case of actual physical coupons, I have no idea if you can charge credit bought in a store in Paris to your US based account; I think you should, but with Apple, how can one know?)

b) If this is happening while you are travelling, ask someone you trust, in the country where your iTunes account is based, to sign into your iTunes account from her computer and to reapply the same credit card that was being declined when you tried to access from wherever you happen to be. If it works, you'll know that you belong to a selected few that won't be able to buy iTunes store content while traveling. For future jaunts, replenish your account with credit before leaving home.

Musings about this situation: http://goo.gl/Ee1Z

Good luck.

I am having the same problem starting today. But I am in the US using a US based debit card. I tried to activate paypal and wound up in an endless loop of frustration. The only thing is that I saw one person comment about downloading the new Twitter app and I just did that and it seems like that's when things started...except that I did download an app last night and some free podcasts last night. Very frustrating. Haven't tried a gift card (like an iTunes card) yet although I suspect it will not work either. Needless to say I will be e-mailing them daily. My situation is so different from those having international issues, I can't even begin to comprehend what the heck apple is thinking not issuing some kind of statement.

Bought almost everything I needed for my new iPad and this error popped up.

Changing cards etc. doesn't help. Wrote email to apple support.

I strongly suggest everyone to try Android while waiting several weeks for apple to fix this.

I have an HTC Android phone and comparing with apple, Android and Google services seem more open and user-friendly to me. Besides almost everything is free.

Try it. And Samsung releases it's Android tablet with normal file system etc. now.

My iPad is going to my friends/relatives and I am not buying iPhone 4.

Seriously? I emailed the Customer Support # and they fixed it. If you do not email them, they will not fix it. It took them 72 hours to fix mine. I was not happy about the time but they did fix it. If you do not email them, then you cannot have it fixed.

Also, this is all the result of their security updates requiring the security code for your credit cards. I personally appreciate higher levels of security to keep my accounts safe.

_*To go to an Android in my opinion if the most flagrant display of trolling for another product in an Apple forum.*_ Seriously, dude, you are over the top. I am sure your post will get deleted soon enough... at least, I hope so. This is a forum to help folks and not a forum for complaining. If you are seeking help or a resolution great, but not when you are trolling... especially when you are trying to get folks to switch phones. I had to laugh when I read this one.

By the way, my iPhone 4, my wife's 3Gs, my son's iPod Touch, my iPad, and my son's iPod Shuffle all work great on 4 authorized computers without issues. I have no issues and iTunes customer support fixed it all. Thanks, Apple!

Message was edited by: riversen

Found a quick and nice WorkAround.
I'm a Hong Kong iphone4 user with HK credit card and of course, i use it in HK but unfortunately encountered "payment decline error". Just try the following steps to re-activate account.

(1) Login your itunes a/c in latest version iTunes, of course, in your mac/pc
(2) Buy a Paid app using your a/c
(3) Once successfully bought the app, try to buy the same app in your iPhone
(4) Congratulations! you can buy any new Paid app.

Let's share if the above steps work for you. 🙂

Cheers,

Jack

This happened to friends of mine. They had two iPhones but were using the same iTunes account to buy stuff. If both phones were logged in with iTunes at the same time (this can changed in settings), any credit card would automatically be denied. The solution was to make sure only one phone was logged in at a time. I suppose you could create two separate accounts but you might end up paying twice for the same app.

same here! i'm glad i found this thread. It's been SO frustrating!!

I'm living in HK as well (but have a us address/cc) and i tried to dl apps and my credit card was "declined".

i think it does have to do with the service- i'm with pccw, but it wasn't activated till yesterday (10/12). I did however get the phone on 10/8 and was only on wifi and downloading free apps was no issue as my cc was entered and taken successfully. So as previously mentioned i guess i was locked out.

Has anyone outside the US gotten locked out but reset, then tried to purchase w/o getting locked out again?

What a pain...

I recommend emailing iTunes ASAP.

I spent 3 hours this evening here in Singapore after my U.S. Visa (which I've used with my iTunes account for the past 3+ years) was suddenly declined.
I tried numerous fixes that I found online, including changing the ZIP of my billing address, without success.
I finally emailed iTunes support and received a response within 2 hours. The email suggested I try to make a purchase again after 24 hours but I tried immediately and was successful.
I have no idea what triggered this error -- it may have been that I was trying to buy a $49.99 GPS app, the most expensive thing I've ever bought on iTunes -- but I'm glad it was quickly resolved. Still, I think I'm going to have a bunch of gift cards lying around in case this happens again.

I am having this problem too. I was trying to buy an itunes gift card and it kept telling me my address did not match my banking information. On top of this frustrating news everytime I attempted to try again I was charged $1. So now I am down a couple bucks with no gift card. Anyone know what I can do to solve this problem?

Same problem in Switzerland. Have for a few days iPhone4 and now the Credit Card is declined. I became no answer from apple. 3 times I ask apple - and nothing.

Help, help, help