iTunes email: Problem with Payment Information

Just had the same email. I’m not what you’d call ‘tech savvy’ and don’t want to do anything, but I’m worried I’ll loose years of photos if my iCloud storage is suddenly and dramatically reduced! Why aren’t Apple chipping in on here?

I received the same email:

iTunes Store <do_not_reply@itunes.com>

On 01/03/2024 you are scheduled to be charged $9.99 for iCloud+ with 2 TB of storage, but there is a problem with your payment information.Please update your payment information as soon as possible. If we cannot successfully charge your account, it will be downgraded to the free 5 GB plan and your service may be affected.Follow the instructions below to update your billing information:

1.Go to Settings > [your name] > iTunes & App Store.

2.Tap your Apple ID, then tap View Apple ID. You might be asked to sign in.

3.Tap Manage Payments (if you’re using an older version of iOS, tap Payment Information) and follow the prompts.

You can also update your billing information on a Mac or PC.The iCloud Team

I hadn't seen the iTunes store email address and thought this was a legitimate Apple email. The blue link just leads to an Apple Support page. I'm just worried that clicking on the link may have left some form of malicious script on my computer. So a) do people think this was a glitch email from Apple and b) if it's malicious, what next step should be taken. I haven't seen any other unusual activity on my accounts.

Thanks everyone!

Today is March 3, 2024 and I just received a similar email (at the bottom of this thread). After reading messages on this thread I'm still quite not sure if this is a bug or a phishing email, but I'm assuming if this is a bug it should have been fixed by now, since it's been over 2 months since other users reported the same issue.

....

From: iTunes Store <do_not_reply@itunes.com>

Dear <name>

On 2024-03-10 04:52:18 America/Los_Angeles you are scheduled to be charged $2.99 for iCloud+ with 200 GB of storage, but there is a problem with your payment information.Please update your payment information as soon as possible. If we cannot successfully charge your account, it will be downgraded to the free 5 GB plan and your service may be affected.Follow the instructions below to update your billing information:

1. Go to Settings > [your name] > iTunes & App Store.

2. Tap your Apple ID, then tap View Apple ID. You might be asked to sign in.

3. Tap Manage Payments (if you’re using an older version of iOS, tap Payment Information) and follow the prompts.

You can also update your billing information on a Mac or PC.The iCloud Team

@godmother63, sure, the Registrar is as you mention, but the Registrant is Apple, Inc.

Besides, it would be impressive if Apple, who is so protective of its brand, wouldn’t own that domain… 😉

TL;DR: Phishing or glitch doesn’t matter. Ignore and delete the emails, nothing lost.

I got a similar message. I ignored it . NowI get a message saying my credit card has expired and I can’t make in app purchases. I checked with my bank and there are no problems with my credit card.

I had to pick out the most popular recent thread as there are so many of these reported now. There ARE legitimate emails being sent out from Apple as a result of a known issue/glitch. They are NOT scam emails. I have attached the example I received. Mine was addressed from no_reply@email.apple.com and suggested there was an issue with my card but there wasn't. My card was being billed correctly with no issues. In my call with Apple, the rep said this was a scam and didn't come from Apple until I pointed out the body of the email addressed me by name, knew the correct subscription I had and knew the last four numbers of my card. I was that confident I clicked the link while on the phone which launched the settings app and took me to the billing section instead of redirecting to a phishing website. Despite this, he persisted and said I need to contact my bank. Not 10 minutes later I received a call back from Apple apologising. The "engineering team" had already replied to his ticket and confirmed it was legitimate email sent in error as a result of a known issue/glitch. We then dug deeper and found my the system was thinking my card was expired when it wasn't. My issue was fixed by removing my card from my account and re-adding it again and I didn't receive any more emails.

Continue to scrutinise emails and look for from address, do they address you by name, have the correct subscription details etc and if in doubt call Apple, but know that there ARE legitimate emails being sent out by Apple in error or as a result of a glitch. Hope this helps.

Recieved on 3/3/24:

Support transcript excerpt:

I'm going to monitor for the charge on the expected date and cross my fingers. I was also not able to add a secondary payment method to my account, with a basic error that instructed me to contact support.

I have received two of these as well. Fortunately, I didn't click on anything in the email but went instead directly to my computer to check. What is very odd is as the above person said, they they knew that my iCloud storage charge would be coming through soon and had the correct date for it.

Experiences like above.

Just received an email from Apple saying that my payment (Visa credit card) for iCloud had been refused. Checked my Apple account using system settings (Mac) and it confirmed that payment had not taken place. Instructions there said to change payment method via the App Store. Logged in there and found that the card had supposedly expired. That is not true. Deleted old payment info and tried to reuse card information and that was refused. Switched to PayPal (same card!) and that was accepted. Payment via PayPal for iCloud occurred a moment later.

I received that email and promptly came to the forums to see what people were saying. After reading all of the comments here I did nothing and when I checked for January, my Apple payment went through fine, so I agree that it was a phishing email. I received the same type of email from Amazon in the last few days. I looked at what address it was coming from and was pretty sure that was a phishing attempt as well so I promptly deleted it. Now I guess we have to be where of getting these emails from anybody who has our credit card information any streaming services you use any subscription services you have because if you haven’t changed your card information, there is no reason for them to be sending you that email. Thanks everyone!

AXOgrl by the time your payment went through Apple had fixed the issue. For others the Apple payment page showed different errors while they tried to fix it. From just ‘expired’ to invalid expiration date to invalid security code. Apple isn’t what it used to be

Thank you. That’s interesting however, to receive this exact same type of email from Amazon makes me think but I suppose it could be both. But it’s just really, really, really strange that I have the same exact type of email from Amazon to update my payment method.

I ran into this recently, and in my personal case it was because my card was expired in my Apple ID vs in Apple Pay.

What I hadn't realized until recently is that my Apple payment in my Wallet and in my Apple ID were two different payment sources. Although my wallet was fine, the reference in my Apple ID was expiring. So for a while I kept trying to remove/re-add the card in my wallet (Apple Pay) when it was actually expired in my Apple ID area instead. In my Apple ID area, I was able to edit the expiration date and security code, and things worked well again.

Apple Pay: Open Wallet app

AppleID: Settings -> iCloud area (tap on your name) -> Payment & Shipping

That was my variant of the issue, hopefully it helps someone out there.

Note - I ran into this issue a few months ago as well, and I wish I had written the solution because it appeared differently. So it looks like different solutions might work for different people because I don't remember doing the above a few months ago, but it worked for me this time around.