How do I clear my Apple Account balance to change region?

Click ▶︎ Here to request the balance on your account be reset to zero.

* United States: 1-800-APLCARE.

* Contact Support.

If you need to change your region, then click ▶︎ Change Region for step-by-step instructions.

Good luck! 👋🏼😉

Hello!

I see you want to empty your account balance. This is not something the people on this forum—other users like yourself—can do for you. There are TWO ways you can achieve this:

1) If you are trying to empty your balance and still have a valid credit or debit card from your original country, you may purchase an item from the App or iTunes Stores for more than your balance. The remainder will be billed to your card, leaving you with nothing in your account balance. This is the easiest solution (you can do it yourself!), plus you get to use your money for something for yourself instead of donating it to Apple.

2) Alternatively, you could ask Apple Support to remove and keep the balance. Use this direct link to the managing and editing an Apple Account people who will do this for you --> https://getsupport.apple.com/?caller=kbase&PGF=PGF63005&category_id=SC0998&symptom_id=20198

This is faster than using Contact Apple Support - Apple Support which will just eventually lead you to the same place once you click your way through a bunch of menus.

If the above direct link does not work for you, go to https://getsupport.apple.com/?s=n , enter “empty balance” or “zero balance” in the search line, press enter to search, then on the next page select “Clear Apple Account balance”. On the next page select a chat or telephone call option.

Alternatively give Apple a phone call. Find a list of telephone numbers at: Contact Apple Support - Apple Support (You will need to contact Support for the country to which your account is set, but the telephone numbers are not international,)

When asking about this because you are changing regions, take a look at this article:

Change your Apple Account country or region - Apple Support

Note that in that article Apple advises, “* If you don’t want to enter a payment method, wait until you're physically in your new country or region, then create a new Apple Account.” Avoid this if at all possible! Doing this will cause a LOT of complications with your current content and could potentially also result in problems with using your hardware.

Did you read the two posts that had a link to an article about doing that? The answer was already there. ;-)

The article Change your Apple Account country or region - Apple Support describes how to change your Apple ID country or region, and the requirements and results of doing this.

You may encounter various issues and here is how to deal with them:

● Subscriptions

Make sure you have canceled all your subscriptions (see: If you want to cancel a subscription from Apple - Apple Support ) and wait for any memberships, pre-orders, movie rentals, or season passes to fully expire. Items will still be active until their expiration date. You need to contact Apple and request any ongoing items you have be ended immediately if you do not want to wait until they expire naturally.

● Remove all your Apple Account balance using one of these ways:

- Add a credit or debt card as a payment method to your Apple ID and buy items just in excess of your remaining Apple ID balance. This will use up all the balance and any excess will get charged to the card, leaving nothing in your account.

- Contact Apple using this link --> https://getsupport.apple.com/?caller=kbase&PGF=PGF63005&category_id=SC0998&symptom_id=20198 and ask them to remove your balance (they will keep it).

● Payment Methods. In the first link above Apple says: "Make sure that you have a payment method for your new country or region." Refer to the list in: Payment methods that you can use with your Apple Account - Apple Support Note that some payment methods in that list may not be acceptable to set as a payment method for country change purposes.; for example, account balance.

Here is where I challenge declarations made by other forum contributors that the payment method must come from the new country. Apple does not say that. The statement from Apple, and Apple referring to the link, to me only says that the broad payment type must be valid in the new country (e.g., mobile billing is not valid in all countries). I do not see anywhere where it says the specific payment method (e.g., the bank issuing a credit card) must originate from the new country. Apple through the years appears to have deliberately avoided making a simple, clear statement about this, which suggests to me they have more complex criteria other than it must be a payment method from the same country (e.g., the billing address has to be in the new country even if the card is from a different country). Still, using one from a financial institution in your new country may be the easiest way to ensure you don’t run into problems.

● Pending purchases and refunds

If you have pending purchases, or refunds in the process of being returned to you, you will have to wait until these clear.

● Leave or disband any Family Sharing groups.

Refer to How to leave or remove a member from a Family Sharing group - Apple Support

● Read this support article If your Apple ID or other options are greyed out in Settings —> If your Apple Account is grayed out in Settings, or you can't sign out - Apple Support

For items where you need to contact Apple to resolve an issue:

Click here ➞ Choose your country or region - Official Apple Support

Select your country (if you do not see your country, also look for "other" regions; e.g., "Other Africa"), then "Choose a product". Click the "show" item under each category for more selections. If you don't see one that handles your issue then keep experimenting with selections until you reach one that gets you a chat session or a telephone call and get the representative to redirect you.

or:

See a list of Apple phone numbers around the world. Click here --> Contact Apple Support - Apple Support

Buy something more expensive than your balance and use a different payment method from the current region for the extra amount; if you can't, click here and ask the iTunes Store staff to zero it.

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How do I change my region because I can’t fully use some features