Mac App Store - No Credit Card

okay guys i think i got the solution to your problem with no 'none' options. the first thing you need to do is sign out from your existing apple id coz you've got ot make a new one. secondly. this is the important part. u NEED TO SELECT ANY FREE APPS and click on 'free' if you want to install. next thing it will ask for your apple id and YOU NEED TO CREATE A NEW APPLE ID using any email address which have not register to apple. after that voile there will be a 'none' option. GOODLUCK! 🙂

I'm going to create a second email account to just to deal with Apple? You're nuts.

Or even better, I can go to my IT department.

Me: "Hi guys, I need a new, non-standard email address."

Them: "Why?"

Me: "iTunes."

I swear, I don't think any many people here have ever held a real job.

Works like a charm. Thank you, mister! 😀

Yes, it does work, although I note this:

Can I have more than one Apple ID account? Yes, but it is not recommended as you will not be able to view your complete order history under the same Apple ID account. Please note, Apple ID accounts can not be merged.

from http://store.apple.com/uk/help/your_account#morethanone

Might I suggest that Apple does something to fix this bug rather than expecting people to work around it? I know that if someone reported a bug in any of the software I develop I'd do something to fix it rather than expecting them to work around it by doing something that my help files specifically advise against.

All the same, thanks for your help M.Wawan, a bodged-fix is better than no fix at all.

Yeah glad to help 🙂

As a follow up I have been onto Apple support (which I initially thought this was having got here from www.apple.com/support, but that's another story).

They have informed me that I...

"... did not create the account with a free application, which is the only way to select the "none" option."

So, that's it, from the horses mouth. Despite Chris CAs assertions that our statements are all false it is the case that you cannot download free apps without entering your credit card details unless you specifically create a new account to do so.

Furthermore they declined to acknowledge my "feature request" for the "none" option to be added for existing customers.

There we have it then. Apple is, indeed, trying to force us to enter our credit card details. The apple id they created for me when I bought my mac cannot be used to download free apps unless I give them my credit card details.

Ho hum.

I realize that many of us who have had Apple IDs for many years also have iTunes accounts dating from before there were free apps available and all iTunes accounts needed a bank card because there was nothing that was free through the iTunes Store back then.

This is a suggestion. Some of you will not like it. Some of you may try it just to get over the hurtle and on with your life. The bank card information entered into iTunes accounts can also be removed. I have enetered and removed my bank card information in my account many times over the years. I have also changed bank cards a number of times. If you enter your bank card information into your iTunes account you may find that after that the None option appears. Folks here have reported that to be the case. If so, you could then choose the None option and delete your bank card info.

RalphJ wrote:

So, that's it, from the horses mouth. Despite Chris CAs assertions that our statements are all false it is the case that you cannot download free apps without entering your credit card details unless you specifically create a new account to do so.

But wait, that doesn't make sense. Chris CA offered a four month old screenshot, possibly photoshopped, as proof. Are you saying that Apple's word is more legit?????

Seems like my last reply was deleted. Anyway, that earlier quote says the "none" option wasnt there because the account wasnt made through free software. What do they mean by that, do they mean the App Store itself (which IS free?) or do they mean other applications... which you can't download until you put in CC info?

It's quite a simple system, how they've made it so unusably complicated is beyond me. Especially since they tout "usability". Easy my arse.

Anyway, M Wahans solution does work. Signing out, selecting a free app in itunes, and then creating a new account when you attempt to download it without being signed in seems to provide the none option. Of course this is an utterly ludicrous series of hoops to jump through, and means you have to create an enitrely new account (which didnt matter for me, as I hadnt managed to review/confirm my FIRST account because of this).

I guess that I am wondering how many of you have managed to create an iTunes account without the None. Option. Did you just create an iTunes account for no reason?

I ask because if you did not have an account and you wanted to get a free app, the process would have occurred naturally. You would have chosen your free app and the process would have had you create a new iTunes account exactly as described in the Knowledge Base article and you would have had a None option.

And if you did not have an account and wanted a paid app the process would have had you create a new account with the necessary bank card information, PayPal or by redeeming a gift card.

Dah•veed wrote:

I guess that I am wondering how many of you have managed to create an iTunes account without the None. Option...

Quite simple really, I went into an Apple store to buy an iMac, and the salesman who sold it to me told me I needed an Apple Id in order to use it and created one for me. A while later, when I went to try and download a free app using the Apple Id the salesman had made for me I discovered I couldn't without entering my credit card details.

So...my teenager creats an account using MyAppleID.com and that method doesn't ask for credit card info. Easy. They then try to use that account to purhase a free app (use existing acount)...and it did NOT give the 'None' option ...just as others have reported (I live in Canada in case that matters).

So my teenager had already used their email to create the apple ID ... AND you cannot delete your apple id once it's created. So we couldn't test creating the apple ID on the iphone to see if the 'None' option would be there using that path.l

So at this point we were in I believe we're stuck and HAVE to provide credit card info (or maybe gift card#) in order to download a FREE app.

My workaround was to enter my credit card into my teenager's account save / verify. Then go back in and select the 'None' option which now magically appears.

This is NOT a bug...it's SOCIAL ENGINEERING. Most people will just leave the credit card in there not knowing they can remove it later.

Apple - this is rotten. Rotten Apple.

I think that Apple just expects that people will do it the other way around. They will find a free app that they want first, try to download it and they will be instructed to create an Apple ID and at that point would be presented a None option. That is the process that is explained in the Apple document that has been linked to a number of times.

Perhaps...but there's really no excuse for a company that is so User Experience aware that they don't have consistency in both methods.

...other than the excuse of getting people to enter their credit cards so they just might be more likely to make a purchase. Wouldn't be a bad strategy would it?