Mac App Store - No Credit Card

David.Austin.Allen wrote:
Why are you doing this in the Mac App Store?

If you scroll back to my instructions on JAN 17 I plainly explained that this is a method to set up an account in the iTunes Store first following the instructions offered in the Apple Knowledge Base article. In that comment I said, "If you follow these instructions for opening an account in iTunes without a bank card, you should be able to then close iTunes, open the Mac App Store, verify your existing iTunes account and download the free apps."

1. Quit the Mac App Store app.
2. Open iTunes.
3. Chose iTunes Store in the left column and enter the iTunes Store. (Make sure that you are in the iTunes Store for your country by checking the flag icon by scrolling down to the bottom right corner of the page.)
4. From the iTunes Store menu bar, click to enter the App Store. (It should be between TV Shows and Podcasts in the iTunes Store menubar.)
5. After the iTunes App Store has opened, on the right side of the page find Top Charts, scroll down to Free Apps and click See All>.
6. Choose any free app and click the Free button.
7. In the window that instructs you to Sign in choose Create New Account.
8. Click Continue.
9. You'll need to read and agree to the iTunes Store Terms & Conditions. Make sure you check the box next to where it says "I have read and agree to the iTunes Terms and Conditions."
10. Click Continue.
11. Use your Apple ID for your email address and password, continue to create and answer your security question, then enter your birthday. Click Continue.
12. Select None as the payment option.
13. Continue to fill out the required name and address fields.
14. You'll then see a screen that says 'Verify your Account'. Click Done and then check your email for a verification email from iTunes Store.

No, I don't. when I click "continue" on the "provide a payment method" page I see this instead.

http://img152.imageshack.us/img152/5205/screenshot20110124at346.png

It won't let me past that point.

I followed your instructions almost exactly
On the "enter your id & password" page, it won't let me enter my existing apple id & password - my apple ID is not a complete email address, and my password doesn't fit the new stupid password requirements. This may be part of the problem.

15. Open the email and click the link enclosed in the email to activate your account.
16. Once you click on the link, iTunes should then prompt you to sign in with your account name and password.
17. You'll then see the below "Congratulations" screen. Click Done to be taken to the App Store home page.
18. Quit iTunes.
19. Open the Mac App Store app.
20. In the Mac App Store go to the Store dropdown menu and click Sign In.
21. Use your Apple ID that you just used to create your iTunes account.

From this point on it should be a simple matter of verifying the iTunes account information. After that you should be able acquire free apps.

EDIT: after that didn't work, i tried logging in to the itunes app store, by clicking a free app. It let me keep the existing apple ID (the mac app store didn't, and the "create new account" process didn't) but there was again no "none" option on the payment details page.

If apple allows "none" to be a valid option for app store/itunes store logins, why on earth is it only available if you follow an arcane process?

It should be an option no matter how you create an account.

Message was edited by: Tardis42

Message was edited by: Tardis42

I was desperate to get free apps such as Facebook, so I wasted an hour attempting to sign-up for the Apps Store giving my personal information including my debit card #. After all that, a message appears that my code entered after the Visa debit card # is invalid. I tried using my PIN # as well as the # on back of my card but to no avail. I agree with everybody that free downloads should NOT require signing-in to the Apps Store. I am miserable without Facebook.

Not true, please read all the comments in a thread before contradicting true information with incorrect information. If you follow the link to the Apple Knowledge Base article I have linked to at least twice you can create a brand new iTunes account without any bank card and then open the MAS and use that account.

This is amazing, I am driving myself mad trying to change the settings of my tunes account from Spain Where I was living to UK where I AM living
IS asking me for a CC which I don´t have yet.
I´ve read that the account needs to be verified, but it hasen´t been verified YET??
amazing

Apple is not what it used to be, it is creating more troubles than solutions, I will soon change my iphone for a BB

"Apple is not what it used to be, it is creating more troubles than solutions"

From here it seems that some users create more problems for themselves rather than solutions.

When moving (in country or between countries) it's usual in my experience to set things up in advance to allow a 'clean' switch of any and all services rather than discovering too late that it's not possible to do 'some of this, some of that' without issues arising.

Whatever, it's all good experience, so thank you for sharing for the benefit of others who need to do the same as have you.

I'm also having an issue with this. I've never used my Apple ID on iTunes before, and now when I try and use either iTunes or MAS, I'm not given the option to sign up without providing a payment option.

Since I only want to download a single free application from the MAS, I'm not inclined to do this despite having a debit card I could use.

I vehemently believe I should not have to provide payment information to company unless cash needs to change hands. You may call that arrogant; I call it consumer rights.

Same for me, my old account which I've used for years cannot seemingly be told to use "None" as a CC option.

Oh well, I fixed the issue by not getting the item from AppStore but downloading it from a certain "3rd party" site. Took me less than 1 minute to get it compared to an hour of trying to figure out how to get my account to work in App Store.

Great design, not.

Thank you for the thorough explanation David. When following it I get stuck on point 11. I am told my Apple ID is already used ( which it is, by me ). If I pick the option to sign in in step 7 instead, I do not get the 'none' option at the credit card selection.

Any pointers on how to get this sorted?

Message was edited by: Tinface

In response to my own post, I ended up finding someone with an acceptable credit card which we used for the duration of the registration process. After completing the registration, the card was removed from the account while the account still works for fetching free apps.

Signing up for apple services can be compared to that of getting surgery. History repeats itself, back in the late 80's early 90's Microsoft took the lead and never gave it back. It's happening all over again with Android. Apple has already lost 50% market share to android. 🙂


<Edited by Host>

repeat for the umpteenth time...

now when I try and use either iTunes or MAS, I'm not given the option to sign up without providing a payment option.

Did you click on *Create account* on the main iTunes store page? (don't)
Or did you find a free app then click on Buy, and when it asks to enter your iTunesID, then clicked on *Create account*? (do)

Yep, tried both. In both cases I was told that I couldn't use the Apple ID since it was already in use, which it is... by me.

In the end I had to resort to doing what everyone else here had to do. Sign up with payment details (where it doesn't present you with the "none" option) and then remove my payment details afterwards (where it does provide you with the "none" option).

All in all, very unimpressed. The only advice Apple CS could offer me was to delete and recreate my Apple ID... err, no thanks.

MrD. wrote:
Yep, tried both. In both cases I was told that I couldn't use the Apple ID since it was already in use, which it is... by me.

So why not just create a new id with a new email address? Use gmail. You can have as many gmail addresses as you want and they are trivial to set up.

All in all, very unimpressed. The only advice Apple CS could offer me was to delete and recreate my Apple ID... err, no thanks.

So exactly how do you do that (delete an id)?

X423424X wrote:
So why not just create a new id with a new email address? Use gmail. You can have as many gmail addresses as you want and they are trivial to set up.

Yeah, I'm going create a new email address just to do this, because Apple are sooo special that I should feel honoured to maintain an extra email address just for them.

So exactly how do you do that (delete an id)?

You have to contact Apple customer services.

Uhmm...

That link was offered by Ikus back on 6 JAN in the very first comment to the OP. And it has been referred to by a number of us about 6 more times in the history of this thread.