the payment card you entered is not valid in the United Kingdom

Is this Apple's business to check does my credit card belong to this country or not? I may have credit cards in dfferent countries and I can use them wherever I want. I can buy salt from the market with this credit card in a completely different country but I cannot buy applications from App Store. This is ridiculous.

If it is a bug, just fix it. If it is a kind of a "security" policy, I have to say that: "it is ********!"

Hi there,

I am in the UK, always been in the UK, and just trying to set up a new apple account and have exactly the same error message. I have tried 3 different card and all say that they are not valid in the uk, when they are. I wonder if this is a problem somewhere with Apple?

Hi ...

The issue is that your credit or debit card credentials must be associated with the same country where you reside.

"Although you can browse the iTunes Store in any country without being signed in, you can only purchase content from the iTunes Store for your own country. This is enforced via the billing address associated with your credit card or other payment method that you use with the iTunes Store, rather than your actual geographic location."

From here > The Complete Guide to Using the iTunes Store | iLounge Article

Have the same problem in Slovakia - Credit card, account and billing address all in Slovakia. Spent hundreds (if not thousands) of dollars purchasing apps, suddenly all of my cards are "not valid for this store". Sent support request to Apple, called apple support. None of them helped. Can't say how mad I am.

Same here,

We are a bussiness customer, so I rang up. They have no knowledge of an issue... >_>

I was given the address https://expresslane.apple.com/GetproductgroupList.do to fill in a form of the problem.

If I hear anything back I will post up.

I got the reply below to my email to iTunes support, load of horse plop so responded telling them to check all the hundreds of posts in the forums on their own website about all the people having the same issue!!!!

My name is Robert with iTunes Support. I see from your email that you are having an issue with using your Visa card. As a customer myself I can certainly understand your wanting to have use of your card and I am more than happy to help you today.

This issue is most commonly caused by the billing address on your iTunes account not being formatted correctly with regards to abbreviation, punctuation, capitalization, etc.

You can change your iTunes Store billing information at any time. When you update your credit card number or billing address through the iTunes Store, any equivalent information you might use with MobileMe, iPhoto, Aperture, or the Apple Store online is also updated.

To update your billing address or credit card number, follow these steps:

1) Make sure you're using the latest version of iTunes. It can be downloaded free of charge from the Apple website at:

http://www.apple.com/itunes/download

Note: Installing the latest version of iTunes will not affect your library or any items in your account that you haven't downloaded.

2) Click this link: http://phobos.apple.com/accountSummary

iTunes will automatically launch and the sign-in dialog will appear.

3) If you are not already signed in, you will need to enter your iTunes Store account name and password and then click the Account Info button.

4) On your Apple Account Information page, click Edit Payment Information.

Make the necessary changes. Your billing address should be exactly the same as the address on your credit card statement. This is important, because even differences in punctuation, abbreviation, and capitalization can cause payment errors that might prevent you from using the iTunes Store.

5) When all of the information is up to date, click Done.

When you update your billing information, the iTunes Store places an authorization hold on your credit card to verify your account information. You might see this authorization request on your online statement. This is not an actual charge; it is simply a test to confirm that your credit card account is active and has credit available to accommodate transactions.

Authorization requests are automatically removed from your account by your financial institution. The amount of time it takes to remove authorization requests varies by financial institution. If you have any questions about the way your financial institution handles authorization requests, please contact their customer-service department.

I'm getting the same error message here in Canada. Tried logging into my account, it said I needed to veryify my account information. Now it's telling me the card that I've always used for iTunes is invalid. Keep getting the message "The payment card you entered is not valid in Canada". Very frustrating.

Another here, my card is unchanged for over a year registered with Itunes/App Store and purchased games using it just yesterday.

Just attempted to subscribe to Itunes match service and it keeps taking me to the payment card page in Itunes to update my card details, they are all correct but this message keeps coming up.

UK based all my life, never had a foreign account or cards on my account ever...

Oddly I can purchase from my Iphone4 and the iPad with no such issues with cards being declined.

Message was edited by: ChrisRyan

***....I just tried to buy a app on my iPhone only to get the following error message saying "The payment Card Is Not Vaild In The United Kingdom. Please provide a valid pay,ment card for the United Kingdom, now i am ike confused to why it si doing this, as I have been using this card for a whileto purchase apps, ok I had my iPhone 4S replaced earlier on today, but there is No reason to why it is doung this, as my computer has re registered the iPhone as it only takes a matter of minutes when you `st plug it in, but I am like out of idea's to why this is happening though?

I am guessing it is a fault with Apple then???

Yep, same issue here. Upgraded to ios5, had to re enter credit card details as old card ran out at the end of Feb, saying it's not accepted as invalid for the UK - nothing wrong with the card. Have also tried Mastercard, same issue.

If this is a security breach can Apple let us know asap please? I entered the details of both cards at least 5 times each.

Hi tokyodrift,

Tried to update my card details today, as I didnt realise Apple still had an old one on file (havent bought anything in ages) but receiving exactly same error, tried 2 UK Visa Debit cards, and 1 UK Visa Credit Card all same message. I know tonight my father (who got an iPhone this afternoon) is experiencing the same problem, which means he isn't even able to finish creating an appleID to be able to sync his phone or download any free apps even, cant select none for payment type which is weird. He's less than impressed.

If this is happening sporadically maybe there is something wrong with Apples payment system today. Will see. Submitted a support email but not holding my breath, not been able to find much on this issue by doing quick searches on google either.

Im having the same problem now, just tried to log in on ipad and asked me to enter card details then it said its not valid in this store, which seems still working on iPhone.

Then I tried to buy on Mac itunes and it said the card is not valid in UK.

Tried to delete the card, log out, log in, add the card again and still not working!!!!!!!!!!!!!

So ridiculous, i mean, so many ppl hving this issue and the app store itunes store is not a just released thing, why cant Apple solve this?

If Steve's still alive I will definetly send an email to him.

Same problem here. Tried 4 different cards. Hours spent retyping. Very frustrating. Hopefully tomorrow will see some activity from apple to sort out this problem. Can't download any apps or subscibe to my newspapers.