Apple Pay Cash Service Not Available

I had the same problem. I went to appleid.com to manage my account and turned OFF two-factor authentication. Message popped up on my phone to login to iCloud (which I did) and same thing on my computer. Then on my phone I went to pay someone via text message with Apple Pay cash, and it gave me a message about upgrading my security. I clicked continue. I then had a choice to select either upgrade to two-factor, or "Not now". I selected not now, and Apple Pay cash eventually gave me the same error ("can't do it now, try later"). I exited out and tried again, but this time I selected upgrade to two-factor. Had to enter my iCloud password (on my phone), and Apple Pay successfully activated! No idea if the order or the device matters. Just telling you as accurately as I can what I did.

Hope this helps. Good luck!

I think removing the cards is an extra unnecessary step. If you restore from back up you potentially put the same situation back on the phone. set up as new would be a better option.

Set up Apple Pay Cash and person to person payments - Apple Support

Your Apple Pay cards “logged out” with your iCloud account, when you go back to add them it’ll just ask you for the code on the back of each card to enable them again. Are you able to sign into you’re other devices with the same credentials?

I have the same problem. It was working just fine. But on Dec 28th it stoped. And now it tells me that my Apple Pay Cash Card is not set up but it will not let do it. I keep getting a message that says: Apple Pay Cash service is currently unavailable. Please try again later. It´s been like this ever since. I already talked to ´s Support but the issue was not resolved. I already tried backing up, resetting and restoring the phone.. I also erased everything and configured it as a new phone,, but I keep getting the same message. Any other ideas on how to fix this?

I had the same problem. Disable 2 factor authentication on your account (have to do it on the web site), then try setting up Apple Pay Cash again. It will then tell you you need 2-factor enabled and enable it for you, and then it should work.

So, I want into Wallet & Apply Pay from settings and then to Apple Pay Cash under "Cards". I went to "Verify Identity" and it began to ask me to verify my name, billing address, last 4 digits of social. When I entered this, it then asked me to verify all digits of my social security number and then asked me to scan the front and back of my driver's license with my phone.

Upon doing all of this, it proceeded to tell me that I could not be verified at this time. It told me that Apple Pay Cash is unavailable until Apple is able to verify my identity. I am assuming this is probably the reason it isn't working for me, despite the fact that I have Apple Pay and everything set up successfully. Perhaps there are additional steps to verifying for Apply Pay Cash???

Just sharing what I did to try to resolve.

Thom

This worked for me, however I skipped saying no the first time and just went on setting up 2 step after I turned it off.. Not sure why this silly solution is required but at least I'm able to use it now. Thanks Mike!

If Apple is so incompetent that I have to take a full workday to back up and reset my phone -- which means downloading all 174 of my apps again separately from the restore -- then I must seriously question Apple's integrity and competence. There should never be a problem of any kind. I will try logging out of icloud and back in. Having to rebuild my phone from scratch is abominable.

Solution found finally! After trying a ton of listed solutions here and none working i finally found a solution... these first two steps im not sure if it helped or was just extra steps.. i signed out of icloud and then went to settings and reset the ipad... when it came back i set it up as new.. apple pay cash was now shown and avail and it asked me to set it up and verify my identify.. in the past i had verified so i am not sure but maybe this error is caused by some issue with verification etc.. either way i verified and it was set up.. i then connected to itunes and restored to my backup i made earlier in the day.. when it finished the restore apple pay cash was listed and simply stated it needed to be set up on this device.. set it up and now its working fine..

I’m no tech. I took my iPhone 7 to an Apple Store for a Genius appointment. Eventually three of them were involved. First they checked and tried several basics. No help. Deleted ALL my settings and tried to set up cash. No help. Finally deleted everything I had on the phone and minimally set it up anew to a particular stage. Still no help. At that point, they started my phone to restoring my content and settings from the cloud and they told me to expect a call from engineering. A week later Apple called to set a convenient time with me to get more info. At that time, I allowed them to connect so they could remotely watch my phone screen as I followed their instructions and used their temporary app to upload all the technical data to them from my phone. (Note: By the way, they were also aware that the Cash setup also fails on my iPad Pro.) A week later, I checked with the Apple contact person. That person said it is a bug and they are working on it. Said they will let me know, but I can call again. From start to finish, Apple folk were professional, concerned, and patient. They just did not have the answer as yet.

I had the same issue and tried all the possible solutions. Finally I contacted Apple and they were able to assist me. It seemed my wallet was not turned on in the Photo setting in iCloud. So this is what we did.

- Went to the iPhone setting

- iCloud setting

- Turned on Wallet

- Back to watch setting

- Wallet

- Turn on Apple Pay Cash

Actually had to try it a couple of times before it was activated on the watch setting. I'm guessing iCloud needs a little time to set up.

You might want to check that to see if Wallet is activated on iCloud settings on your phone first. Pair and un - pairing caused a crash and logging out of iCloud cause my phone to crash and I had to restore it from a previous back up...Ooops I haven't restored for a few days... So I lost some data, no biggie just my activity...

I’m on IOS 11.4 and was having this problem as well; additionally, I couldn’t add any debit/credit cards to my Wallet on the phone, tho I could set up Apple Pay and add cards on my iPad.

I went into Settings-General-Reset and “Reset All Settings.” Tho I do now have to put a few things back in place (screen lock codes, a few passwords, etc), I was able to add Apple Pay and add a credit card as well.

Hope this helps.

Dial ##873283# like you would a normal number and wait for the reset to complete. This resets your connection to cell towers to make sure you have a good connection. Once it is completed you’ll get a notification. Then try again. This worked for me!

Just did, but it did not work again. Actually I have tried it many times already. 😟

Sign out of your iCloud account, reboot your phone and sign back in. Worked for me.