apple: Apple will not accept debit, credit cards for app purchases, subscriptions in India – Times of India

Back in October 2021, the Reserve Bank of India changed the rules for recurring payments through debit and credit cards. Most subscription-based services that run on the recurring payments model did suffer and had to tweak it to a certain extent. Apple, however, seems to have taken a rather drastic step. If you want to pay for app purchases or any subscriptions on App Store, then you will not be able to use a debit or credit card.
On one of the support pages on the Apple website, the company noted that “Regulatory requirements in India apply to the processing of recurring transactions. If you hold an Indian debit or credit card and you have a subscription, these changes impact your transactions. Some transactions might be declined by banks and card issuers.” This post was on April 18 this year.

On another support page for payments made through Apple ID, under India, there’s no option of making payments through debit or credit card. We checked on the iPhone 13 Pro running on the latest iOS 15 version and the only method is adding funds to your Apple ID, which can be done through UPI and net banking. If you want to buy an app from the App Store, Apple will direct you to add funds first to the Appel ID and only then you will be able to purchase it.
Apple has been pushing its Apple ID funds payment method. Last year, users were getting 20% extra funds on adding to Apple ID. For instance, if a user added Rs 1,000 then the total amount added was Rs 1,200. However, that promotion seems to be over now with users getting no additional amount on adding funds to Apple ID.
The recurring payments system did initially create quite a bit of confusion as users couldn’t use certain subscriptions. Apple, by removing the debit card and credit card as payment options, has ‘solved’ the issue for now.