Apple stops accepting payments through credit cards issued by Indian banks

Last year, the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) introduced new directives on the safety and security of card transactions in the country.

It was made mandatory for banks to send an OTP (One Time Password) to customers for recurring payments on bills above Rs 5,000. This covered all types of services, such as currency recharge on phones, Direct To Home cable bills, Over The Top (OTT) subscription fees and utility bills like electricity and water, which used to get auto-debited monthly (and some annually) from a user's bank account.

The primary reason for the additional OTP step was to ensure that customers knew when money would be deducted from their accounts for services they had signed up for. This came in handy for people who had subscribed to an OTT app, consumed content for a few months and then stopped using it. Yet, the OTT app continued to receive payments. With the additional OTP step, the user would know how much money was being debited and could reject it if needed.

Apple, however, is now believed to have stopped accepting credit cards issued by Indian banks in the country for both customers and advertisement clients.

The California-based tech company has started sending emails to both regular users and business clients that they have to use credit cards from foreign banks for transactions from June 1, according to Business Standard.

"Regulatory requirements in India apply to the processing of recurring transactions," reads the Apple Support page. "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."

Apple ID balance (screen-grab)

As an alternate option, Apple is asking people to transfer amounts to an Apple ID-linked balance account as seen in the screenshot above. But some people are facing issues with adding funds to the Apple ID account and have reached out for help on Apple forums (here).

So far, Apple has not formally reacted on why it is asking customers to link foreign bank-based credit cards for a recurring auto-debit subscription feature.

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