Apple has started restoring card payments for Apple Account purchases in India, letting users pay for App Store purchases and subscriptions such as iCloud+ and Apple Music with eligible Visa and Mastercard credit and debit cards.

The company removed the payment option in 2022 following changes to India’s recurring payment rules.

Apple’s India payment methods page now lists Visa and Mastercard for app purchases and Apple subscriptions, alongside Unified Payments Interface (UPI), net banking to add funds, and Apple Account balances.

The shift follows Reserve Bank of India rules on stronger authentication for recurring payments and card tokenization.

Under the framework, most compliant card e-mandates can process repeat payments of up to 15,000 rupees (US$160) per transaction without additional authentication.

Google Play had already adapted recurring card payments to the same framework, though support still depends on whether a user’s card issuer is ready.

The Reserve Bank of India changes had previously triggered warnings of more failed auto-renewals for digital subscriptions in India, pushing many users to UPI, net banking, or prepaid balances.

🔗 Source: TechCrunch