Apple Restores Card Checkout For Indian Users After More Than Four Years

Apple Is Gradually Allowing Visa And Mastercard Debit And Credit Cards For Subscriptions And App Purchases

Apple has begun reintroducing card-based payments for customers in India, more than four years after it suspended the option. The company is rolling the capability out in stages, enabling eligible Visa and Mastercard debit and credit cards to be linked to Apple Accounts for subscriptions such as iCloud+ and Apple Music, along with purchases from the App Store.

The change follows a period in which Indian users turned to the country’s dominant immediate payments system, bank transfers and Apple Account credits to pay for recurring services. A person familiar with the company’s plans said Apple has updated its back-end systems to meet Indian requirements and has revised online help pages to reflect the new option. The phased rollout will be extended to more users over the coming weeks and months, the source said.

India’s recurring-payment rules, set out by the central bank beginning in 2021 and phased in afterward, required merchants and payment processors to strengthen customer authentication, use tokenized card identifiers and stop holding full card details on file. Those protections forced many international and domestic businesses to retool billing systems, and in mid-2022 Apple paused direct card debits while it adjusted to the new technical and compliance demands.

Regulators in several major markets have pushed global technology firms to tailor services to local law, and Apple is no exception. The company has modified aspects of how it sells and charges for apps and services in places such as the European Union, Japan and South Korea after legal and regulatory shifts. For Indian consumers, the return of card payments means an additional way to pay alongside UPI, net banking and Apple Account balance — an arrangement that could matter as the company’s installed base widens.

Industry observers say the move reduces friction for subscribers and may help lower involuntary churn when renewals fail. “Adding cards back into the mix addresses a real headache for recurring billing,” said a payments analyst at Counterpoint Research. He added that Apple’s services arm in India has been expanding at a rate greater than one in ten year over year, so giving users more choice in how they pay is becoming more important.

The decision has also reignited talk about whether Apple will launch its own mobile wallet in India. Media reports in recent months have said the company has explored an Indian rollout of its contactless-payments service, but no formal announcement has been made. Apple declined to comment for this article.