Apple finally brings back card payments for subscriptions and App Store purchases in India

After a four-year wait, Apple users will once again be able to make payments for their Apple account purchases in India via their debit or credit cards. The rollout of the feature is being carried out in a phased manner and, initially, only Visa and Mastercard credit and debit cards will be eligible for App Store purchases like iCloud+ and Apple Music. However, reports suggest that Apple could soon add support for RuPay-powered cards in the future as well.

Why had Apple stopped accepting card payments?

Notably, Apple had stopped accepting card payments for App Store purchases in India in 2021 after the RBI rolled out its card tokenisation guidelines. Since then, Indian users had to rely on UPI, net banking or their Apple Account balance to pay for their subscriptions.

The guidelines mandated that companies would no longer be able to store the actual card details of their customers. Instead, every card is replaced with a unique digital token to protect customers from data breaches or fraud.

RBI believes tokenised card transactions are more secure because the original card information remains stored only with the authorised card network or card issuer, reducing the risk of data theft if there is ever a breach.

This tokenised data must also be stored locally in India, and failure to comply could lead to a ban on the payment aggregator by the RBI.

Reports suggest that Apple has now finally made the backend changes to comply with the RBI’s tokenisation guidelines and bring back card payment options in India.

The return of card payments has also brought back speculation that Apple could finally be ready to bring its popular Apple Pay service to India. The service allows users to make payments using their iPhone, Apple Watch or other similar devices, while the payment is directly deducted from their debit or credit cards.

As per a Bloomberg report earlier this year, Apple was said to be in discussions with Indian banks and global card networks to launch Apple Pay in the country. Reportedly, Apple was in active talks with ICICI, HDFC and Axis Bank while also conducting discussions with payment networks like Mastercard and Visa.

Apple could also reportedly bring support for UPI in India, meaning Apple users could make payments in seconds using the popular payment method.

A major hurdle for the introduction of Apple Pay had been removed by the RBI last year when it introduced new rules allowing biometric authentication, such as fingerprint or facial recognition, for digital payments.