Apple Reintroduces Credit/Debit Cards in India After System Adjustment to New Regulations
Apple users in India can now relink Visa and Mastercard to their accounts to pay for various services, following the company's adaptation to the country's stricter payment regulations.
After suspending card payments in May 2022, Apple has recently started to gradually enable users in India to add Visa and Mastercard credit and debit cards back to their Apple Accounts for services like iCloud+, Apple Music, and App Store purchases. The previous suspension was due to new Reserve Bank of India (RBI) regulations, which mandated stricter authentication for recurring payments and prohibited merchants from directly storing customer card data, requiring a Tokenization system instead. During that period, users relied on alternatives such as UPI (Unified Payments Interface), net banking, or adding funds to their account. This return follows Apple's backend system updates to comply with these regulations. While this change might spark renewed speculation about Apple Pay's arrival in India, the company has made no official announcements yet.
This case serves as an interesting example of how global tech companies must adapt significantly to comply with each country's digital financial regulations, which can impact user experience in the short term.