Snippet: Apple Confirms It Does Not Hold Your Apple ID Hostage Due to Missed Apple Card Payment ☇

Benjamin Mayo for 9to5Mac:

Yesterday, we covered a story regarding Dustin Curtis’s experience with his Apple ID getting disabled when a payment to his Apple Card failed. Apple has today shared a statement with 9to5Mac clarifying the situation. The company says that Apple Card and Apple ID are not linked in the way that the blog post alleged, and the company does not disable Apple ID services because of missed Apple Card payments.

The situation arose because the trade-in process was left unresolved, and Apple was following its standard procedures in matters of money owed; this is not anything specific to the Apple Card. When an account is marked as in bad standing, use of Apple ID services is restricted; things like Apple Music or App Store purchases. iCloud is wholly separate and is not disabled at all…

Something didn’t feel right about the original story, especially for anyone who knows how credit cards work and how the parties involved (Apple, Goldman Sachs) play different roles in the whole situation. That nonetheless led to a lot of piling on with “big tech is bad” rhetoric without all the facts. I wanted to wait and see once the dust settled, and a few specific things were confirmed. Apple certainly could’ve had a better resolution and explanation process, but I doubt we’ll see much follow-up from anyone immediately critical of the issue.

I wonder if the card in question was issued by Chase, American Express, or a small local credit union and the same issue happened (which it sounds like it would’ve) if it would’ve been covered as widely or viewed as a “look, we finally got them!” story. The point is, if you’re doing a trade-in process with anyone, watch the process like a hawk and make sure things are returned in a timely manner. If you’ve got things set up with autopay, that’s not an excuse to completely ignore things and assume it’ll be fine either.