Happy New Year.
Apart from my sister, my eldest also got an iPod Nano for Christmas. Thankfully here we use Windows, so unlike my sister, we didn’t have problems having to upgrade the OS to get it working.
He also got a $50 iTunes voucher. Very cool. So we logged onto Windows as him, and ran iTunes, so it would set up a music library for just him. Ran through the usual guff to get it started, and we set up his Apple ID so the voucher could be redeemed.
Problem: It wants a credit card number. He’s 12. He doesn’t have a credit card. Maybe we can skip this step? Nope. He’s got a $50 voucher, and no credit card, but it wouldn’t let us use the voucher without entering a card number. Idiots!
The workaround we ended up with was to put in my card details. Then we put the iTunes voucher number in, and went and found the option to remove the credit card again. And we had to change his name on the Apple ID, as it had assumed that my name from the credit card was the one to use.
Problem solved. But it shouldn’t be that hard.
This is something I’ve been trying to figure out for a while now. Every article I read seems to say something different on the matter. According to the Apple support page on the topic (here) it is possible to create an iTunes account without a credit card. It appears that you go about it in a different matter to a credit card account. Talk about inconsistent.
I think I’m just going to have to buy an iTunes card to try it out.
Absurd. Even if it is possible to do it without a card, why is that not immediately obvious? And why do they need a card number anyway for something that is already paid for?
I’ve done it without a credit card; I forget how, but I think Ben is correct – it’s a completely different flow. I think that instead of creating an account, and then redeeming your voucher, you redeem your voucher which, along the way, creates an account for you.
It really should be a lot simpler.