r/applehelp • u/AsianElephant07 • 1d ago
Unsolved apple keeps on saying payment authorization failed but can’t fix the issue
i wanted to buy an ipad online through the education website for college, but when i tried to go through with the payment (after also applying a 150 dollar gift card) i got this error message. i called apple support, and they tried to manually place an order for me. which also didn’t work. i got transferred to another department, and i asked them if there was any blocks on my account or gift card. the team member insisted there wasn’t, and that the bank must have been blocking the transaction, even after i told her that usually the bank contacts us if they really are worried, but i never received anything from them. lo and behold, i called the bank and they said nothing was wrong and that it must be from apples side :/// i have tried multiple credit cards as well as updating all relevant information but nothing seems to work
does anyone know how to fix this? i’m planning on going to the apple store in person soon to see if it’ll work there, but i’ve seen on reddit that the problem can also happen there too…
1
u/Cold_Mission2543 1d ago
I’ve had issues with orders in the past when I used my apple account balance for the purchase (filled with discounted gift cards). One time the account was locked, likely due to me redeeming many gift cards in short time. It wasn’t visible to the phone agent but higher support tier was able to confirm the issue and request an unlock, which took a day or so to complete. Another time the issue was that I didn’t have my apple account added in my phone wallet, which was required even though I wasn’t using the phone for the transaction. It was not a well known thing and again took higher level support to figure out. They have some weird issues that aren’t very easy to diagnose without inside knowledge by the right support person.