Probably for non “Apple Store supported country” is more correct than non US this time.

To be honest, I’ve never thought it would be so hellish like this. It’s all just beyond my prediction.

When the Nightmare Began…

It was all okay when I was in Japan before, and it was still okay before I changed the country of my developer account. But one day, Apple said that I must provide my ID and proof of my address, so I have to switch my country to where I’m now, a country in South East Asia, which is not supported by Apple Store website (So you can buy physical gadget like iphone or ipad from Apple Store website and ask them to send it to your house). Last year my payment was rejected once. This time I got rejected 5-6 times…

Wrong Info on the Renewal Form

In membership renewal form, there’s an instruction saying that “the information of your billing must match your enrollment information”, which I believe should be the information at the “membership” tab at developer.apple.com . At first, I wondered if my fault is because I didn’t write down my middle name at my enrollment information, or maybe because I didn’t write down the “Road” or write “Number” as “#” but, they are wrong. The solution I got today was by using a different country than the one mentioned in my membership information but it’s success, while all the 5 times failed was using the same information with the one in my membership information.

2 Failures Type

Last year when the payment was failed, I got the notification through email at the next day, saying that the payment can’t be proceeded. That’s why I immediately suspect the CVV. This year, however, there is no error notification, and after a week past, I barely found out that the renewal was failed since “renew membership” on developer.apple.com doesn’t disappear and there is a “cancelled” renewal inside my Apple Store Order List. I tried to contact Apple Support, 1 out of 4 emails got copy paste answer, while others got no response at all.

I have no option besides keep checking on my Apple Store’s order list to check if the renewal is failed or not since when the problem occurred, the “enrollment complete” within Apple Store order list will turned to “Cancelled” in around 5 hours.

What Might Be the Cause?

1. No CVV Field on the Renewal Form.

This is what most people say in the developer forum. Some said that the payment went through after they asked the bank to remove the CVV protection. I’m not sure with others but in my case, I believe the card I use this time still have the CVV protection but it was okay, I’ll talk more about it later below.

2. Billing Information/ Payment Method on Apple Store (store.apple.com) or Apple Id (appleid.apple.com)

There are 2 apple website where you can edit/ add your payment method. Like what I mentioned previously, Apple Store here is the apple site to purchase physical products online, which you can receive in your house, while Apple ID here is the site where you set the card that you will use on AppStore to purchase digital products like apps/ games on your iPhone, etc.

If your country doesn’t support Apple Store, you won’t see the bag icon on the top right of apple.com website, while Apple ID website is accessible from any country.

Some people mentioned that to settle the issue, you need to make sure the billing information to use a US address, but in my case, last year when the payment succeed my billing information and the payment method in both sites were empty.

Unfortunately, last year after my payment succeeded, I filled in the payment method on appleid.apple.com using my card with CVV, since I wondered if it will make the failed card usable. I don’t know if this has something to do with my failed attempts this time or not, but the card I used last year became unusable. And, at least in browser appleid.apple.com I can’t find the option to remove the added card. I tried to remove it using AppStore on my Mac, but it says that the Apple ID is not affiliated with AppStore (Since I don’t use it on AppStore, I only use it for development) I can’t remove it using my Mac either.

For your information, the form which has the CVV field, is only the payment method in appleid.apple.com . The one inside Apple Store has no CVV field as well.

3. Credit Card and Debit Card?

To be honest I don’t know if this might affect, but I heard that debit card has a stronger protection than credit card, which cause some transaction which is using debit card (especially from famous bank) can’t be proceeded on Paypal etc, but if you use credit card they will be okay.
My success attempt this time was with credit card, while last year I used debit card (which somehow I failed to use this time.)

4. Windows/ Mac, Safari/ Chrome Might Not Be the Issue

At least in my case, the success attempt was using Windows and Chrome. The failed ones were using mostly Safari and Mac.

Why This Could Be Happened?

My guess is because Apple Developer Membership renewal is using a manual purchase form which is linked to the Apple Store. This is my guess because you can see the success/ fail renewal at Apple Store Order List (for country which is not supported by Apple Store, you can simply access the US or other country Apple Store, click on the bag on the top right and choose orders)

If your country doesn’t support Apple Store, they will automatically linked to US Apple Store.

Solution

1. Use Card that Can Bypass CVV Protection

If you get the email from Apple saying “There’s a problem with your order XXXXXX” after “We’re processing your order” email, card issue could be the cause. This is what happened to me last year, and I solved this by using Payoneer debit card. At least, this one is the “lighter” issue IMO, because at least Apple “attempted” to deduct from your card balance but it was failed.

The issue I got this time though, Apple didn’t even “attempted” to deduct from my card, the system simply cancelled it without any notifications.

2. Change Your Payment Info/ Billing Info to Country that Supports Apple Store

To be honest, I wasn’t sure if the problem is the information in Apple Store or the Apple ID, but since the order is linked to Apple Store, I decided to fill in both of Apple Store Billing Information and Apple ID with my Japanese credit card info, which I also used when fill in the renewal order form. CVV field only available on Apple ID website, so I got a feeling that it might be related as well.
FYI, different with Apple Store, the card you add on Apple ID must be the card which is generated in billing information. So I can’t add Payoneer card which is generated at Europe since its billing info is my country address. In Apple Store I can add my Payoneer card without any hassle.

What makes me think that this affect the renewal, is even if the renew membership form is only in English for non-Apple Store supported countries, after I added my Japan billing information, the purchase related email (purchase success/ receipt) are all in Japanese. They also deduct the price based on Japanese price (12900 JPY) not 99 USD (the exchange rate is a lot different from that now) even if it’s mentioned 99 USD on the form. I think it’s because the form is connected to Apple Store Japan as I updated my information.

Things that Haven’t Been Tested But Might Work

1. Simply use the card from Apple Store supported country

Maybe it will work even if we don’t edit the billing information. Maybe…

2. Use Credit Card and not Debit Card

Again, I have never tried this, but it could be? I’m not really sure though.

3. Fill in Billing Information on Apple Store, but use other card/ Information on the Renew Order Form

I’m lucky since I still have my Japanese credit card and address even if I don’t stay there anymore. I don’t know solution for people from other country with no access at all to Apple Store , but probably they can try by filling the information on Apple Store (like a bait to make the system work) and use their own card on the renewal form? It’s harder to edit the Apple ID since it needs the card generated from the related country but it should be easier to edit the information on Apple Store.
Again, this hasn’t been tested.

Last…

To be honest my games don’t sell well on Apple and I simply update it to see the future chance since I might release my remastered games there too (again still considering). Apple was hard, but Google too (maybe I’ll write in a separated post if I have time). The Apple issue is settled in 2 week ish while Google in near 1 month for me. So… I feel more and more that releasing on PC is like a heaven 🤣🤣🤣