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Paying for Apple iTunes with PayPal

Posted by CowboyNeal on from the and-a-third-party-of-course dept.

MrIcee writes "While cruising eBay today I noted that some clever individual has apparently stepped up to fill the void left by the fact that Apple's iTunes service does not accept PayPal. While insisting that buyers follow Apple's terms of service, is buying and reselling the gift certificate legal or not? If legal, it's an interesting and simple idea that could be applied to many areas." It is pretty neat, even if the $16 markup is a little ludicrous. It's like the old adage: a fool and his PayPal account are soon parted.

7 of 296 comments (clear)

  1. How true. by cliffy2000 · · Score: 4, Informative

    "It's like the old adage: a fool and his PayPal account are soon parted." Indeed.

  2. Or, y'know... by the+unbeliever · · Score: 5, Informative
    You can get a paypal debit card, and use it to buy your merchandise from ITMS.

    I have one of the debit cards, and I used it like a credit card all the time (it's where my personal allowance money from my bank account goes). It'll also use your checking account to pull funds from if you don't keep a balance in your paypal account.

  3. the point is international... by plambert · · Score: 5, Informative

    I believe the point is that the iTunes Music Store requires that any credit card used have an address inside the United States.

    Reselling gift certificates would then allow folks outside the U.S. to access the store as if they were in the U.S.

    Except I think you have to have valid credit card information whether or not you use a gift certificate. I am not certain, though.

    --plambert

  4. One BIG problem still... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Informative

    In order to sign up for an iTunes account to REDEEM any such certificate you MUST enter a valid credit card number. I know. I sent my sister a certificate so she could try out iTunes. She didn't want to use a credit card, but ended up being forced to just to redeem the certificate.

    There IS a non-credit-card way get an iTunes account, but that's only as the recipient of an "allowance" which is then tied to someone elses credit card, the one giving the monthly allowance ($10 minimum each month).

    Good luck redeeming the gift certificate if you buy it and don't have a credit card!

  5. Re:Posting an ebay auction on slashdot? by DrStrange66 · · Score: 3, Informative

    Umm... you can't bid. It's set price only. You can click buy now...

  6. Virtual Debit Card from Paypal also an option by Mean_Nishka · · Score: 4, Informative
    To avoid the $16 mark up, all one needs to do is use Paypal's virtual debit card to make the purchase of the GC. It assigns you a temporary mastercard number that you can use on just about any website that takes credit cards.

    Go to the 'my account' tab, select withdraw, and click on the 'shop online with a paypal virtual card' link. The number won't be tied to any website in particular, so you should be able to type it in through itunes and have it work.

    --
    www.lonseidman.com

  7. Paypal Debit Card by ewwhite · · Score: 3, Informative

    My solution is to use the Paypal debit card. It's linked to my Paypal account and acts as a Mastercard. I use it for all of my Apple iTunes store purchases. It works quite well....

    --
    Edmund White
    http://flickr.com/ewwhite