I found an old gift card in a drawer from when I used to own an iPad and I wanted to double check the balance before I resell it.

https://www.apple.com/legal/giftcards/applestore/ca/

I clicked the link on this page to check the balance online but it requires me to log on. According to this page, I can also call the phone number listed to get the balance. However, after waiting on hold twice because I got hung up on the first time before even speaking, the I rep I spoke to told me that they had no way to check for me. Am I basically shit out of luck? Also inb4 "lol give it to me I'll check for you"

I received an Apple Gift Card that doesn’t indicate its value. (I’m sure I was told at the time I received it, but have since forgotten.) I’d now like to re-gift it. How can I find out how much it’s good for, without making it look used?

Hi! In the us. I added $18 to my Apple account balance 2 days ago. About 3 hours ago I had a random addition of $5 to my Apple account. It says cleared gift card. No one sent it to me I did not redeem it I have no emails of anything relating to it. Anyone have any suggestions?

Edit to add: no recent refunds requested nor any emails relating to refunds either!

Mystery solved! It’s a store credit issued by Apple due to Apple Music technical issues from an email I received (and others have too).

For a while now (going on two or three years) there has been an ongoing, persistent issue with using Apple Gift cards or using a credit associated with your Apple account (aka a gift card balance).

What happens:

You redeem an Apple gift card and then try to make a purchase on the App Store and get an error message stating that the purchase cannot be completed at this time and to contact Apple customer service. Sometimes, it takes two or three purchases with credit before you get an error message. You then have to contact customer service and speak to a representative. Sometimes they can fix the problem immediately, sometimes it has to be escalated for review and they ask you to try again in 24 hours. Most of the time, the problem is resolved in a few hours, but it can occasionally take the full 24 hours.

Why this happens:

After redeeming a gift card Apple puts what is effectively a “fraud hold” on your account. No, that is not an exaggeration. They literally freeze your ability to make purchases until they can verify you aren’t committing fraud.

WTF? Why they are investigating your account for fraud:

2-3 years ago, Apple began to roll out a new style of gift card. This new style of gift card was basically a “letter in an envelope.” The “letter” slides into the “envelope” and they are paired with a matching serial number. Only the inner “letter” had a redemption code. The cashier would activate the inner letter by scanning the outer envelope.

This new style of gift card was super, super easy to scam. Basically, scammers would go to a retail store that sold Apple gift cards and take all (or many) of the gift cards on display. Then, privately, they would remove all of the “letters” (the piece containing the redemption code). Sometimes they would put a different letter back into the envelope, sometimes they wouldn’t bother. Then they would reseal the envelope with a little glue and put all the gift cards back on display.

After buying a few dud cards myself, I eventually started to open the gift cards before paying for them. I would verify that the serial number on the card matched the envelope. If they didn’t match, I’d alert the store. They usually looked at me weird, which is understandable. Also, the cashier would sometimes refuse to sell me the opened gift card because it had been tampered with. I’d explain that I opened it myself to check if the serial numbers matched. That usually did the trick.

When the customer brings the card to the cashier, the cashier activates the card. But the card that is getting activated is already in possession of the scammer. If the envelope contains a redemption code, it won’t work. The customer will get a message saying the code isn’t valid. Meanwhile, the scammer is at home regularly checking to see if any of his dummy cards have been activated. If they are activated, he adds the gift card to his balance.

How does the scammer get actual, “real” money from the scam? Well, the scammer goes and spends his Apple balance on an app that is basically just a money laundering front. The app is totally worthless. Imagine a simple calculator app that charges $50 for a skin. Or a weather app that charges $25 for every city you want check. They are usually buggy, visually ugly and often don’t actually offer the advertised functionality. The app developer doesn’t care. The only part that they need to work is the part that charges you the IAP.

Yes, Apple does charge the app dev their 30 or 40% fee, but the scammer doesn’t care. And Apple doesn’t really care, cause they’re getting their slice of the pie.

Eventually, Apple began to realize their liability was greater than their profit and there was an increasing chance of a HUUUUGE class action lawsuit, so after a couple years they finally decided to revamp their gift card format.

While their previous design allowed scammers to remove the redemption card with almost no visible tampering and a tiny amount of glue, their new gift cards are virtually tamper proof. You have to absolutely destroy the envelope to get to the redemption card, something which every consumer gifted with either a sense of touch or vision will easily detect.

Many, many retail outlets pulled Apple gift cards off their shelves in the last 6-9 months, because the customers were rightfully outraged and the tiny profit they made from selling the cards didn’t justify dealing with the resulting headaches. When you bought (for example) a $100 gift card, and were told by your phone the code was invalid, you would usually first try to return it to the store that sold it. Some would offer a refund, many would tell you to contact Apple. When you contact Apple, they’d tell you to contact the store where you purchased it. It was INFURIATING!

So the reason why Apple started putting the “freeze” or “hold” on your account when you had a gift card balance, was to investigate and see how many gift cards you had redeemed recently and whether or not you had spent that balance on suspicious (money laundering) apps.

Once the older, easy-to-scam cards have all been used, destroyed or retired, Apple will likely decrease the severity of their security protocols.

What you can do in the mean time:

The fraud hold on your account will only be triggered if your gift card balance is larger than the purchase you are trying to make. So if you redeem a $100 card and then to make a $46.99 purchase, you’ll get flagged.

However, if you are using $45 of credit on a $46.99 purchase, you won’t get flagged, because the purchase is greater than the gift card balance. This is what I do now.

I used to buy gift cards for $500 (it was more cost effective for me that way). However, having to call Apple every three purchases was driving me out of my mind. I was on the verge of ditching my iPhone for a Google phone.

Tl;dr: If you can’t make purchases on the Apple App Store, it’s because Apple is paranoid you might be committing fraud.

• Won't let you pay towards hardware when you are visiting in store. Won't let you add apple account balance to Apple Wallet app. Always says cannot add error. No one knows why!

• Won't let you place an online order for store pickup

• Won't let you get Express shipping. (Althoug until the checkout page it shows Express delivery, the thing changes to standard delivery immediately after placing the order).

Just bookmark this and do NOT forget.