Buying apps with prepaid iTunes cards?

[Duvall]

Well, yesterday I received an 8gb iPhone 3G as a gift from my parents.

I had also received a $20 iTunes prepaid gift card to buy songs. After spending almost an hour figuring out how to make my account without credit card use, I finally got it working with my balance updated to $20. I bought an album, and a single song without any trouble and I was left with a balance of $9.02.

After messing around with my iPhone for a bit, and checking out the apps, I was interested in a few of them, but my balance was lacking enough money to purchase the applications I wanted.

Today I went out and bought a $50 iTunes card to purchase a couple apps, and save the rest when needed for a certain album.

When finished redeeming my code and updating my balance to $59.02, I attempted to purchase an app straight from my iPhone. [If you need to know, it was the 'BeatMaker' app that was up for $19.99] I wasn't low on funds, and I had no problem buying something from the iTunes store before, but when trying to purchase this app from the app store on my iPhone I got this grueling message

"You need a method of payment to purchase this item. Go to the iTunes Store on your computer and update your Billing Info" This was weird, because just yesterday I could purchase songs without trouble, but now I can't purchase an app freely.

So I tried, instead, to purcahse it from the iTunes store directly from my computer, but this time I got the message "Your credit card will be charged for this purchase.."

I didn't sign-up with any credit card information, and I cant purchase this app from both my computer and my iPhone without being forced to add credit card details to my account. I don't want to use a credit card as I don't have one, and I can't be bothered to ask my parents for theirs.

So my question; is there ANY way to purchase the apps that I want from the App store using my iTunes prepaid gift card balance? When searching through Google, and peaking at a few other people asking this question I see a lot of replies constantly saying you can, but I have no luck..

All help is appreciated.

[nanvinnie]

I'm sure you can use your prepaid card. I got a prepaid card from my sister and once I redeemed it all of my itunes purchases were deducted from the card. not sure why yours is asking for credit card info. but i do have my credit card info on my itunes account. maybe you just need it so you're verified or something.

[Duvall]

I think this could probably be an issue with me being in Canada also, whereas they don't accept purchases through the cards; only from Credit card.

Sucks, as America can use Paypal and iTunes cards to purchase their apps, but we can't.

I found that info from source http://www.ruinediphone.com/read/5175-itunes_gift_cards_useless_in_canadian_app_store-1.html

[Opie]

If you download from your iphone it uses your credit card info. The only way it will deduct from your pre paid account is if you download it from your computer. i also have had this problem for a while. i would download songs directly from my iphone and i would get on my account and when i got on my computer my account balance would be the same. I just figured i got lucky and didnt get charged. That was until my wife called me one day asking what all the $1.08 charges were. Then i put it all together. if you figure out a way around it i would greatly appreciate it. i have tried and tried.

[DreamPod]

It works fine for me to order from my phone - it uses the prepaid account first before hitting credit.

Anyways, the problem here is Canada - for some reason Canada can't use prepaid cards for Apps, only songs and movies/TV shows. In the US we can use them fine, which is why some people say it works and others say it doesn't.