Since August’s last week many USA iTunes customers while using the store with a Credit Card or PayPal have seen this error message out again and again, unable to buy anything or update their Apps.
Your credit card was declined. Please enter valid credit card information.
When you try to buy something (an app or song) after you login to your account, you get a new window that states:
Verification is required
You must enter your Apple ID and password, click Billing Info, and verify your payment information in order to make purchases.
And once again to log in again to verify your payment details, you get a form with red letters indicating:
You must verify your payment information before you can make purchases.
Although you do update your data, either of PayPal or credit card, and press Done, it again gives the error message:
Your credit card was declined. Please enter valid credit card information
So your credit card was rejected / denied by iTunes, even though you enter valid values in this regard. And this becomes in an infinite loop in which Apple will never accept your data or other cards, which are also valid.
Reasons
There is a theory: Reading some forums about it, most of these mistakes happen when your IP is outside of USA, meaning that even though you use a U.S. Paypal account or credit card, if you are not in the same country, you will have this error.
Some people reported this error while trying to buy something from a not U.S. country with a U.S. account, but when they called a relative in the USA to login with the same account, the error did not exist. 
Solutions
It is an error from iTunes Store and not from your bank account or PayPal. Sadly, there’s no apparent solutions . I recommend to you to read the following Apple Support forums, maybe a solution will appear there, but until now there is none:
- Topic: Credit Card is Declined
- Topic: Your payment method was declined
- Topic: Credit card verification loop
As you can see it is not an isolated error and it is happening to several customers.
Some of them recommend that the best solution is to send an email to Apple Support to the following link and wait 48 hours for a response:
Apple Support, iTunes Store: Billing, managing your account
Hopefully we will have a solution.
If you went through something similar and you solved it, please leave a comment and share your experience 
UPDATE: Once it was solved by Apple Support, after a few days the same problem returns
The first time I got the Credit Card message that it was Declines was on August 28th. I use PayPal with US address and US credit card, but I live in South America.
I sent the first email (using the form) on September the 1st. The same day Apple Support said they will find a solution and they have requested assistance.
I sent a second email on September the 3rd.
I received an Apple email saying my account was solved on September the 4th.
Yesterday (September 7) My account is having again the same problem. (and I have being buying stuff almost everyday).
I am sending a third email today (September 8).
I dowloaded a bunch of Itune series before I went to my assignment and now that I am trying order more and pay for one that i purchsed b4 this crap started happening and I get that terrible declined message. I first thought to check my bank to make sure no one took my money but it was still there. I tried another card from my home of record and that too was declined. I tried my credit card and that was also declined. What am I going to do if i cant get my series. Its going to be a long assignment. I think after all the money that i have spent with Itunes they should have something in place for members who are stationed overseas. It not really our choices where we end up but that should be a policy that they should take care of the men and women in uniform. I think that they will lose valuable customers if they dont get this crap fixed.And fast. I am running out of patience.
same issue… but i’m not out of the country. tried paypal, & different credit cards to no avail. stuck in endless loop. this all started happening yesterday after i downloaded new iphone update. i could click and buy before that. so completely frustrating? Wonder how much $ apple is losing each day we cant purchase music and apps? you’d think they’d fix this asap, as it’s a huge loss of revenue.
I’m in the US and getting this issue!
I tried to open a new US account, I work in Canada, and didn’t choose a credit a card and I get this error
i actually got it resolved – just emailed the apple helpdesk, referred to this website, as it very accurately described the problem. I was then asked to send a copy of my CC statement (crossing out all money related issues) via email, and it was solved after three days.
they even followed up after three days after that to see if everything was still ok.
from the reduced activity on this thread it seems they have sorted this issue out altogether?
I was told that you need to register with the store of the country you are in. I have the feeling that if you registered before in your own country then it would work ok but I have not tested it.
Example- I am living in South Korea. I am American. I first registered or am trying to in South Korea. I cannot register to the US store but apparently they are saying I can register for the South Korean store.
This is a huge downfall of the whole system… Who the @#$# thought that up? I am attempting to register to the South Korea store.. I will let everyone know about my progress on that….
This is insane.
I don’t even recall if I used my iThunes account while in the U.S (I’m a resident of Canada). My credit card info is the same and upon verification, it’s valid. Howver I can’t purchase a new app for my phone. How is it that so many individuals have this issue and nothing is being done to resolve it? What recourse do we have? This is insane and very fustrating!
FINALLY A SOLUTION
This has happened to me numerous times after having used the same credit card recently.
I finally discovered the answer:
– This applies only when you know the credit card you are using is valid.
– This doesn’t require you to change to a different credit card, meaning you can use the same one you’ve been using all along.
Part 1
In the settings area on the iPhone, iPod, or iPad, select “store”.
Select view account. (You’ll be requested to enter your password)
Touch anywhere In the payment and billing address section, touch the payment info box, to bring up the edit screen.
Touch the credit card, which will show a selection wheel listing all acceptable credit cards.
Select none (this removes the credit card associated with your account)
Select done. (Just to make sure you’ve completely finished with these changes and they have been set, close out completely, all the way until you get back to the device’s ‘settings’ screen)
Part 2
Go back to ‘veiw account’
This time you’ll see something like ‘no credit card associated with this account’ in the area where your credit card info used to be. (I you still see a credit card on the account, go back and repeat the steps in Part 1.)
Touch anywhere in the payment and billing section to bring up the selection wheel.
In the edit screen, enter your credit card information (You can use the same one you just remove) and touch ‘done’. (If you are taken back to the account info screen and you see no ‘payment method declined message’ you’re golden, if not the original card is still associated with the account. I’ll mention another solution you can try for this if you have more than one device associated with this account.)
Touch done, to get out of the account information section.
You should now be able to purchase from the iTunes and app store as before.
NOTE: If you have more than one device associated with the account, you’ll need to perform these steps on those devices as well.
NOTE: If the steps above didn’t work and you have another device associated with this account, try this solution on that device.
I’ve used both of these solutions, on my iPad and iPhone
This problem happened to me twice out of the blue just a day after I had successfully made a purchase.
I’ve used both methods.
Hope this helps!
BTW, both times this happened it was outside business hours. I searched the Apple support pages for over an hour trying to talk to a human and finally gave up.
My solution came after a lot of trial and error.
I am a frequent iTunes customer and I am constantly downloading music. I would say I spend a pretty decent amount of money on iTunes. It wasn’t until I just recently deployed due to being a service member that I can no longer download anything from iTunes. WTF! I never had this problem on any previous deployments and now they want to lock me out. Doesn’t make any sense. They need to fix this problem right away or they are going to lose my business.
Elaine’s solution worked for me.
I just changed bank accounts and it seems to work now. Haven’t tried changing back.
Elaine, your the best! It worked for my 3Gs and my wifes. She did the technique on her device. Since we are both connected to the same account, I just tried updating my apps without going through those steps. Mine updated also.
Thanks kiddo!
I am serving in Afghanistan as well, and have the same issue. So much for downloading anything, guess Apple will just lose a years worth of my money. Oh well.
Had this happen to me when I was on an overseas business trip. Same message, no problem with the card. It’s not a bug. As soon as I returned to the US and it was clear that my IP and data source was in the US, everything was fine. No issues at all. I think it’s as simple as you can only use iTunes in the country you have a card for and that’s it.