How to Fix “Apple Pay Services are Currently Unavailable”

Apple Pay service error: what causes it?

In addition to the following reasons, there are several other possibilities that can lead to the message ‘Apple Pay services are currently unavailable’:

Restrictions imposed by networks or regions.
Using an old version of iOS.
Interference from VPNs.
Information about Apple ID is incorrect.
Problems with the Internet.
Outages related to Apple Pay.

What you can do to fix Apple Pay issue

In this article, there are a number of solutions for fixing Apple Pay Service problems, so take a look through the article and choose the solution that suits you best.

Solution 1 – You need to restart your iPhone

It’s a good idea to start by restarting your iPhone to see if that helps to resolve the issue, which should be the first thing you do.

If you restart your device, you will be able to resolve many seemingly random problems that would be very difficult to troubleshoot otherwise.

Solution 2 – Changing the region of your iPhone

Currently, Apple Pay is only available in certain areas around the world and is not available everywhere. Apple Pay might not be working if you see an error message saying ‘service unavailable’ when you use it. This error can be resolved by changing your region in the settings.

The first thing you need to do is open your iPhone settings and select General.
Choose Language & Region from the drop-down menu.
Choose a region.
Make sure that you select a region that accepts Apple Pay, such as the US or UK, and tap Done when you are done.

Now, you are required to restart your iPhone and it should work

Solution 3 – Turning Off/Disabling VPN in iPhone

In spite of Apple Pay’s geo-restrictions, VPN connections can cause problems for users when using the service. To see if Apple Pay works with disabling your VPN, try disabling that and see if that works.

Tap the General option in the iPhone settings menu.
Choose VPN from the drop-down menu.
You can disable the status slider.

You can now try using Apple Pay again.

Solution 4 – Allow Apple Wallet to use cellular data

A cellular data connection is required in order to make Apple Wallet work properly and that may also impact Apple Pay if it does not have cellular data access. Please find below a list of things you can do to solve this problem.

Select the Cellular option from the iPhone settings by navigating to the settings menu.
Enable the cellular slider in Apple Wallet by scrolling down.

Try relaunching the Apple Pay app and check if it works.

Solution 5 – Turn off the Adblocker

Apple Pay connectivity can also be hindered by adblockers, just as it is with VPNs.

Select Safari from the settings menu.
Then click Extensions.
Ensure that all adblockers are disabled.

You can now check if Apple Pay is working by restarting your phone.

Solution 6 – Referesing the PRL

Apple Pay doesn’t work if your phone’s PRL (Preferred Roaming List) is corrupted, as it may interfere with Apple Pay’s network connectivity and NFC features. The good news is that refreshing the PRL is a fairly simple process. The process is as simple as opening your phone’s dialer and dialing the following code in the number field.

##873283#

See if the problem with Apple Pay is resolved.

Solution 7 – Checking your Apple ID of yours

Having the same Apple ID information across your iPhone and the Apple website can cause issues with Apple Pay if the information is not the same. The information provided on both ends should be consistent so that there are no gaps in information.

Step 1 – On a web browser, you should go to Apple’s website in order to access the Apple ID section and use your existing credentials to log in.

Step 2 – Then click the Name button under Personal Information.

Step 3 – If any entries are present in the Middle Name field, they should be removed.

Step 4 – Click the Manage Payment Method button under the Payment Methods tab. Your phone’s information must match what’s on the form.

Solution 8 – Open Apple Cloud and log out and back in again

Having said that, logging out and back in again to your Apple Cloud is a very long shot. However, sometimes, when Apple Pay isn’t working properly, logging out and back in again can solve the problem.

The first thing you need to do is open iPhone settings and go to iCloud.
Then, tap Sign out on the screen.
When you switch to iCloud, you will be asked to decide whether you want your notes, Safari data, and other information to stay on your phone. Click on Delete from My iPhone and follow the instructions.

After you have done this, you need to wait for some time before you restart your iPhone. Then, in order to test Apple Pay, you should log in to iCloud once more and log in to your account.

Solution 9 – Resetting your device

Last but not least, if it doesn’t work, you can try setting your iPhone to factory settings to find out if that will resolve the problem with Apple Pay.

Select General from the settings menu.
You can reset your account on the next page by scrolling down to the bottom and tapping Reset.
Choose Erase All Content and Settings from the top option on the next page.

Conclusion

Please contact your card’s issuer bank if the problem persists. There may be times when the bank refuses to process further attempts to pay for a shady transaction unless the user authenticates the earlier transaction. Alternatively, if that doesn’t work, try checking the iPhone for hardware errors (a failed secure element can cause the problem).