Warning - Adding your gift card balance might trigger your unpaid subscriptions to be automatically paid

• All purchases will first come from your Apple Account before being charged to your card.
• Your subscription did not automatically resume, it just was never paid for in the first place. Cancelling a subscription will prevent it from being renewed, but does not make your current subscription charge go away.

Here is what happened. The subscription you signed up for is a legal contract to pay for the service. The payment was not able to be processed to your current payment method, which could have been due to lack of funds or no longer valid. That does not make the payment go away and does not cancel the subscription. You still owe that money and will have to pay for it. The order to process the amount you owe will first check your Apple Account and if there is not enough money in there, then it will move to your next payment method. After you redeemed your Gift Card, then there was enough money in your Apple Account to process the payment.

It is not a bug. You are responsible for managing your subscriptions and Apple makes it very easy. Not sure why this is surprising as any purchase/subscription in the App Store requires you to double click the side button with the amount showing on the screen. It is not done by accident. The only thing that is surprising is that you thought it would go away if you did not pay for it.

KoffeeStore wrote:

Thank you for your response, but I’d like to clarify a few points. First, the initial gift card balance I had was significantly higher than the amount in question. I also want to point out that I never actively used these apps, so I don’t feel it’s fair to imply I owe something for services I didn’t utilize.

Whether or not you ever used the apps is irrelevant to the question of whether or not you owe for the subscription. You agreed to the subscription and didn't cancel it. Therefore, you owe.

More importantly, I believe that before charging the balance, the system should have asked for explicit permission rather than automatically assuming consent. Automatically deducting funds without clear authorization feels inappropriate, and I’m sure many would agree that managing subscriptions should include more transparency in this process.

Whether you remember it or not, you gave consent to all of those things when you agreed to the Terms and Conditions of the App Store. I know most of us never actually read those things but, that doesn't mean we arent' bound by them. Sometimes our lack of attention comes back to bite us.

KoffeeStore wrote:

I also want to point out that I never actively used these apps, so I don’t feel it’s fair to imply I owe something for services I didn’t utilize.

More importantly, I believe that before charging the balance, the system should have asked for explicit permission rather than automatically assuming consent. Automatically deducting funds without clear authorization feels inappropriate, and I’m sure many would agree that managing subscriptions should include more transparency in this process.

Not using a subscription that you authorized by double tapping the side button with the amount showing on the screen does not mean you shouldn't have to pay for it. I subscribe to HBO/Max and pay for the service even if I don't watch any of the shows. It is my responsibility to cancel that subscription if I want to avoid any charges and not paying for it will not make it go away. It is not HBO/Max that is asking me every month if I am sure I want to continue since I did not watch any shows.

Of course you can expect the funds to be deducted automatically, because you have already agreed to pay for the subscription. If you do not want a subscription, don't authorize it in the first place and if you do not want it to renew again, then cancel it to avoid any future charges. Every subscription, whether it is from Amazon, Google, Showtime, Netflix, etc, automatically renew without any confirmation if you want to continue. That is exactly what a subscription is as you have authorized that to continue until you cancel it.