> I believe this is the situation on android but that on ios you need a card either way to download from the app store?
> Or at least this used to be the situation.
Nope and I've never had one attached so it's definitely not a new thing either.
They do have a bit of a dark pattern to trick you into adding one when you first set up an Apple ID. IIRC, when you pick your credit card type (AmEx, VISA, etc) you can pick "No Credit Card" to skip it.
Yeah. I work in tech, and this has tripped me up many a time.
Apple is extremely negligent about demanding a credit card, when I only want "free applications". Worse yet, with their app-storification of OSX, it's absolutely horrendous. And of course, only "richies" use OSX and Apple (enter here various websites that charge more for Mac users based upon browser ident strings).
On iOS there is a supported, official, but completely non-obvious way to create a card-less account.
(While logged out, buy a free app, when told you need an account, click to create one from this dialogue. This allows for the option for a card-less account)
> Or at least this used to be the situation.
Nope and I've never had one attached so it's definitely not a new thing either.
They do have a bit of a dark pattern to trick you into adding one when you first set up an Apple ID. IIRC, when you pick your credit card type (AmEx, VISA, etc) you can pick "No Credit Card" to skip it.