No, a late Apple Card payment doesn't hold your Apple ID hostage

Yesterday, a story arose about Apple potentially locking a user out of their Apple ID on all of their devices after failing to make a payment on their Apple Card. The story took off over the idea that it would be insanity for a company like Apple to essentially brick a customer's experience across all of its services and products due to an issue with just one of them.

It's truly a rabbit-hole of a story and iMore's Oliver Haslam is right when he calls the entire ordeal "madness."

Thankfully, it appears that the two issues were unrelated. In a statement provided to 9to5Mac, Apple says that the company disabled App Store, iTunes, and subscription services due to an issue with processing a trade-in for a new Mac. They also have said that the issue is entirely unrelated to Apple Card, which is good news for all of us who just tucked their Apple Card back a little further in their wallet out of an abundance of caution.

We apologize for any confusion or inconvenience we may have caused for this customer. The issue in question involved a restriction on the customer's Apple ID that disabled App Store and iTunes purchases and subscription services, excluding iCloud. Apple provided an instant credit for the purchase of a new MacBook Pro, and as part of that agreement, the customer was to return their current unit to us. No matter what payment method was used, the ability to transact on the associated Apple ID was disabled because Apple could not collect funds. This is entirely unrelated to Apple Card.

While yesterday's story was certainly exciting, it appears that the truth is much more boring, a fact that is probably just fine for the majority of us who are glad to hear that an issue with one Apple product doesn't nuke your entire experience.