How to instantly remove all Apple Pay cards from your device at once

Remove Apple Pay cards

You can remove a payment or transit card from Apple Pay at any time, but the option to remove all cards at once from your device is hidden in plain sight. But worry not, girls and boys, iDownloadBlog comes to the rescue. Just follow this step-by-step tutorial to learn how you can remove all Apple Pay cards from your Apple device in one fell swoop.

This will be of particular importance if your device gets stolen or lost and you’d like to quickly disable Apple Pay payments for all of the cards instead of immediately canceling your cards.

TUTORIAL: How to set up Transit Express on Apple Pay

Or, maybe you’ve added your credit or debit cards to Apple Pay on your Mac which you don’t really use for shopping and would now like to remove them from the computer with a click.

Here are all the different methods of removing your Apple Pay cards from a single device:

  • Apple ID account — Use the Apple ID web interface to remotely remove your Apple Pay cards from any Apple device that’s signed in to iCloud with the same account.
  • iOS Settings — Use the Settings app on an iPhone, iPad or iPod touch to remove your Apple Pay cards from that device or from any other device that uses Apple Pay.
  • iCloud.com settings — The web interface for iCloud makes it easy to delete all Apple Pay cards from any listed device as long as it’s signed in to iCloud.
  • macOS System Preferences — The System Preferences app on your Mac makes it easy to remove all your Apple Cards from any signed device with just a few clicks.
  • Find My — The Find My app on your iPhone, iPad or Mac allows you to remotely put any of your devices in Lost Mode, which also disables Apple Pay for security reasons.
  • Other ways — You have indirect methods at your disposal to kill Apple Pay.

As you know, Apple Pay is managed on a per-device basis.

Cards you add on one device don’t automatically become available on all your other devices using the same Apple ID or iCloud account, and the same goes for removing your cards. As an example, removing all your cards from Apple Pay and Wallet on your iPhone won’t remove them automatically from your Mac or iPad, and vice versa.

The methods listed above remove the following cards from Apple Pay and Wallet:

  • Credit cards
  • Debit cards
  • Prepaid cards
  • Student ID cards
  • Express Transit cards

Credit, debit and student ID cards are removed immediately even if your device is offline, but your Express Transit and Suica cards are removed the next time the device goes online.

Any cards you remove from a device can be added back in Wallet settings.

How to remove all Apple Pay cards at once

Read on for all the ways you can remove your Apple Pay cards from an Apple device.

Apple ID account

Logging in to your Apple ID account on the web allows you to adjust its features as well as remove all Apple Pay cards from any device that uses that account.

1) Using a desktop browser on your Mac or PC computer, sign it to your Apple ID account.

2) Click your Apple device listed next to the Devices heading.

3) Click Remove or Remove All below the listed Apple Pay cards for your device, then confirm the operation by clicking Remove in the dialog.

Apple notes that this method may take a few minutes to remove all the cards associated with Apple Pay and Wallet, which will render them unavailable for payments on this device.

Remove all Apple Pay cards disable
One click and all your Apple Pay cards are removed at once from a device, remotely.

If you select a device in the Devices list and then click the option labeled with the text “Remove from account”, the device will sign out of iCloud. While doing so will automatically remove all Apple Pay information, you must keep in mind that you’ll no longer be able to approve any new devices or use iCloud and other Apple services until you sign in to iCloud again on that device.

Thankfully, any removed Apple Pay cards can be easily re-added in the Wallet app.

iOS Settings

Your Apple Pay cards can be removed from any device through the Settings app on iOS.

1) Open Settings on your iPhone or iPad.

2) Tap your Apple ID name at the top of the list.

3) Scroll down to the list of devices that are signed in to iCloud with the same Apple ID user name and password, then choose a desired device.

4) Tap Remove Card or Remove All Cards below the list of your payment cards found underneath the Apple Pay heading, then confirm the operation by clicking Remove in the dialog.

After a few minutes, any listed cards will no longer be available for payments with Apple Pay on this particular device. You can add your cards back at any time in the Wallet app.

Remove Apple Pay cards
Your Apple Pay cards can be removed in iOS Settings.

Clicking Remove From Account at the bottom of the interface will automatically remove all Apple Pay information from it at the expense of functionality — you won’t be able to use iCloud services or approve other devices until you sign in again.

iCloud.com settings

You can remove all of the cards you’ve added to Apple Pay and Wallet on your device by using the Settings web app on iCloud.com as outlined below.

1) Using a desktop browser on your Mac or Windows PC, log in to iCloud.com with your Apple ID user name and password.

2) Click Account Settings on the main screen. If it doesn’t show up there, click your Apple ID name in the top-right corner and choose the corresponding option from the popup menu.

3) Now click a device listed underneath the heading My Devices.

If you don’t see the My Devices section, that’s because your account currently is limited to iCloud web-only features. You can gain access to other iCloud features by setting up iCloud on your iOS and iPadOS devices or Mac.

4) Click Remove or Remove All below the list of cards in the righthand pane, then confirm the operation by clicking Remove in the dialog.

Don’t see any cards listed in the My Devices section? That’s almost certainly due to the fact that you haven’t set up Apple Pay or other cards on that device.

Remove Apple Pay cards
Removing Apple Pay cards through the web interface at iCloud.com.

You can also remove all your Apple Pay cards added to your device by removing the device from your iCloud settings. To do so, choose a device in the My Devices section, then tap “x” next to its name in the left column. As evidenced by the screenshot embedded right ahead, you’ll see a warning saying that removing this device will automatically disable Apple Pay and remove all of the cards that you have previously added to it. It will also sign out the device from iCloud and won’t be available for two-step verification codes.

To continue, click Remove in the dialog or Cancel to abort the operation.

Remove Apple Pay cards
Keep in mind that your hidden device will reappear if it connects to the Internet.

Your payment cards are removed from Apple Pay and Wallet on the selected device within 30 seconds. Transit cards are removed when the device is online.

macOS System Preferences

You can also remove your Apple Pay cards via System Preferences on your Mac.

1) Choose System Preferences from the Apple menu.

2) Click the Apple ID icon in the System Preferences window.

3) Select a device in the lefthand column.

4) Click Remove or Remove All below the list of Apple Pay cards in the righthand column, then confirm you’re sure you want to do that. It may take a few minutes to complete the operation, after which the listed cards will no longer be available for payments on this device.

Remove Apple Pay cards
Removing all Apple Pay cards from my Mac with System Preferences.

The same result can be achieved by removing the device from iCloud by clicking the button labeled with the text “Remove from Account,” but know that doing so will also prevent you from accessing iCloud features or two-step verification codes on it until you sign in again.

Find My

If an unfortunate event of your device getting lost or stolen, you can remove all your cards from Apple Pay remotely provided you have enabled the Find My service.

1) Open the Find My app on your iPhone, iPad or Mac or visit its web counterpart at icloud.com/find in a desktop browser on your Mac or Windows PC.

2) Select the section Devices on iOS/macOS or click All Devices in the web version.

3) Now select a desired device.

4) On iOS, tap Activate below the Mark As Lost heading and the onscreen instructions.

Remove Apple Pay cards
Lost Mode instantly disables Apple Pay.

On macOS, click “i” next to the device name on the map, then click Activate below Mark As Lost. On the web, choose a device from the menu and click Lost Mode (Lost Mode is unavailable if Find My is not set up on your device).

Don’t see All Devices on the web? That’s because you’ve already selected a device. In that case, click the name of the current device in the centre of the toolbar to access the Devices list, then select a new device.

As a security precaution, Lost Mode instantly disables Apple Pay and remotely locks your device with a custom passcode. Any credit or debit cards set up for Apple Pay, as well as your student ID cards and Express Transit cards, are suspended for that particular device.

Apple Pay and student ID cards are suspended even if your device is offline while Express Transit cards are suspended the next time your device goes online.

“You can resume using suspended cards on your device after you unlock it and sign in with your Apple ID,” notes Apple in a support document. In other words, if you had any cards suspended when you put your device in Lost Mode, disabling Lost Mode and signing back in to iCloud will permit you to use them again.

Other ways to remove all Apple Pay cards at once

Aside from the aforementioned ways of removing all your Apple Pay cards from a device at once, you have a few other methods at your disposal, too.

  • Call the issuers of your cards: Place a call to the support department of your bank or financial institution that issues your payment cards and ask them to disable support for Apple’s mobile payment feature.
  • Sign out of iCloud: If you sign out of iCloud on the device, all payment and transit cards will get removed from it. Beware, as a logged-out device won’t be able to use iCloud services and receive two-step verification codes until you sign back in.
  • Disable Face ID, Touch ID or passcode: If you disable Face ID or Touch ID authentication on iPhone or iPad, or your remove a passcode from your iOS device or Apple Watch, all your Apple Pay credit, debit, prepaid, transit, student ID and Suica cards will be removed from that device.
  • Contact Apple Support: You can also reach out to Apple via phone, mail or chat and ask them to remove all your cards from a particular device.

If you’re unable to remove all your Apple Pay cards from a device, there might be a problem with the service. In that case, check the status of Apple Pay on Apple’s System Status page.

If there’s an issue, try to remove a card again after the issue is resolved.

Apple Pay and your privacy

Want to see more details about how Apple Pay is protecting your privacy?

Go to the Wallet & Apple Pay section in the Settings app on your iPhone or iPad, then tap the link “See how your data is managed”. You can get this information on your Mac, too, just go to the Wallet & Apple Pay section in System Preferences and click Apple Pay & Privacy.

Last but not least, read Apple’s support document on the web providing the Apple Pay security and privacy overview or review the iOS Security Guide and Apple’s complete privacy policy.

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