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App Store, iTunes, and PayPal Stop Working in Greece

Blame this on the Greek financial crisis as well

Jul 6, 2015 09:02 GMT  ·  By
Greek users are having problem with small transactions on iTunes and the App Store
   Greek users are having problem with small transactions on iTunes and the App Store

The situation in Greece just got bleaker after several online services stopped working in the country due to its current debt crisis and the limitations put in place by its Government to address the issue.

Greeks are reporting that the Apple App Store, iTunes, and PayPal services have stopped accepting payments from users trying to use a Greek credit card.

While at first you may jump on the "blame Apple" and "blame PayPal" bandwagon, the real culprit is Greece's government body which has put financial protection mechanisms in place to prevent money from leaving the country's economy.

While this may be useful for citizens attempting to move big sums of money to off-shore bank accounts to avoid future tax increases, the limitation also applies to users trying to buy a 99-cents song from iTunes as well.

While "technically" this kind of transaction counts as "money leaving the country," it's ludicrous how no minimum cap has been put in place for ordinary operations like Web-based purchases.

For now users have reported only the Apple App Store, iTunes, and PayPal as not working, but many more other services are probably in the same situation as well.