On New Year’s Day 2021, a thief broke into my house, destroyed the place and left with various objects. One of them was my iPad Pro, which could have given the thief access to my Apple Pay information if they managed to get past the lock screen. Fortunately, Apple makes it easy to remotely delete payment information from any device.
Remove Apple Pay Cards in the ‘Find mine application
The Find My app can help you locate a lost or stolen Apple device, but you can also use it to remotely delete Apple Pay information. You’ll need to use a registered Apple secondary device in your Apple ID or iCloud web app.
- Open the Find Mine app on an Apple device or go to iCloud.com/find and sign in with your Apple ID.
- Select the lost device from the list.
- Scroll down and activate it “Mark as lost”.
- Follow the on-screen instructions to create a lock PIN for your device. Be sure to type this in a safe place, as you will need it to unlock your device if it is found.
- Locking your device in this way automatically removes all stored payment information
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This is the method I used to remove Apple Pay information from my stolen iPad Pro. Unfortunately, I never recovered my iPad, but if you’re lucky enough to recover your lost iPhone, iPad, or Apple Watch, you’ll be able to easily unlock it using the PIN you created in step 4.
Removing Apple Pay Cards Using the Apple ID Website
Again, using the Find Mine app is the best option for dealing with a lost or stolen Apple device. However, how Aim MakeUseOf, you can also use the Apple ID website to remove Apple Pay information from a specific device at any time without putting it in “Lost Mode.”
- In a web browser, open the file Apple ID home page and sign in with your Apple ID.
- Find and select the device you want to remove from the list on your Apple ID account page.
- Select “Remove card”.
- Click on “Delete” to confirm and remove this card from your device.
- Repeat for any additional cards or devices.