How to Delete Apple Pay Data Remotely If Your Device Is Stolen
On New Years 2021, a burglar broke into my house, smashed it, and disappeared with a few things. One was my iPad Pro, which could give a thief access to my Apple Pay information if they could get through the lock screen. Fortunately, Apple makes it easy to remotely delete your billing information from any device.
Remove Apple Pay cards in the Find Me app
The Find My app can help you find a lost or stolen Apple device, but you can also use it to delete Apple Pay information remotely. You will either have to use an additional Apple device registered with your Apple ID or the iCloud web app.
- Open the Find My app on your Apple device, or go to iCloud.com/find and sign in with your Apple ID.
- Select your lost device from the list.
- Scroll down and activate “Mark as Lost”.
- Follow the onscreen instructions to create a lock PIN for your device. Be sure to write it down somewhere safe as you will need it to unlock your device if found.
- Blocking the device automatically deletes all stored billing information.
This is the method I used to remove Apple Pay information from a stolen iPad Pro. Unfortunately, I never got my iPad back, but if you’re lucky enough to recover your lost iPhone, iPad or Apple Watch, you can easily unlock it using the PIN you entered in step 4.
Remove Apple Pay cards using the Apple ID website
Again, using the Find My app is the best option for dealing with your lost or stolen Apple device. However, as MakeUseOf points out , 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 Apple ID home page and sign in with your Apple ID.
- Find and select the device you want to erase from the list on your Apple ID account page.
- Select “Remove Card”.
- Click Remove to confirm and remove this card from your device.
- Repeat these steps for any additional cards or devices.