Apple Cash payments usually go through instantly when you send them, whether you use Apple Wallet or iMessage, unless you or the recipient hasn't set it up correctly.
The recipient isn't always the problem; it can still come from your side, especially if you have reached your limit or haven't verified your identity. To figure out what's really causing this issue (whether it is on your side or the recipient's), I came up with two theories that pointed me to the root cause.
My First Theory: Try Sending Money to Someone Else
First, you should try sending money to someone else. It shouldn't be something huge, and you can even decide to send it to a family member you can easily ask to resend the money to you. It's simply to confirm whether your account can actually send money at this time. My sister is an avid Apple user, and she was the only one I could send money to confirm my theory. I sent her $5, and I was unfortunate not to get it all back completely. She boldly stood her ground that she would only send back $3 and keep $2 for her time. I could only accept it to confirm my theory. So when she sent the $3, I was able to receive it, and I could confirm my account wasn't the problem since I had already verified my identity too. Oh, just before I forget, I tested this through iMessage.
My Second Theory: Ask the Recipient to Send You or Someone a Small Amount
The next thing you should do is ask the recipient to send a small amount to either you or anyone else. In my case, my recipient was my friend and colleague, Efang Brandon, and we had to set up a meeting to make this go through flawlessly. So when he sent me the money, I was able to receive it, which could only point out to one conclusion: he can't receive money because there's an issue on his end. When we went deeper into the root cause, I realized that he didn't actually verify his identity.
So I had him verify his identity and resend the money. It went through on my side, but he didn't receive it instantly, and that was because the settings that are required to automatically accept Apple Cash payments were turned off for his account, and I have to say this was even the hardest part that stressed us out, regardless of how simple it was to figure out. All he needed to do was go to "Wallet & Apple Pay" in "Settings" and turn on Apple Cash. When he turned this on, he was able to automatically accept Apple Cash payments. Oh, and for the payment I sent to him earlier, he had to manually tap on it to accept it before we could figure out why he wasn't accepting payments automatically.
How To Fix Cannot Receive Payments Sent With Apple Cash At This Time
These two theories not only helped me identify the root cause of the problem in my case, but also figure out why it could be happening even when you have everything properly set up.
That said, if you are experiencing this issue and your case is different from what I went through to fix it using my aforementioned theories, here are all the things to look out for and how to address them to fix the issue.
1. Make Sure You Are in the United States and Meet Age Requirements
You might be a resident of the United States, but it just happens that you aren't actually there when making this payment. Just know that your location matters for Apple Cash transactions, and it can be the reason why this payment can't go through, especially if everything looks good from your end and that of the recipient.
Also, age requirements can be a major root cause (if you aren't at least 18 years old), as the family organizer is the one in control of your account and can turn off the ability to use Apple Cash or even lock the account if they want.
If you aren't 18 years old and your account is managed by your family organizer, have them check your Apple Cash and address any issue that prevents you from making payments at this time.
2. Have the Recipient Properly Set Up Their Account
This is the main reason why people are usually unable to accept Apple Cash because they think that having an Apple device automatically sets up everything for you, including the ability to use Apple Cash. I can shout this out loud, especially to my kid sister before she could realize that Apple is actually what she thought it was.
You should know that Apple Cash is something you willingly need to enroll in, and unless you do this, you won't be able to receive payments, and even if you do receive payments, you'll need to manually accept them all the time within 7 days cause it will be automatically resent to the sender.
3. Have the Recipient Verify Their Identity
This was my primary conclusion to my theories with my friend's (Brandon) account. You can surely use Apple Cash without verifying your identity, but what you don't know is it comes with limitations that you can't keep up with, especially if you plan on using it for more important transactions like sending and receiving money.
4. Have the Recipient Check if their Account is Locked or Restricted
Sometimes, your Apple Cash can get locked without you even knowing, and if this happens, you won't be able to receive payments through Apple Cash. Restricted Apple Cash doesn't always mean you have done something wrong; even an expired card linked to your account can cause this, and it is what most people don't always figure out.
5. Check if iMessage and Apple Cash Servers are Working Correctly
Both iMessage and Apple Cash have dedicated servers that ensure their proper functioning, and if these servers encounter an outage, the services won't work properly for sending and receiving money. Meaning it can even cause issue from your end as well as from the receiver's end.
The fix: Check Apple's system status page to see if there's any issue with iMessage and Apple Cash servers. If you don't see a green check next to these features, then there's a service outage and all you'll have to do is wait for Apple to resolve the issue then you try again. Also, make sure that the Wallet feature has a green check since it links up to Apple Cash.
6. Make Sure You Are Using an Updated iOS Software
Apple Cash is known to not work well with outdated iOS software. For sure, Apple Cash works well with iOS 11.2 and above, but it works even best with the latest iOS version available for your device.
If you are using an older version of iOS, make sure you update it to at least iOS 11.2, or preferably to the latest iOS version available for your device, for the best experience with not only Apple Cash, but also other Apple features.
Final Thoughts
Apple Cash works well when it comes to sending and receiving Apple payments either through the Wallet app or through iMessages, but this only works if everything looks okay on both the sender's and the recipient's end.
If you cannot receive payments sent with Apple Cash at this time, you'll have to make sure that you are in the United States, have set up everything correctly, and are free from any limitations (including identity verification) that could lead to a restriction from making payments.
This guide compiles everything you need to fix this issue from my personal experience with this and other things you can do to resolve the issue.
