Huge Apple warning: Your iPhone can charge you MORE money without asking

APPLE on Monday announced new rules that will allow subscription apps to charge you more money without asking permission.

The revised App Store guidelines let software-makers jack up their monthly or annual fees without users’ consent.

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New App Store rules allow apps to charge you more without asking permission[/caption]

Before the rule change, developers had to alert users of any price fluctuations via an email, push notification or in-app message.

Customers who wished to continue then had to agree to the revision before they were charged anything extra.

Now, that won’t necessarily be the case.

Provided developers follow certain rules, they can make fee changes without the user opting in.

However, they still have to send an alert informing people of any price adjustments.

Apple said the new policy will help to avoid services being “unintentionally interrupted”.

That’s because under the previous rules app subscriptions were automatically cancelled if users failed to opt-in.

That apparently led to people having to resubscribe if they missed the message from the developer.

“With this update, under certain specific conditions and with advance user notice, developers may also offer an auto-renewable subscription price increase, without the user needing to take action and without interrupting the service,” Apple said.

“The specific conditions for this feature are that the price increase doesn’t occur more than once per year, doesn’t exceed $5 and 50 per cent of the subscription price, or $50 and 50 per cent for an annual subscription price, and is permissible by local law.”

The firm added that in these cases it will notify users via email, push notification, and a message within the app.

Apple will also notify users of how to view, manage, and cancel subscriptions if preferred.

The company has pushed through a number of major App Store changes in recent weeks.

Last month, Apple began wiping thousands of apps from the platform as part of an overhaul to get rid of outdated software.

The U.S. tech giant has warned affected developers that they have 30 days to get their act together or face the chop.

Apps in the company’s crosshairs “have not been updated within the last three years and fail to meet a minimal download threshold”.

That means the software “has not been downloaded at all or extremely few times during a rolling 12 month period”, Apple said.

The company added that developers of outdated apps have received an email notifying them of possible removal.

In order to be spared the chop, developers must update their apps within the 30-day window.

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