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Ruling on selling iTunes and internet cards for more than their price

10-06-2012

Question 172631

May Allah bless your efforts. What is the ruling on the cards with which you can buy apps and so on for the iPhone from the Appstore (the cards are called iTunes cards)?
These cards are sold for a lower or higher price than what is mentioned on the card. If the answer is that they are haraam, I hope you can explain the difference between them and the pre-paid cards sold by telecoms companies that you have said in a fatwa are permissible to sell for a lower or higher price than what is mentioned on the card …(fatwa no. 111995).

Answer

Praise be to Allah.

It is permissible to sell iTunes cards for the same amount as is written on the card or for more or for less. It is also permissible to sell them for instalments to be paid at a later date, because they are not the same as cash in which it is stipulated that they should be of the same value and the exchange must be completed on the spot. Rather it comes under the heading of selling the benefit. There is no difference between them and phone cards or cards for internet access and the like in which there are some costs involved in producing the card that the purchaser buys, so these cards are for some benefits and there is some work and effort involved in producing them, so there is nothing wrong with selling them for more or less than the amount written on the card. 

And Allah knows best.

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