Credit problem takes down the iTunes store

I just opened the iTunes store to attempt to buy last night’s episode of Battlestar Galactica and was greeted with a message telling me that my store credit balance is currently unavailable. I found that odd because I don’t currently have any credits in the store, but it turns out that all of the credit processing in the iTunes store — including credit cards — may be down right now.

A quick scan of Twitter Search is yielding hundreds of users with the same issue starting about 10 hours ago. The error is a pop-up message that shows up anytime you try to buy something and it reads:

Due to a problem with the iTunes Store, your store credit balance is temporarily unavailable for use in purchasing music; you may continue purchasing using a different method of payment.

Of course, it’s not just a problem for purchasing music. I not only tried my television show, but also tried buying an application from the App Store, which didn’t work either. I then tried entering in another credit card as my “different method of payment,” and that failed as well.

Many of the Twitter users are joking about switching over to BitTorrent to acquire their media through less-than-legal means. Or maybe they’re not joking. Regardless, Apple better hope it can get the service back up soon.

I’ve contacted Apple about the issue and will update if I hear back.

Update: The issue has now been resolved, but there’s still no word from Apple as to what caused the problem.