I still need to have a card to use Apple balance months after leaving family

Apple has multiple criteria* requiring the presence of a payment method, even for free items. Since you may be encountering one of those situations, you have no option but to enter a valid payment method if you wish to continue downloading. Read the support article Add a payment method to your Apple ID - Apple Support about how to do that. The payment method may not be charged if you also have account balance, but the payment method has to be present. This next article lists valid payment methods for different countries but note that in this case Apple Account balance alone apparently does not meet the requirement: Payment methods that you can use with your Apple ID - Apple Support .

I don't know if anything has changed in the past few years. Apple does change things from time to time and maybe you are encountering a different set of requirements.

If you still have questions or problems:

Refer to this document for ways to contact Apple --> Choose your country or region - Official Apple Support

Select your country (also look for "other" regions), then a product. If you don't see one that handles your issue then keep experimenting with selections until you reach one that gets you a chat session or a telephone call and get the representative to redirect you.

or:

Contact Apple for support and service by telephone --> Contact Apple for support and service - Apple Support