How can I sign up for a non-free iCloud account (having exceeded the 3 free ones)

Solution 1:

Why not just upgrade one of the existing accounts?

http://support.apple.com/kb/PH12796

or see this for deleting unused iCloud accounts

http://www.macworld.co.uk/how-to/mac/how-remove-your-apple-id-completely-shut-down-your-itunes-store-icloud-other-accounts-3474388/

(too much info to précis here, unless votes/comments would suggest it worth it)

Solution 2:

You want to unlink the accounts from your iPad if they're not yours. Then you should be able to create one for yourself.

Right now you're using someone else's iCloud accounts. Why they didn't erase the iPad before handing it off is anyone's guess, but it wasn't smart on their part. They may have "moved on" with regards to the iPad you have, but they could still be using their iCloud accounts on other devices. That could get into theft, invasion of privacy, etc.

What you want to do, and what you'll need to do, is factory reset the iPad, then set up your own iCloud account during initialization. Yes, this will mean you will lose everything that was on there, but it really wasn't licensed to you to begin with. See this Apple Support Article for details.

Solution 3:

The answer is it really depends on how and why you are rotating several accounts through one piece of hardware.

For example:

• Are you using an institutional email address (or something other than mac.com/me.com/icloud.com) for these Apple ID? The avenues for institutional management of Apple ID depends on your situation so there's no general purpose answer.

• Have you engaged your Apple Sales support yet? (for they surely can advise you on the benefits of one avenue versus another for your particular situation and location in the world as not all countries have the same online capabilities with respect to AppleID and iCloud.)

Without knowing the use case and larger picture, you are left with basic consumer actions like creating accounts on Mac and/or purchasing more iOS devices if you really need to sow more iCloud accounts due to harvesting older ones.

Solution 4:

You can make the accounts at appleid.apple.com . That should avoid any issue with making too many from someone else's device.