Is a credit card required for an itunes account?

A friend of mine has recently got an iphone. She set it up on my laptop on my itunes account. Now she wants to download free apps and free podcasts etc from her own laptop but does she need a credit card to open an itunes account to or is there a way to have an itunes account that will allow a person to download free stuff only and transfer music from CDs etc. She doesn't have a credit card. Thanks.

You don't need an iTunes account to copy music from a CD onto an iPod - just iTunes the software. Also, I think you can set up an iTunes account with no credit card so you can download free apps.

You can buy iTunes gift cards which have vouchers like mobile phone topup pins. You can buy them from the [broken link removed] but that probably isn't much good without a credit card. A quick search online suggests that Tesco sell them but I can't confirm that.

Brilliant thank You. I did search the Apple site before I posed but didn't manage to find this page. Thanks a mill.