Spending money on Habbo

Wordwork

My 12-year-old daughter has been a member of Habbo for some years without too many problems. Sometimes in the past she has asked me to use my credit card to buy her Habbo credits, which sometimes I have done. However, I have suddenly found out that now she is able to buy Habbo credits herself by using a mobile or home phone, without any parental checks - there is a note on the Habbo page saying they are supposed to ask permission of the person who pays the bill, but if the child chooses to ignore this there is no further check even though I thought I had Habbo set up so messages are copied to me. When I realised this had been happening I went back through all our phone bills and was horrified to find that she had spent over £650 over the last five months. Of course I should have spotted it sooner, but the charges are spread across a five month period and divided between 3 mobile phones and a home phone, so no individual bill suddenly became very high, which would have rung warning bells. I called Habbo to complain about it and they offered to block the mobile numbers, which hopefully they have done, but they also told me it happened all the time. So there must be many more angry parents out there. Although my daughter must take a good part of blame - and me for not spotting it sooner - I also think it is terrible that underage children are being encouraged to spend like this with no form of checking at all. I don't think she had any idea just how much she was spending - there doesn't seem to be a tally on the Habbo site anywhere and there doesn't seem to be a spending limit.

Anyway, surely it canot be legal to take money from another person's account on the say so of a child of 12? I'm probably on sticky ground trying to claim back what she has spent on her own mobile, but surely I can try and claim back what she has spent on other accounts without Habbo having the account owner's permission to take the funds? I don't really know where to start - has anyone else had experience of this and if so how did you proceed?

Hope someone can offer some help or advice as to what to do next - I have confiscated her computer and her mobile for now, but that isn't really a long term solution.

Mankysteve

Unfortunately it would be too expensive to set and near impossible for check on Habbo's side

My advice would be to put a key code lock on your mobiles to prevent her from using them. If she got a contract phone why?

On your house phone Phone your phone company and block premium rate numbers.

sporedude

To be fair it is your responsibility as her parent to make sure this doesnt happen

Wordwork

Mankysteve wrote: »

Unfortunately it would be too expensive to set and near impossible for check on Habbo's side

It doesn't seem to be too expensive for Habbo to copy me when she receives a message from another member. But apparently too expensive to let me know when she buys credits - of course that would limit their profits, and we can't have that.

And yes, ultimately it is my responsibility as a parent, but I thought I had done everything I could to monitor her usage of the site - checking who she was talking to and making sure she didn't arrange to meet anyone. When she joined I checked the terms and conditions and it was not possible to buy credits via phone - only via a credit card or by 'earning' them, so I thought I had it under control and this was a bolt out of the blue. I'm a single parent and I work full time, so with the best will in the world I can't watch what she does all the time - and as I said, she apparently had no concept of the charges involved.

Whatever my personal responsibility in this, I don't think encouraging underage children to spend money like water with no controls or checks in place is a responsible way to behave.

eranou

OP maybe you should have read their parents guide they dont exactly hide the charges:

Does it cost anything for
my teen to play Habbo?

Teenagers are able to register an account, check in to Habbo and interact with other users for free. Habbos can opt to purchase premium elements of the game such as virtual furniture and Habbo Club subscriptions which gives them access to additional features. However, these are entirely voluntary and can only be obtained if the user chooses to utilise them.

These 'extras' are paid for with Habbo's "currency" (called Habbo Credits). Credits can be purchased via a number of secure methods such as the home telephone, text message or with a Credit or Debit card. All our payment systems have limits to prevent overspending and we make it very clear that players should ask permission before using them.

You can find out more about the methods we offer to our users to purchase credits by clicking here


How old does my child have
to be to play on Habbo?

Children aged 13 and upwards are welcome to play Habbo..


You mentioned that your child is 12 how did she manage to sign up?

mrcow

OP - sadly you're not the first and you won't be the last.

There are many parents here who have been stung over the years.

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/222646

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/550082

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/1298033

The very best way you can stop this happening again is to educate your daughter as to what a premium rate number is and to check with you before she calls ANYONE other than a known friend on a landline number (just so you can check it out beforehand).

An expensive lesson to learn.....you can always report to trading standards and see what they say? Personally I don't see how they can justify it all by saying that a 12 year old is responsible enough to get permission to use a particular phone (or even that they would know who pays the bill?). It would be interesting to see what TS had to say about it?

Wordwork

The terms and conditions have obviously changed since she signed up. The only way you could buy credits then was via debit/credit card or by earning them - I know that for certain because I bought some for her in the past! The buying by phone is a new thing - over the last year or so at the most, as she hasn't been on Habbo for a while and started again just before Christmas. I suppose the lesson is to keep checking the rules because it's a moving ball game. Presumeably also the age limit has changed?

eranou

The option to buy the credits using a home phone as definitely been there for more than a year if you look at previous threads on here about this go back to 2006

Wordwork

I just looked at the site again after the last comments. On the parent's guide it says the age limit is 13, but on the main page it says you can join at 12. Makes you wonder what else doesn't add up...

eranou

Wordwork wrote: »

I just looked at the site again after the last comments. On the parent's guide it says the age limit is 13, but on the main page it says you can join at 12. Makes you wonder what else doesn't add up...

Like what?

Becles

I know it's a bit late now, but can you get a block or cap on the mobile phone?

My lads are on Tesco Mobile and I put £10 a month each on, which gives them £40 flexible credit. It is capped so once the £40 is spent, they have no more money for the rest of the month. I have also blocked all premium rate and international numbers.