Xbox live GOLD. - do I need to be wary?

Dalglish

My 13 yr old was given an Xbox 360 for his birthday and he is pushing me to subscribe to gold so that he can play online and multi player.
I'm anxious - his £25 per year was off the mark because when I created an account for him/ me it was £39.99.
I know this is not £4 per month but I'm worried about hacking, inappropriate approaches to my son over the Internet, in- game purchases he may make ( a la iTunes) if these are possible.
Am I being overly cautious? I've been stung before in signing up to what seems a reasonable cost but a quick scan of some of the postings on here suggests value for money is not great with Xbox live.
I'm guessing as I doing know yet but the claim for free movie streaming etc etc looks like a honey trap to me.
Suspiciously yours - thank you for help in anticipation!

ifstar

You can buy codes off the likes of ebay or other sites selling them that will be closer to £25 for the year.
I'd remove your bank details off the xbox then that way he can't make any purchases.
Wouldn't be worried about hacking or inappropriate approaches, worst he will here is people ranting and raving during games

Dalglish

Thanks ifstar good idea about the bank details so a one off payment is the safeguard here rather than a recurring payment

Steve-o

You can buy pre-paid cards, so you don't have to enter your card details. Play.com are listing them for £27+, and Game stores sell them in their shops (amongst others).

Paully232000

I would agree that removing your bank details is the best way, and then in the future dont put your card details into xbox live but buy 12 month gold cards from an online shop. Online shops are always having deals and I have had gold for about 7 or so years and always paid around £26-£29 and never had any problems. Plus sometimes you get 13 months for the price of 12 and deals like that when buying elsewhere.

Edit: http://support.xbox.com/en-GB/billing-and-subscriptions/parental-controls/xbox-live-parental-control

Have a look here for parental settings to stop access to various aspects of the system

Widelats

Dalglish wrote: »

Thanks ifstar good idea about the bank details so a one off payment is the safeguard here rather than a recurring payment

There is a free 1 month offer now on Xbox live but they only give it if you supply them your credit card details, personally i would give Microsoft no details and get the pre paid cards, Microsoft are a greedy company and when this new Xbox launches they will also have a load of utterly useless apps on Xbox like pizza hut and other crap, they will be pushing for everyone to download these useless junk apps.

Weird_Nev

Set yourself up with an adult account that he doesn't know the password to, then set his up as a childs account with the privacy and security settings you decide are appropriate. You can even stop him getting messages or having the headset work (you WILL hear the foulest language if he plays online - it's just par for the course in every online game I've played. You have to give as good as you get, but I's want to shield my 13 year old child from it).

Here's a guide:
http://support.xbox.com/en-US/billing-and-subscriptions/parental-controls/xbox-live-parental-control

Do read and digest it before your son goes online. You DO need to be wary, but a little caution will help him enjoy his console and you enjoy peace of mind.

KT90

Don't use your credit card to pay for xbox live if you can help it. I had mine set to auto renew and my console eventually got the red rings and wouldn't work most of the time so I stopped using it for ages. I got a notification email from Xbox to update my credit card details on their system but since I knew I wouldn't be using it anymore I didn't bother to update my details.

A couple years went by and I checked my credit card statement and found that they had still been withdrawing the funds to pay for Xbox Live even though they were using an expired card! Both that year as well as the year before, using an expired card.

I had to call them up several times to explain what happened and their customer service wasn't helpful at all wouldn't do anything about it even though I hadn't used Xbox Live during that time. In the end I managed to go through my bank and they refunded the amount but it was a major hassle, so if you can do a pre-paid version I agree with the earlier posters and suggest you do it that way.

I think for the foul language it depends on the type of games you play. Most people I used to play against for Streetfighter would hardly talk at all, though on racing games you'd hear people swear occasionally.

mttylad

Tell him not to play with the Yanks and the language will be fine.

preable

Call of duty is worst for swearing but you can turn parental settings on ect

mttylad

How does that stop the wearing? does it bleep them out lol


If he is a normal 13 yr old then he will be used to the swearing, you just have to ensure that he does not swear back.