16 year old son spent £500 on online gaming

IronWolf

Show him how much cheaper it is to buy second hand games on Amazon and ebay.

You also then have a game you can resell if you get bored of it.

I very rarely pay over £30 for a single game, more often i pay £10-20 second hand and recoup most of the money when I get bored of them and sell them.

darrensurrey

bagby wrote: »

Just found out my son has been buying games for ps3 and this amounts to £500. Terms and conditions state if under eighteen then parental consent should be sought. I feel sick with the amount he has spent. It is his own money that he has earned from his paper round. Don't think he realised how much he was spending. Do you think it's worth ringing Sony entertainment or will it be a waste of time. Btw we have now closed the account. Just think its too easy to lure people into this.

I don't see the problem really - he earnt the money, he accepts its value, he equates reward to hard work (let's face it, a paper round might be simple to do but is tough in winter). Well done him!

You could encourage him to save 50% and use the rest to treat himself, though.

Flyonthewall

darrensurrey wrote: »

I don't see the problem really - he earnt the money, he accepts its value, he equates reward to hard work (let's face it, a paper round might be simple to do but is tough in winter). Well done him!

You could encourage him to save 50% and use the rest to treat himself, though.

A paper round is not simple, especially if it's a weekly paper and he's delivering 100+.

I mean, does depend on the houses. Even so, fair amount of walking, sorting leaflets, battling letter boxes (and really stupid small boxes on walls), battling other newspapers/leaflets already in letter boxes, avoiding the odd dog, avoiding the odd nasty person, pulling a heavy trolley/carrying a heavy bag and all while trying not to get a papercut, not to mention attempting to get all the ink off your hands afterwards.

It's just as bad in summer with heat as in winter with the cold. Even a strong breeze can be annoying if keeps catching the paper and blowing it around and rain is just as bad.

darrensurrey

Flyonthewall wrote: »

A paper round is not simple, especially if it's a weekly paper and he's delivering 100+.

I mean, does depend on the houses. Even so, fair amount of walking, sorting leaflets, battling letter boxes (and really stupid small boxes on walls), battling other newspapers/leaflets already in letter boxes, avoiding the odd dog, avoiding the odd nasty person, pulling a heavy trolley/carrying a heavy bag and all while trying not to get a papercut, not to mention attempting to get all the ink off your hands afterwards.

It's just as bad in summer with heat as in winter with the cold. Even a strong breeze can be annoying if keeps catching the paper and blowing it around and rain is just as bad.

It's tough and certainly a job I wouldn't do. But it's still a simple task. (I've done it in the past as a boy.)

Flyonthewall

darrensurrey wrote: »

It's tough and certainly a job I wouldn't do. But it's still a simple task. (I've done it in the past as a boy.)

I was just pointing out that doing the job isn't as easy as most people believe and it's not just tougher in winter. I did it myself for a long time.

There's more to it than people assume. For example, the way in which leaflets are meant to be delivered with it, making sure it's not left sticking out letter boxes, time limits etc.

Anyhow that's rather beside the point of this topic, I just wanted to add in that information for anyone assuming he's making a few quid doing something dead easy then "wasting" it all on games.

xxdeebeexx

Hi bagby
I just wanted to say that my 16 yr old son has spent a lot of money on games over the past few years (his own money)

Over the summer holidays I nagged him to go out with his friends from school more often.

After a lot of nagging he finally snapped and told me that the boys from school spend most of their time sitting in the park smoking dope!

I saw one of the 'friends' mum the other day and she was telling me how her boy would do anything to earn money....... (I guess dope is expensive)

What I'm trying to say is... it could be worse.
You know where your son is, he is safe, not getting into trouble or doing anything illegal.

I prefer my son to buy discs rather than downloads as he has to physically hand over cash and he can trade them back in afterwards. It also means that he has to research the best price.

Good luck

dx

RancidM

gboom2000 wrote: »

I think you should congratulate any 16 year-old who earns enough money to pay for his computer games.

Spot on....

vyle

IronWolf wrote: »

Show him how much cheaper it is to buy second hand games on Amazon and ebay.

You also then have a game you can resell if you get bored of it.

I very rarely pay over £30 for a single game, more often i pay £10-20 second hand and recoup most of the money when I get bored of them and sell them.

You completely forget that the psn has lots of indie titles that are only available digitally so cant be bought second hand on amazon. Now, many are available on steam possibly cheaper than on PSN but then he'd need a pc that could run them.

DU51Two

bagby wrote: »

I will not be taking his debit card off him, as you rightly say it is his money, just trying to point out to him to be a bit more responsible and I am sure he has learned his lesson.

If there is a chance of getting even a partial refund then I will certainly try.

Not sure you should try and get a refund for him - if you want him to learn how to be responsible then he should sort things out for himself. Offer to help but don't do it for him!

BrookesAndrew

_Andy_ wrote: »

Just got back from the supermarket. I was lured into doing a week's grocery shopping. Horrible company lured me into buying icecream. Will ring them for a full refund later, pretty disgraceful.

Best post I have seen on this website so far. Made me laugh so much!