Struggling to manage digital purchases for my children

vibez

Hi,

My son is of the age where he gets pocket money occasionally from his grandparents.

Last month he got £5 so we put out credit card details into his xbox and let him use that to buy a game for £5. We never removed the card and he ran up a bill of £250! Thankfully we got the money back.

So we decided to use a prepaid credit card for future purchases. We loaded it up with £10 and off he went to spend it on his iPad. Later in the day we got an email from apple saying he owed them £16!

It turms out that even though there was only £10 on the prepaid card, because there is a slight delay from him purchasing a game to the money coming off the balance of the card, he was able to over spend!

So what options do we have left? I don't want to have to buy a gift card for xbox / ipad as they come in multiples of £10, £25 etc and then the money is tied to that system, I.E, he can only spend the money on the xbox or ipad, not both.

I don't want to have to keep putting my card details into either system and then remove it each time either.

bluenoseam

Xbox the money goes in immediately & payment is taken immediately, you can also set it to only be able to purchase with a password as far as I remember.

asajj

Put a password for purchases?

vibez

I think the password for purchases is Xbox one only?

DCFC79

I could be wrong but im sure you can set a password to be entered for purchases on the Xbox 360.

Don't enter your card details again, only enter them if your aware of the purchase eg you sit there and buy said content, buy these for the xbox.
Login into xbox.com and enter the code via redeem code.

OR

For itunes buy the same sort of thing from the same site.

Tell him he will get a set amount a month or every other month.

Have I understood it right.

misterbarlow

i did the same, put my paypal info in to buy son a game for xmas, opened emails one day last month to be greeted with a load of emails from paypal about my 'xbox purchases', luckily it was only minecraft skin & texture packs etc which a pile of them only totaled about £20..

CKhalvashi

vibez wrote: »

I think the password for purchases is Xbox one only?

I have to put my iTunes password to buy anything.

Not sure how the tech manager in the office set it up, but I know it can be done.

duchy

You don't say how old he is ......but if he isn't mature enough to understand you can't spend money you haven't got then perhaps he is too young to play unsupervised or with access to funds.

bluenoseam

vibez wrote: »

I think the password for purchases is Xbox one only?

Pretty sure it's 360 as well, Microsoft have often lead the way with regards to that sort of control mechanic in console gaming - pity it's grossly underutilised.

bris

Are you mad, you ban him from gaming until he takes responsibility for his actions. God help you when you get him a phone.

talktalktobt

Why not tell him that if he wants to buy something he needs to go to the shop with his pocket money and buy himself a gift card - you get them for Itunes and Xbox. This way he will see the direct connection with the physical money in his pocket and what he is buying.