My 7 year old spent $550 in 15 minutes.

[MillerTime GFG]

Thought I'd throw out this warning to anyone else who has kids that use iPhones/tablets/etc. Our 7 year old saved up his allowance so that he could buy Minecraft on his phone this past weekend. We put it on our credit card, and off he went.

We looked at our statement this morning, and noticed $550 in charges for iTunes all on one day. We called Apple and spoke to some lady in Alabama. Apparently there is a 15 minute window in which no further credit card info or password has to be entered to buy new things. Unknowingly, our 7 year old just pressed OK to all the pop-ups, not realizing they actually cost money. In his defense, it's actually quite hard to tell. In FIFTEEN minutes, he spent $550!

Thought I'd throw that out there to anyone who could get caught. We were able to be reimbursed for all except for $20, so we're lucky. Has this happened to anyone else?

[pylon]

Well, at least he has the most kick ass Minecraft character of all time I guess.

[Barnes]

My four year old ordered $250 worth of Transformers Rescuebots stuff one morning. Amazon Prime w/ OneClick on. Computer was left logged in overnight.

[Madman]

Originally Posted by Barnes

My four year old ordered $250 worth of Transformers Rescuebots stuff one morning. Amazon Prime w/ OneClick on. Computer was left logged in overnight.

Your kid.....sure.

[Slava]

My nephew did a similar thing and his mother had to make that same kind of phone call! I actually think its a little bit predatory of companies to not have some kind of setting so that kids aren't buying without any idea of what they're doing.

[skudr248]

I am going to use this excuse everytime I go frivolously shopping thanks for the idea

[verda13]

Originally Posted by Barnes

My four year old ordered $250 worth of Transformers Rescuebots stuff one morning. Amazon Prime w/ OneClick on. Computer was left logged in overnight.

...that's your story, and you're sticking to it!

[Winnie]

My 9 year old racked up $700 in an afternoon on his new Ipad. In-app purchases on games (we didn't have the restrictions set properly obviously). The credit card fraud department called us to check on the charges as they seemed out of the ordinary. At first I thought our card had been compromised as that's happened a few times lately, but a quick check of the Ipad showed some seriously awesome upgrades in the games he was playing. Called Apple and they immediately cancelled all the charges without hesitation (which saved my son a good deal of my wrath).

[Finger Cookin]

Hopefully this will be a good learning lesson for your son.

[MillerTime GFG]

Originally Posted by Slava

My nephew did a similar thing and his mother had to make that same kind of phone call! I actually think its a little bit predatory of companies to not have some kind of setting so that kids aren't buying without any idea of what they're doing.

Yep I don't doubt that it's by design.

[ah123]

Suggestion for iPhone/iPad users with kids, don't use a credit card to fund your iTunes account; get some iTunes gift cards and redeem those to your account. A little bit of hassle, but it can save you some grief

[Simon96Taco]

I guess I'm old but.....7 year olds have phones!?!?

[Slava]

Originally Posted by Simon96Taco

I guess I'm old but.....7 year olds have phones!?!?

It probably isn't for actually phoning people, but the apps/games etc. My kids (7 and 9) have ipads and are online as much as me I would say. Its a little scary when you realise they're on youtube and basically watching anything they want. My son was watching an "Epic house tour" the other day because it said it was "epic" and that seemed like a good idea. I'm not sure how you control this really. I mean obviously there are things they shouldn't see and everything, but you can't raise Luddites either.

[GilmourforLeeman]

Damn..when I was 7..it was street hockey all morning and then looking around the house for some loose change so I could head to macs and get a .85 slurpee in the evenings (summer of course)..good ol' days!

[FlamesAddiction]

I remember getting a calculator watch when I was around that age and thought I was in the matrix!

Crazy how much times have changed.

[pylon]

Originally Posted by Finger Cookin

Hopefully this will be a good learning lesson for your son.

Exactly, level up within 15 minutes of dad logging in!

[jar_e]

This is obviously besides the point of the thread, but do you lose all the upgrades and in-app purchases in situations like this where Apple refunds you?

[GP_Matt]

It is my understanding that they will only refund you once.
I think you can turn off the fifteen minute window as well and require a password for everything.

What they really need is access to child friendly games that do not have in app purchases.
Or adult friendly I suppose. I don't mind paying for a game but the idea of paying to level up is beyond foreign to me and not something that I would consider.

[undercoverbrother]

Originally Posted by MillerTime GFG

Thought I'd throw out this warning to anyone else who has kids that use iPhones/tablets/etc. Our 7 year old saved up his allowance so that he could buy Minecraft on his phone this past weekend. We put it on our credit card, and off he went.

We looked at our statement this morning, and noticed $550 in charges for iTunes all on one day. We called Apple and spoke to some lady in Alabama. Apparently there is a 15 minute window in which no further credit card info or password has to be entered to buy new things. Unknowingly, our 7 year old just pressed OK to all the pop-ups, not realizing they actually cost money. In his defense, it's actually quite hard to tell. In FIFTEEN minutes, he spent $550!

Thought I'd throw that out there to anyone who could get caught. We were able to be reimbursed for all except for $20, so we're lucky. Has this happened to anyone else?

Isn't MineCraft free?

I didn't know it had in game add ons.

[Street Pharmacist]

My 2.5 year old spent $50 on Soda Crush