Spending Limits?

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Level 1

2 points

Spending Limits?

I've creted an account for my son and daughter so they can use their iTunes gift cards they received for Christmas. I entered my credit card info to crete the account.
How can I establish spending limits on their accounts?
How do I make it so I get an email in my email account when they make purchases?

Windows XP

Posted on Dec 28, 2009 9:43 AM

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Answer 1

Dec 28, 2009 9:49 AM in response to John VS

John,

Check out iTunes Allowances.

http://support.apple.com/kb/HT2105

If it's your email address attached to the billing information for the iTunes Account, you should receive receipts for all purchases.

Matt

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Answer 2

John VS Author

Level 1

2 points

Dec 28, 2009 9:56 AM in response to John VS

That looks like I would be adding credit monthly to their account. I was more interested in establishing a limit on how much could be charged in a month.
It looks like the email address and the logon ID are the same. Now that the accounts are established with their email addresses, will changing the email address affect their logon id's?

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Answer 3

varjak paw

Level 10

182,668 points

Dec 28, 2009 10:10 AM in response to John VS

If you change the email address in their iTunes Store account, that only affects the email address to which receipts, etc. are sent. It will not (or at least should not) affect their login ID.

As to spending limits, if you don't want to set allowances, you'll need to purchase iTunes cards or gift certificates, redeem those in the child's iTunes Store account, and remove your credit card information from that account. That's the only way to limit spending, though it will be a total amount, not an amount in a given time period. There's no way to set any sort of spending limit if there's a credit card attached to the account.

Regards.

Message was edited by: Dave Sawyer

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Answer 4

Dec 28, 2009 10:12 AM in response to John VS

John,

I was more interested in establishing a limit on how much could be charged in a month.

I don't know of an iTunes Store feature that will allow exactly that.

The other thing you could do is to use iTunes>Preferences>Parental Controls to turn off access to the iTunes Store altogether so that your kids will need to ask you when they want to buy something.

It looks like the email address and the logon ID are the same.

The Apple ID only looks like an email address. It's really just a name and the email address actually associated with the Apple ID may be changed.

Matt

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Answer 5

John VS Author

Level 1

2 points

Dec 28, 2009 10:15 AM in response to John VS

Thanks for the info. I removed the credit card info from their new accounts. I'll have them load their gift cards into their accounts.
Is it accurate to assume that they cannot develop a negative balance (meaning they can't make purchases if they have no credit or credit card loaded)?

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Answer 6

varjak paw

Level 10

182,668 points

Dec 28, 2009 10:17 AM in response to John VS

Is it accurate to assume that they cannot develop a negative balance (meaning they can't make purchases if they have no credit or credit card loaded)?

Normally that is the case, yes. I've seen scattered reports of people going into negative balances, but I think those were all from debit cards or a problem with a PayPal account, not with a gift card.

Regards.

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