Why do I pay for my partners' subscriptions when having 'Family Sharing' activated?

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Level 1

13 points

Why do I pay for my partners' subscriptions when having 'Family Sharing' activated?

I have a problem I can't see a solution for, maybe somebody can help me.

I have a family : 2 boys (8 and 11), my partner and me.

We use 'Family Sharing' so both my partner and myself can monitor the screen time of the kids, use the 'Ask To Buy' functionality and find the kids' iPads, iPhones, airTags. I agree on the fact : if the kids are granted to buy something, it goes of my credit card.

Now, my partner has her own apple-ID, with her own credit card linked to it, she runs her own business and uses subscriptions for both private and her business as well. She is a very independent woman and Destiny's Childs-wise wants to pay her own bills.

Now the issue is : since my partner is part of 'My Family' all of her purchases and subscriptions are automatically billed to my credit card. No questions asked.

Why is that ? What has one to do with the other?

I logged a ticket with apple and their response was : you have to kick her out of your Family.

Posted on Apr 6, 2022 4:14 AM

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Answer 1

Top-ranking reply

David McKinlay

Level 7

23,056 points

Apr 6, 2022 6:07 AM in response to Soepavlamos

Payment sharing is part of Family Sharing.

How to share purchases with your family explains the payments for a Family Sharing group, and gives an option.

When you turn on purchase sharing, everyone in your family gets access to apps, music, movies, TV shows, and books that family members buy. The family organizer is billed for family members' purchases.

You have the option of turning off payment sharing, as Apple notes:

If you're the family organizer and you don't want to share a payment method with your family, turn off purchase sharing. When purchase sharing is turned off, you can continue to share subscriptions like Apple TV+ and Apple Arcade. When Purchase Sharing is turned off, everyone must use their own payment method.

Be aware that sharing of apps, music, movies, TV shows, and books that family members buy is dependent on using payment sharing. If it is turned off so is access to the content others in the group have purchased.

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Answer 2

turingtest2

Level 10

275,272 points

Apr 6, 2022 6:08 AM in response to Soepavlamos

See How apps, content, and subscriptions from Apple are billed - Apple Support. If your partner puts credit on her Apple ID that can usually be charged ahead of your payment method. As far as I am aware Apple don't provide an explanation for why this limitation exists, and in general the terms of use prohibit speculation, but my SWAG is that getting the family organizer to agree to underwrite all payments ensures this feature is really used by families, and not small groups of friends who want to share media with each other while each only paying for some of it.

tt2

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Why do I pay for my partners' subscriptions when having 'Family Sharing' activated?

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