Family sharing -- allow individual payment methods

Hello Gdmiller105,

This is because Purchase Sharing is enabled. The family organizer can disable this feature and purchases will stop going through the shared payment method, or you can disable purchase sharing on your Apple ID and charges will go through your payment method linked to your Apple ID.

There is currently no way to have Purchase Sharing enabled and have different payment methods, they will all go through the shared payment method.

I hope this helps!

The payment method for Family Sharing is very clever. While Apple does not say why they use it, I can see how it might ensure that a "family" does not become any random group of 6 people who barely know each other but are trying to find a way to not have to each buy a copy of something. It keeps it inside a trusting group as one might hope a family would have. As mentioned earlier, if your wife wants to pay for something herself she can use personal account balance by adding funds to her account, or she can pay you back outside the Apple environs.

The family organizer is responsible for all payments on family sharing accounts. However, individuals can make their own purchases by adding gift cards to their Apple account.