Why does Apple allow minors to build account balances?
My son being 13 years old has an amount owing on his Apple ITunes account. After speaking with a representative for ITunes and then chatting with an Apple representative they could only state company policy that if a youth inputs a prepaid credit card, he then can build an order for downloads totaling more than what the prepaid card is worth.
The Representatives all stated that there is not enough time to verify with the Credit Card issuer prior to the purchase going through. In this case Apple should not allow minors to generate an amount owing being that they Apple/ITunes have the proper information as per disclosure policies when setting up the account and therefore should only allow prepaid ITunes cards. Should prepaid cards be the tender, then place a hold on orders until the CC Company can be contacted and be notified that the card has sufficient funds available. A minor can not hold a Credit Card and only prepaid cards are then acceptable.
This gray area should be looked at in great detail as this loophole can render undue hardship on families in these uncertain economic times, is this the corporate image that Apple & ITunes should be painted with. Apple & ITunes have all the information available to them and simple algorithms can be inserted to limit this type of activity.
