Family Sharing Purchases

Hey chrharris,

Thanks for the question. After reviewing your post, it sounds like you want to know about the billing process using Family Sharing. I would recommend that you read this article, it may be able to help you resolve or isolate the issue.

Family Sharing

the family organizer—sets up Family Sharing, invites up to five additional family members, and agrees to pay for any iTunes, iBooks, and App Store purchases they initiate while part of the family group.

Thanks for using Apple Support Communities.

Have a nice day,

Mario

I have the same concern. My new daughter-in-law doesn't want to hit my account with apps or ringtones only she will use on her new phone. She disconnected from family share so she could buy them for herself. I was hoping for a better solution, however so far with all I've read, that seems unlikely. So disconnect, buy, reconnect with a new invite. I guess that's it for now.

We are having the same problem. Also, my kids and husband have iTunes credit, but their purchases since joining family sharing have all gone to my credit card and not billed to their iTunes credit first. The family sharing website says that iTunes credit will be charged first, but so far this has not happened for us.

Same problem. My adult daughter is the organizer. I have money in my iTunes account from gift cards but I cannot access my account to make purchases because it is always defaulting to my daughter's payment method. So my money is now stranded in iTunes.

Apple please allow the members of family sharing to make purchases using there own accounts and payment methods.

I've been following a learning curve on this family share. I don't know if you have it resolved yet. iTunes support responded to me stating that any family member that has gift card credit on their account will pay for the purchase they initiated. If they don't have credit it comes of the organizers card. I was in error assuming that if they gave me the gift cards and I loaded it to my account then the credited amount would go towards purchase. I was wrong. Even if I have gift card credit, another family member makes a purchase and the amount comes from the bank account, not my Apple balance. Hope that helps.

that's not a solution...are you reading the posts?

The question is...

How do you keep family sharing but make your own purchases off your own credit card? If that's not possible now, then when is a solution going to be implemented? Please answer the question with a SOLUTION!

Your right. I wasn't up on the posts. Since I posed the original question I was updating in case anyone was confused like I was. Our family solution is keep a balance of iTunes credit each. We family shared before there was family share under my account. They sent me iTunes cards. We just fell into that habit that's all.

What's disconcerting is it seems to be hit and miss. My son-in-law bought my granddaughter a movie and it charged to him. I asked him how he did that without signing off of family share? He said he purchased it on his Apple TV and it went through his account. Later he bought more on iPad and it came out of mine. I've addressed iTunes support several times and the answer is standard. My hunch is they know it's a little glitchy and plan a patch (next IOS maybe)? All in all family share is pretty cool, we get to share a lot of stuff.

Just checking in to see if there's been any talk of Apple allowing family members to link their own payment methods and still keep family sharing on? My adult daughter had to leave my famy sharing account because she has her own debit card and pays for her own purchases, yet we'd like to share an apple Music subscription that I pay for. Apple should fix this, seems like a huge oversight!