Q: When we purchase from iTunes the balance is not coming off of the gift cards. We have family sharing on but when my kids purchase songs they are credited to our credit card and not the gift card that is already in their account. What's wrong?

I have read the link sent about the Gift Cards/iTunes store credit and Family Shard and continue to have no such luck. Each time someone wants to download a song despite $10 to $25 credit in their account (both teenagers) it bypasses and goes to asking permission to use the credit card linked to the Family Share account. We have logged out and back into iCloud and iTunes and no success getting the store credit to work for them.

Thanks,

Daniel..

This is happening in our family, as well. My daughter redeemed an iTunes gift card, and the money shows up when she's logged into iTunes. However, when she tries to purchase a song, it asks for my permission. I wasn't sure why it was doing this, so I approved it. Apple charged my credit card $1 AND deducted the cost of the song from my daughter's iTunes balance. I would love to find out how she can redeem her gift card without my credit card being charged at the same time.

Braden,

It appears that Angela is asking a very straight forward question but you are not giving any useable advice. Clearly several other people have the same question but there is no response. If "you can't do that" is the answer say so - although that is a pretty lame answer. If there is a work around give it out. But don't simply give up a link to useless information that doesn't answer anybodys question.

This is not an answer to the question, you have bragged about your new family share program and now it seems you have quite a few bugs to work out. We have 3 members to our family share, myself, my wife and a shared account for our kids. Our kids have $75 in itunes card credit on their shared account and it still wants to bill my primary account whenever they want to make purchases. I would simply remove them from family share and let them redeem their money on things however they, some of the apps they want to make in app purchases on were purchased originally by me and would have to be re-purchased by them defeating the entire point of family share. Please come up with some REAL answers to this problem.

The gift cards aren't working! I'm headed to the Apple Store for answer. It shouldnt be this difficult to pick a payment metho. It's a basic feature on majority of ecommerce sites.  

Just an FYI, everyone here is a fellow user. Not Apple..

It is possible that the gift card balance isn't updating efficiently on your apple device. If this is the case, then it is possible that the gift card balance on your child's device is $0.00 but it is not showing that. Perhaps your child has actually spent the remaining balance on the gift card. That would explain why your credit card is being charged for successive purchases. On my family sharing account, my daughter said that initially the balance on her gift card was updating after each purchase, but the last couple of purchases I approved for her did not reduce the gift card balance on her iOS device. So I have refrained from approving purchases temporarily, until I can go on iTunes or find a more convenient way of checking or refreshing my child's gift card balance. I don't want my credit card charged either; so far it has not. Hopefully this helps understand what could be going on with you. I will post again if I discover that it is in fact an issue of the gift card balance not refreshing itself on our mobile devices (or something to that effect).

I had the same issue, I had purchased gift cards for my wife and my account is the "organizer". After she redeemed a card, we both signed out of our iCloud accounts on our respective iPads and then signed back in and it all appears to be working properly (deducted from gift card and not charging credit card). This is not at all a convenient solution, but at least it fixes the problem. Apple really should allow for a payment selection method in the store.

I still don't see that there is a real solution here.

My son just got out of sharing because I turned on "ask to buy". He said that even though he had an iTunes balance, it would ask to buy. That makes no sense! What I was hoping was - it would automatically use his balance and then ask to buy if he had $0. That would make sense. Or do what others said - allow you to choose.

I don't know if Apple monitors these forums but if not, I am guessing the thing to do is go ask them directly (in the store I guess). What a pain. They try to make their articles simple on how it works but its much more complicated and they don't really want to explain all of that.

All that have replied ....

Finally got an answer/resolution from Apple Support as I used my Apple Care to make the call and get it resolved.

Here is how it works:

I set up the two kids accounts and add to Family Share. Each has iTunes gift card credit on their respective accounts.  They can make a purchase (free or paid app or song or book, etc) ... the request for permission will pop up even if a free app or non-rated song. Once I approve, they can proceed and the purchase/download takes place. Since my credit card is the one on file to the account, Apple will pre-authorize any purchase on that card. Then if enough credit is on each kids account the amount will then be taken off the balance. The amount billed to credit card on file will then fall off. Similar to when a hotel or other business will touch the card for a $1 or more to ensure it is able to cover the bill. If the purchase by a kid is more than the gift card then the remainder due will come from the credit card on file.

I noted to Apple Support person was very thorough and helpful in this process that its not made clear anywhere that this is what happens. The generic ads and info on apple.com for Family Share just say that the purchases will be covered by the gift card. A little confusing if you aren't aware of the events going on.

Hopefully, that helps everyone.

Thx.

Thanks DDwx.

The part that sounds broken here (I'm reading between the lines) is that the "ask to buy" means apparently a parent has to approve even if the child has a balance. That makes no sense. Why would we need to approve using our credit card if they have a balance enough to not use the credit card?

I agree srwhitman ... seems they have done a nice thing to enact a "permission to buy" but its all or nothing at this point. Ideal would be to ask for permission if rating on song/app/movie/etc requires as such and/or if balance on gift card is not sufficient. Maybe the next version of iOS 8 will answer this?

Hi

The same fault appears to be happening to our family share. My son and daughter both have credit showing in their iTunes account from redeemed vouchers yet my credit card is charged for their purchases? Why is this happening when all documentation clearly states the card will only be charged if the users account has insufficient funds available?