Apple Event: May 7th at 7 am PT
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?
The only way I was able to let my daughter use her gift card balance was to temporarily turn off Ask To Buy in my iCloud preferences on my Mac. I still kept her in the family, she is a good kid :-) (Family Sharing that is.) Her purchases then debited her Apple ID balance.
HTH,
dave
The only way I was able to let my daughter use her gift card balance was to temporarily turn off Ask To Buy in my iCloud preferences on my Mac. I still kept her in the family, she is a good kid :-) (Family Sharing that is.) Her purchases then debited her Apple ID balance.
This is the crazy part and I'm still not sure why Apple didn't implement this "correctly".
If a family member has a credit on their account, or the app is free, there should be no need to involve the organiser. The only time the organiser should get involved is if money is going to be debited from the organiser's account.
I would suggest that you let Apple know about this shortcoming. I agree with you that you should not have to turn off "Ask to Buy" in order to have the purchase deducted from a gift card balance on the child's account. The only way it is likely to be evaluated by Apple is if people provide their feedback on the issues with the way it currently works: Apple - Feedback
Cheers,
GB
This should be some very simple if/then programming logic. IF the user has a gift card THEN charge the gift card AND do not ask to buy. If something Microsoft created worked this poorly, we would never hear the end of it.
Read the post directly above yours. If you think it is so simple, then why don't you let Apple know at the link provided.
GB
Though this thread is from a year ago, thought I'd answer the reason WHY any purchase (free, or otherwise; or gift card balance available) will request approval by the organizer of the family. Simply, because the "require approval to purchase" is on (Though, this we all realize, I know ); this a parental control feature, to give control over children's accounts to the parent, so the child can not simply add any app/ song/ book because it is free or they have a balance available.
i love this feature! I have a (almost) 13yr old, a 8yr, 7yr, & 6yr olds, in my home, regardless if i (or a friend or another family member) gives 1 (or each) a gift card to iTunes, they are not allowed to simply purchase whatever they like. For one reason, it is very likely they would waste money on an app they thought looked cool, w/o reviewing it or verifying if additional in app purchases are required- though this is more w/ my younger kids, my oldest has wanted an app that had poor reviews, has not been updated in yrs, or apps that didn't do what she thought it did. But the main reason is due to the games, apps, music, books that they could purchase, that I wouldn't permit them to play, listen too, or read. Which is the main reason I love this feature.
I'm very particular about what I allow into their minds- violent games, heavy magic/ sorcery games, superficial glam/ materialism/ & the like, as well as much of the popular music put out these days (seems like everything deals w/ rejecting authority, drinking & drugs, how hot or sexy another is, breaking up w/ someone because they were boring, giving your number to a 'hot' boy you just met calling him 'baby', adults are stupid & just don't get (how superior kids intelligence are, the issues they deal w/, blah) 'them'. I also control any & all online group games & social sites, and have learned it is far easier to make sure they are safe when they can only play on the computer or TV game system (Xbox, PS3, wii, etc), which are in the LR. My oldest used to have Graal on her iPad, which is an multi-online player game. It is not moderated for language, discussion topics, etc, which often was highly inappropriate for any civil discussion, let alone a child to read.
This is what parental controls are for.
About Restrictions (parental controls) on your iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch - Apple Support
Furthermore, when the request to buy notification appears on the organisers device, there is no reference to the content of the app, or its rating. It's purely a financial authorisation. Which, when referred to the title of this thread, is not coming off the gift card balance.
There isn't even an indication of where the funds are coming from. So, for example a child has a gift card balance and makes a request to purchase something appropriate. The organiser might not wish to pay for, but is happy for the amount to come off a gift card. There is nothing on the notification to indicate who will be billed.
However, it really shouldn't be difficult for Apple to streamline ask to buy to cater nicely for us all with the following three options for family members.
Plus the notification should show how much is coming from a gift card balance and how much from the organiser's account.
There is evidently some confusion in regards to the "Ask to Buy" feature. You are expecting it to do something outside of it's intended purpose. I am not saying there is not prudence in also developing a feature to do what you want, but that is not the intended purpose of the feature. "Ask to Buy" is simply a parental control which parents can decide to enable or not. It's sole purpose is to allow parents to approve the content... It has nothing to do with payment.
DDwx in an earlier reply clearly outlines how the billing works.
No, ask to buy is about finance. Parental controls are about controlling content.
From the Apple Website ...
Request and make purchases with Ask to Buy
With Ask to Buy, you can give kids the freedom to make their own choices while still controlling your spending.
There are quite a few posters who don't like that "Ask to buy" occurs even when the child account has credit enough to cover it. Some have even asked why? For myself, I am very happy that I have to give approval over any / all purchase requests by my kids. Even if the app is free, I still need to approve it, and I think that is a fantastic feature. Why? Because there are apps / things out there that I don't want my kids to have on their phones even if they are free. Games that are not age appropriate; internet apps that can be abused; chat apps that have reputations for inappropriate messaging / pics; songs / videos that are adult rated, etc. I want to protect my kids from some of the stuff out there, and if they didn't have to ask permission before getting a new app, then that defeats the purpose of activating the "Ask to buy" option.
If you trust your kids enough to not want to worry about approving app purchases when they have the credits for them on their accounts, then just turn off "Ask to buy" and tell them that if they want to buy anything that costs more than they have credit for, they need to talk to you first.
Maybe Apple will implement some customization options where you can have "Ask to buy" but only for non-free things.
Maybe Apple will implement some customization options where you can have "Ask to buy" but only for non-free things.
That would be the obvious and best solution. However, until then, the built in restrictions cover what you would like to do perfectly. Therefore, no need to duplicate functionality?
Note the wording in the concept from Apple. Doesn't match the current implementation.
The reason for asking permission is not for £/$ but for parental control. For example I may not want my 9 year old child playing a certain free and addictive game
I will buy it
Only children under the age of 13 are required to "Ask to Buy", and you can only set it up on older children until they are 18. So, not sure what you are referring to?
GB
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?
