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Using my card while on family sharing

I am on family sharing with my brother, and enjoy his music. But when I try to make purchases of my own, it insists i use his credit card instead of my own. How do I fix this? Thanks!

Posted on Feb 7, 2015 8:23 PM

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6 replies

Jul 8, 2017 8:24 PM in response to judysings

Has there been any change to this because I find this unacceptable. My little one uses the family sharing to have access to her apps on my account as well as grandmother so we don't have to double buy things but I don't see why a card can't be selected especially when it shows as an option. This does not seem like a difficult fix. Come on guys!

Feb 10, 2015 7:09 AM in response to SeanSov2015

Hi SeanSov2015,

Family sharing requires that the organizer (in this case your brother), is responsible for all purchases made for family members. Here is the information on this new feature:

Start or join a family group using Family Sharing - Apple Support
http://support.apple.com/en-us/HT201088


Family Sharing makes it easy for up to six people in your family to share each other’s iTunes, iBooks, and App Store purchases without sharing accounts. Pay for family purchases with the same credit card and approve kids’ spending right from a parent’s device. And share photos, a family calendar, and more to help keep everyone connected.

Here's what you'll need to set up and start using Family Sharing:

  • An Apple ID signed in to iCloud and iTunes
  • iOS 8 on your iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch
  • OS X Yosemite on your Mac

You can be a part of only one family at a time.

Start a family group

One adult in the family—the family organizer—can set up Family Sharing for the group. When you set up Family Sharing, you'll be asked to confirm that you agree to pay for purchases initiated by the family members you invite and that you have a valid payment method on file. Valid payment methods for setting up Family Sharing include credit cards and debit cards.*



If you decide that this is not what you want to do, you can leave Family Sharing, but you will no longer have access to your brother's iTunes purchases.

Leave Family Sharing - Apple Support
http://support.apple.com/en-us/HT201081


When you turn off Family Sharing, you leave the family. After you leave a family, you can join or set up a new one. However you can only switch to a different family group once per year.

When you leave Family Sharing, your Apple ID is removed from the family group, and you stop sharing music, movies, TV shows, books, and apps with any remaining family members. In addition, any photos, calendars, and reminders shared by the family group will be removed from your devices. If you chose to share your location, you'll stop sharing your location with other family members, and your devices will be removed from the family Find My iPhone device list.

Any content that your family shared with you isn't automatically removed from your device. You can purchase it again or remove it to free up space on your device. If you downloaded an app from a family member’s purchase history and made In-App Purchases, you'll need to purchase the app yourself to access your In-App Purchases.

Any DRM-protected music, movies, TV shows, books, or apps that you previously downloaded from other family member's collections will no longer be usable, and other family members won't be able to use content downloaded from your collection. Learn more about Digital Rights Management (DRM) in iTunes for Mac or iTunes for Windows.

You'll keep any purchases you initiated while part of the family group. However, if the organizer was paying for your iCloud storage or any other ongoing subscriptions, you'll need to start paying for them yourself using a valid payment method on your account. Learn how to add a credit or debit card to your iTunes Store account.



I hope this information helps you decide whether to continue or remove yourself from Family Sharing, Sean.

- Judy

Aug 15, 2015 2:01 PM in response to SeanSov2015

I’ve been looking around for about an hour now, and it looks like in Family Sharing, it’s impossible to pay for a purchase with your own debit/credit card if you are not the Family Organizer.


If you want to pay for something yourself (without leaving the family), you have two options.

  • Option 1: You can buy an Apple gift card (the smallest of which is $25; overkill if you want to buy a $1.99 app, for example).
  • Option 2: You can set up a new Apple ID (basically a new user account), and attach your credit/debit card to it. Then you can buy app/book/song/whatever and send it as a “gift” from your newly-created account to your old Apple ID.


That is RIDICULOUS.

Using my card while on family sharing

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