Can you participate in family sharing without having one person pay for everything?

Hi jacbak1015,

In a Family Sharing group, billed transactions will bill back to the Organizer's payment card, but if the individual group members have credits available (for example, from an iTunes Gift Card), the purchase will apply against those credits first, as outlined in this article:

After you set up your family, any time a family member initiates a new purchase it will be billed directly to your account unless that family member has gift or store credit. First, their store credit will be used to pay the partial or total bill. The remainder will bill to the family organizer's card. As the family organizer, any receipts generated by the transaction will be sent to you. Learn more about how iTunes Store purchases are billed.

Family purchases and payments - Apple Support

Regards,

- Brenden

This 'feature' is actually making us opt out of the family sharing option. While my wife and I like the shared music and apps, the inability for us to use our own billing method makes it less than desirable. It also appears to default new calendar entries to the family shared calendar rather than the user's. That may be setable. It would seem an adult, or authorizer, should be able to override the organizer's payment method.

I stopped using family sharing because I can't control the spending. I loved the idea and family calendar. But, the fact is my adult children take advantage of my credit card more than my younger child. Besides, they get iTunes gift cards for birthdays and holidays. I want them to use their individual iTunes card instead of my account. Apple needs to change this for family sharing to be useful.

They can pay for their own purchases by using their gift cards. Note this part of Brenden's post: "...unless that family member has gift or store credit."