[sportymonk]

I just bought my son an IMac and am waiting to switch to a Powerbook (please steal my dude its a dud). My son wants to download some music but there is no way to limit the amount of money he spends. Apparently once you put your credit card in the sytem, there is no limit. Wish Apple would allow parents to set a spending limit.
Apple are you lsitening?

[SeaFox]

What we need is for Apple to allow debit cards on the system. I haven't heard if rechargable cards like Visabuxx would work, since they are an arrangement with Visa and not really a bank. But if they do that would be a way to limit it.
Then again, maybe the idea is not to have kids on the system. Not many kids have credit cards.

[sportymonk]

I should clarify, my son is 15 and is thrilled with his iMac and is into music. The question is how can a 15 year old access and download music without unlimited access to my credit card. 15 year olds aren't known for enjoying having dad watch every song they download. I trust him and he has given me no reason not to but I think unlimited access to buy music could run up a bill before he realizes it.
(I just watched Steve Jobs speech under hot news and I got to thinking how easy it would be for even myself to go wild downloading all my old favorites.)

[ftaok]

I guess you could turn off "1-click" and hope that he has a lousy memory (so that he can't memorize your credit card number).
Honestly, there's nothing you can do. This isn't just limited to Apple. If a kid knows your credit card number, he can purchase anything over the phone, net, etc. Just teach your kids and trust their judgement.

[Typhoon14]

Do you make him pay you for music he buys with your credit card? I have "unlimited" access to my dad's credit card, but he most certainly expects me to pay him back for anything I charge to his card, so, of course, I'm very careful never to charge anything to his card without being able to pay it back promptly.
Now, if you're just giving your kid free access to your credit card, without expecting to be reimbursed, there might be problems. But in general, that's not a smart thing to do.

[imjmn]

As I remember you need a password to access the Music Store. Don't give your son the password unless you are there to supervise his spending. The other obvious things are to trust him or tell him to pay you back for what he spends over the agreed amount.

[dcipjr]

Tell him that he has to pay for every song he downloads. And enforce that rule.
I'm 18, and I don't like spending lots of money. In my humble opinion, making him pay for his music would be only fair (and would most likely deter him from buying loads of songs).

[sportymonk]

As I remember you need a password to access the Music Store. Don't give your son the password unless you are there to supervise his spending. The other obvious things are to trust him or tell him to pay you back for what he spends over the agreed amount.
THe problem with not giving him the password is that that means he can't browse the store unless I am there with the password. All I want to do is limit his spending.
What I really want is for Apple to improve the system.

[sportymonk]

Tell him that he has to pay for every song he downloads. And enforce that rule.
He is willing to pay. It's just I think it would too easy for a 15 year old to start downloading with no effort and wind up with a bill he didn't anticipate or can pay. I don't want him to bankrupt his savings. I could easily spend a thousand without blinking. I want him to be able to lok around but be limited to the amount of download.
The real answer to this is Apple are you listening?) Does anybody from Apple ever read these boards?)
P.S. how do y'all get the boxes to appear around the text you copy from another post? I'm new to all this MAc stuff.

[lkalliance]

That's not a Mac thing. Just a part of this website.

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Use the "Quote" link on the input screen to put text into a box like this.

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[sportymonk]

In reply to:

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Use the "Quote" link on the input screen to put text into a box like this.

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/forums/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/cool.gif Thanks

[Nobody]

Why should Apple put a spending limit? Configure it for a password access only. Also this would be too much of a liability for Apple to control spending limits on credit card usage. Its your responsibility to tell your credit card company to limit the spending.

[Typhoon14]

I think it's slightly ridiculous to expect Apple to regulate your credit card for you. We need some personal responsibility here. Either restrict your kid from buying music yourself, or just remind him that he pays for what he buys and hope he doesn't go overboard. If he does, well, I doubt he'll do it twice.

[SeaFox]

In reply to:

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He is willing to pay. It's just I think it would too easy for a 15 year old to start downloading with no effort and wind up with a bill he didn't anticipate or can pay. I don't want him to bankrupt his savings. I could easily spend a thousand without blinking. I want him to be able to lok around but be limited to the amount of download.
The real answer to this is Apple are you listening?) Does anybody from Apple ever read these boards?)

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A thousand dollars? Don't you think that's a bit of an exaggeration? Anybody can run up huge bills on the music store, not just kids. Like other retailers, it isn't Apple's job to protect consumers from themselves. I would think of this as a great oppertunity to teach more about fiscal responsability.
It has been suspected people from Apple do lurk these boards. But don't consider this a legitimate feedback forum for Apple. You need to register your complaint/idea with them offically.
While we are talking about problems with the iTunes Music Store, I'd like to chip in that this service has only been out less than a month. There's nothing to say Apple will make changes later on to make it more family and debit card friendly. It seems lots of folks are complaining about the bugs in what could be called a version 1.0 software product.