Apple to End iTunes Allowances on May 25

[MacRumors]

Apple has announced that it will be ending support for iTunes Allowances, a feature of the service that allowed parents to automatically place money into a child's iTunes account on a monthly basis. As of April 13, users can no longer create new iTunes Allowance deposits, with the feature officially getting cut-off for good on May 25, 2016.

After that date, any unused allowance credit will be rolled over into the recipient's basic iTunes account and can be used as normal, but the monthly deposits will cease afterwards. Apple has been informing iTunes Allowance users via email about its cancellation, but gave no specific reason as to why it'll be ending the long-running program.

iTunes Allowances let parents gift kids with a monthly amount of store credit -- from $10 to $50 -- without needing to give them credit card information. The allowance credit could be used like a normal iTunes Store gift card, for purchasing content from the iTunes Store, App Store, iBooks Store, Mac App Store, or even an Apple Music membership.

The company encourages users to use its Family Sharing features, including Ask to Buy for underage members of a shared account group, in lieu of the allowance feature. It also encourages those who have questions to contact Apple Support as May 25 gets nearer.

(Thanks, Sam!)

Article Link: Apple to End iTunes Allowances on May 25

 

[Jayson A]

Seems like a useful feature. I wonder why they'd remove it?

 

[teslo]

wow - so rather than resting assured their kids are spending no more than X per month, you now have to keep track manually, and get a notification each and every time they want an app??

 

[Iconoclysm]

wow - so rather than resting assured their kids are spending no more than X per month, you now have to keep track manually, and get a notification each and every time they want an app??

Which probably leaves less accountability on Apple's end of things.

 

[Boatboy24]

Never even knew this existed. Would have been useful. My kids got iPods for Christmas.

 

[2010mini]

wow - so rather than resting assured their kids are spending no more than X per month, you now have to keep track manually, and get a notification each and every time they want an app??

Just buy your kids a discounted iTunes gift card and call it a day.

 

[WordsmithMR]

wow - so rather than resting assured their kids are spending no more than X per month, you now have to keep track manually, and get a notification each and every time they want an app??

Actually I would think it would generate less money. The parents will end up turning off purchases entirely from the phone and will only allow them to buy things with their permission. But that is just from how I have seen parents handle their children's phones. That may not be the case with the majority.

 

[akadafni]

You mean parents now have to be responsible for their kids spending? SHOCKING. What's next? Parents will have to buy food for their kids?

 

[KALLT]

I have no idea what Apple is doing. This month, the European payment service ClickandBuy will be discontinued, leaving users with exactly two options in many countries: credit card or gift card. They are making it increasingly difficult to use the Store. Removing the allowance is yet another piece of flexibility that will be lost. There is no other online shop I know where paying is this inconvenient.

I was actually hoping that Apple would offer a top-up service of some kind to replace SEPA payments and offer a first-hand alternative for gift cards. With the allowance feature gone, I do not think that something like this will happen.

 

[WordsmithMR]

You mean parents now have to be responsible for their kids spending? SHOCKING. What's next? Parents will have to buy food for their kids?

Wait... They weren't responsible before with allowances? I'm seeing a flaw in that logic.

 

[Jessica Lares]

I would think they're discontinuing it because they're about to do a big update with Family Sharing on iOS 10 which makes it redundant.

 

[shareef777]

wow - so rather than resting assured their kids are spending no more than X per month, you now have to keep track manually, and get a notification each and every time they want an app??

Agreed. I've been using Family Sharing, and while having to pay only once for an app for the entire family is great, it gets REALLY annoying having to approve each and every app they purchase. Even the ones that are free. They need to allow us to set a rating level and auto-approve ones that are free.
[doublepost=1460641389][/doublepost]

Which probably leaves less accountability on Apple's end of things.

There was no accountability before. Set a dollar limit and no apps are able to be purchased when that limit is set. Nothing can come back to Apple.

 

[Karma*Police]

Seems like a useful feature. I wonder why they'd remove it?

My guess is that very few people used it.

 

[shareef777]

You mean parents now have to be responsible for their kids spending? SHOCKING. What's next? Parents will have to buy food for their kids?

What're you talking about? The point of this was an ALLOWANCE. You know, the thing parents set for their children to teach them about spending and value. They only get $10 per month to buy X number of apps, buy one $10 app and you get nothing else for a month vs buying a couple smaller ones or waiting for an app they are really looking forward to. NOW they can 'purchase' anything and it comes back to us to approve/deny. I want my kids to learn to make decisions for themselves and find value in deciding even a $1 purchase.

 

[lcseds]

You mean parents now have to be responsible for their kids spending? SHOCKING. What's next? Parents will have to buy food for their kids?

Clearly you are not a parent.

 

[shareef777]

Clearly you are not a parent.

In his defense, I had the same mindset before I had kids. After three of them, my world's completely different (for the better )

 

[dotnet]

The end of an era.

I've been using allowances for my two boys for many years. One of them would always use them up way before the month had ended for game in-app purchases and the like. The other rarely used them, saved up far in excess of $100, then went on a movie spending spree every once in a while

I have a feeling that dropping iTunes allowances will reduce revenue for Apple.

 

[12vElectronics]

The beginning of the end of iTunes and purchasing media! Everything is now being streamed!

 

[vmistery]

That's a shame. I wonder if they are going to somehow integrate it elsewhere. Perhaps they have something in development with visa so you can send money to a prepaid card for use with Apple Pay or the like.

 

[bkaus]

We always used gift cards for the kids. Purchase $25 card for $20 and add as needed.

I have no interest in the kids accumulating a large iTunes credit so we never used it.

They have an allowance and checkbook register to log expenses and learn a bit about money.

 

[joueboy]

Of course Apple knows what's best for us.

 

[Night Spring]

I would think they're discontinuing it because they're about to do a big update with Family Sharing on iOS 10 which makes it redundant.

Sounds plausible, but then why turn it off before the new iOS 10 features are announced/ implemented?

 

[thekeyring]

I have no idea what Apple is doing. This month, the European payment service ClickandBuy will be discontinued, leaving users with exactly two options in many countries: credit card or gift card. They are making it increasingly difficult to use the Store. Removing the allowance is yet another piece of flexibility that will be lost. There is no other online shop I know where paying is this inconvenient.

Yeah credit (and debit) cards are so inconvenient. </s>
[doublepost=1460644377][/doublepost]

The beginning of the end of iTunes and purchasing media! Everything is now being streamed!

If iTunes can be used to buy films and TV shows, maybe Apple Music can be used to stream them. Or at least if they do introduce a Netflix-like on-demand service, it won't cost anything extra for those already subscribed to Apple Music.

 

[Chupa Chupa]

The beginning of the end of iTunes and purchasing media! Everything is now being streamed!

How do you stream an iOS app?

 

[0098386]

That's a shame. My niece had this set up on her account whilst she was at college years ago. I always thought it was a real neat little feature, wonder why they're ending it.