Apple to End iTunes Allowances on May 25

[ApfelKuchen]

Child labor laws in the U.S. prevent that.

Seriously?

Labor laws don't prevent a child from having or spending money - nothing wrong with having inheritances, gifts, allowance, or even working as actors and models... Labor laws do have a say over how old they have to be to take certain kinds of jobs, working conditions, they prevent adults from taking kids out of school and forcing them to work (and maybe keeping the money the kids earn)... There's a long, sad history to child labor that has little to do with bright young kids from the suburbs writing computer code. Unless, of course, we're talking about skipping school to code for 12-14 hours a day.

 

[dwaltwhit]

I had never heard of this before. Apple is pretty smart. I'm sure they weren't just like, "lets screw over customers for fun." I would say a similar service will be rolled into itunes soon. Until then iTunes gift card sounds like an easy enough fix.

 

[Mr. Retrofire]

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??

That is progress! ;-)

 

[sudo1996]

Seriously?

Labor laws don't prevent a child from having or spending money - nothing wrong with having inheritances, gifts, allowance, or even working as actors and models... Labor laws do have a say over how old they have to be to take certain kinds of jobs, working conditions, they prevent adults from taking kids out of school and forcing them to work (and maybe keeping the money the kids earn)... There's a long, sad history to child labor that has little to do with bright young kids from the suburbs writing computer code. Unless, of course, we're talking about skipping school to code for 12-14 hours a day.

Generally, children aren't legally allowed to work jobs, so they usually can't make money unless it's a special case you described, so all they have is money handed to them as gifts. Certainly, that wouldn't be considered any more their own money than allowance money would be; they're essentially the same. So yes, child labor laws prevent children from using their own money (i.e. money they made) to buy stuff. And I'm not criticizing child labor laws, as you appear to think I am.
[doublepost=1460669081][/doublepost]

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??

How many apps do people buy anyway? I don't think I have more than 4 non-free apps.

 

[Night Spring]

Generally, children aren't legally allowed to work jobs, so all they have is money handed to them as gifts. That's the same as an allowance. Also, I'm not criticizing child labor laws, as you appear to think I am.

The post you were responding to said

Maybe kids should learn to use their own money, instead of the parents buying them apps.

My guess is they meant that instead of parents approving app purchases one by one, it's better for kids to get their own money (allowance) and learn to manage that themselves.

 

[Iconoclysm]

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]

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.

Yes, there was accountability, what these people purchased could be disputed.

 

[usarioclave]

Call me ultra-paranoid, but FinCen came to mind immediately when I read this. Maybe this is payback for Apple's big encryption stink.

 

[WordsmithMR]

Maybe kids should learn to use their own money, instead of the parents buying them apps.

This was how my family used it for my sister. She would get paid for helping out at Tae Kwon Do. My parents opened a separate savings account for her and would deposit most of what she earned from TKD and would give her a actual dollars for real life purchases, and added money to her iTunes allowance.

People tend to be very short sighted on how various features work and only see it as to how they would use it. Guessing that is the downfall of our society. No one thinks outside the box anymore, and only think of how they use things.
[doublepost=1460675191][/doublepost]

Thanks, but making parenting decisions from some stranger on the internet is wrong. In case you haven't noticed, we're moving AWAY from credit cards. There's this thing called Apple Pay. Also, what other method do you suggest? Sending my 10 and 6 yo kids off to get groceries? They're kids. The only purchasing decisions they make right now are around apps and the occasional trip to the toy store.

Interesting... My mother would send me to the store (3 blocks away) with a list of things she needed while she was cooking or cleaning when I was 7-8 and going forward. Perhaps she wasn't a fit parent by doing this... I don't know.

 

[garylapointe]

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

Seems like an easy money making feature! Kids don't have to ask for money and Apple gets it when they spend it.

Maybe some issues with savings accounts with no interest for when they open up the Apple Bank. Don't want to have issues along those lines...

Gary
[doublepost=1460689920][/doublepost]

Maybe kids should learn to use their own money, instead of the parents buying them apps.

I always considered it allowance in a specific spending category, once it's gone it's gone and they can't ask for more. It teaches budgeting. Instead of asking for money for a purchase, they had their limited pool, if they wanted more they're out of luck.

Gary

 

[dotnet]

Maybe kids should learn to use their own money, instead of the parents buying them apps.

You have no idea what an allowance account is, do you?

The iTunes allowance is the kid's own money. They need to plan and budget what they want to use it for, it's entirely up to them. The nice thing about this iTunes money compared to cash is that they can't use it to buy lollies or contraband, only music, books, apps and movies commensurate with their age.

 

[Pbrutto]

First my allowance, what's next? My lunch money!?

 

[shurcooL]

How do you stream an iOS app?

Open up Safari and type the address of the "app" (aka website) you want to stream, press Go.

 

[richwoodrocket]

You have no idea what an allowance account is, do you?

The iTunes allowance is the kid's own money. They need to plan and budget what they want to use it for, it's entirely up to them. The nice thing about this iTunes money compared to cash is that they can't use it to buy lollies or contraband, only music, books, apps and movies commensurate with their age.

It's the parents money.
As a kid, I never got an allowance.

 

[j-beda]

Ask to Buy is only available for the 13-and-under accounts, and I can fully appreciate why Apple (and parents) want purchase-by-purchase approval for kids of that age. What's been missing in Family Sharing is a way to manage spending by family members who are over 13 (other than setting Restrictions, which may seem pretty heavy-handed to a teen).

"Ask to Buy" seems to crop up when my 15-year old wants to get that "kewl new sound" all the kids are listening to, so I assumed that it was available even if you wanted to track your spouse's spending. Perhaps it is only avialble for accounts that do not have a credit card associated with them?

What I would like is the ability to have "ask to buy" approval message to the parent only pop up for purchases that go beyond the account's available credit, or at the very least have the "can your kid buy this" give information about how much credit is in the account and/or if the purchase will exceed the available credit and by how much. My answer to "can I buy this" may very well be different if I can tell the difference between "Can I buy this?" and "Will you buy this for me?"

 

[shareef777]

This was how my family used it for my sister. She would get paid for helping out at Tae Kwon Do. My parents opened a separate savings account for her and would deposit most of what she earned from TKD and would give her a actual dollars for real life purchases, and added money to her iTunes allowance.

People tend to be very short sighted on how various features work and only see it as to how they would use it. Guessing that is the downfall of our society. No one thinks outside the box anymore, and only think of how they use things.
[doublepost=1460675191][/doublepost]
Interesting... My mother would send me to the store (3 blocks away) with a list of things she needed while she was cooking or cleaning when I was 7-8 and going forward. Perhaps she wasn't a fit parent by doing this... I don't know.

Cool, closest store to us is over a mile away and involves walking along a street that has 45mph speed limit with no side walk. My daughter walks over to her friends within our subdivision (all within a mile), and I'd let her walk over a mile if it's within our subdivision. Distance is not the problem, what's surrounding her during the walk IS. I agree with you, if we had a convenience store that was safe to walk to, I'd definitely send her for small items. Would of been great as an opportunity to send her with her brother to get treats for completing chores or passing a test or any other good behavior. Unfortunately, our area is not designed for that.

Going back on topic, iTunes allowances aren't the only 'parenting tool', but it was definitely a great one. Especially in this day and age when everyone has a smartphone and apps are a multibillion dollar industry. We need a way to ease our kids into that ecosystem, otherwise they'd be spending hundreds on $1 apps when they grow up. Again, not saying iTunes allowances are the only way to help teach them, but it can't be denied that it helped.

 

[ApfelKuchen]

"Ask to Buy" seems to crop up when my 15-year old wants to get that "kewl new sound" all the kids are listening to, so I assumed that it was available even if you wanted to track your spouse's spending. Perhaps it is only avialble for accounts that do not have a credit card associated with them?

What I would like is the ability to have "ask to buy" approval message to the parent only pop up for purchases that go beyond the account's available credit, or at the very least have the "can your kid buy this" give information about how much credit is in the account and/or if the purchase will exceed the available credit and by how much. My answer to "can I buy this" may very well be different if I can tell the difference between "Can I buy this?" and "Will you buy this for me?"

I was wrong about the "under 13" thing - it's an option for any Family Share member under 18 (though once you turn the option off, you can't turn it on again). As to "accounts that don't have a credit card associated with them" - under Family Sharing, only the Organizer's account has a credit card, so credit card status isn't the determining factor - it's purely age.

 

[Jscott1000]

I'm sure this is Apple's way of forcing people into using Family Sharing. Typical Apple "my way or the Highway" What if I don't want to use Family Sharing? I have no interest in hearing my Son's music and vice-versa. I have no interest in approving his purchases. I guess I will have to put a reminder on my MICROSOFT calendar to buy an Itunes gift card every month because Apple knows better than I do how to manage my money.
[doublepost=1460734812][/doublepost]

It's the parents money.
As a kid, I never got an allowance.

I guess you don't understand the concept of giving. Once something is given it no longer belongs to the giver. The allowance belongs to the kid. Just because you never got one, you should still be able to understand the concept.

 

[Chupa Chupa]

Open up Safari and type the address of the "app" (aka website) you want to stream, press Go.

Hmm. I tried that and get the following error message: Cannot connect outside of Holodeck. Oh well. Maybe in 2264.

 

[kramerdude]

I hate to see this go. I have an iTunes allowance for my son we have used for years. He could buy or save up for music, movies, apps, etc. Going forward, as he does his chores, I will just give him cash (his allowance) instead of an automatic iTunes deposit. I imagine very little of that will go to iTunes now - by having actual money, it will be spendable anywhere instead of just apple. In our case, it looks like Apple will get less of our consistent money.

 

[AllieNeko]

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.

I live in Europe and the first I'd heard of ClickandBuy was this post, I feel pretty safe in saying that it wasn't exactly popular, so no big loss that they're going under. "Replace SEPA payments"? Well, I don't know of very many current accounts, except for those with horrendous credit, that don't come with a debit card. iTunes accepts debit cards just fine. A lot easier than a bank transfer to a third party service, so there you go... want to pay with your bank account? Your debit card is your replacement to some obscure service that went out of business. Have horrendous credit to the point you can't get a debit card? That's what the gift cards are for.

My guess is that very few people used it.

Exactly, Apple probably just saw a total lack of demand, nothing more than that.

 

[von franklin]

seems legit

 

[unplugme71]

I wish. I'm tired of having a separate iTunes and iCloud account. I've been wanting to combine them for years.

yup. would be best thing apple did since its inception
[doublepost=1461120919][/doublepost]

Not likely they'll do that. Family Sharing is effectively "merging" - the difference is that accounts can also be un-merged. Kids grow up and leave the nest, couples break up... seems better to me to let people take "their" stuff with them, and to start paying for their own stuff when that time comes.

Common/merged accounts often means everyone in the family knows the password. You might be amazed how often kids (and exes) take advantage of that fact to hijack their parent's/ex's (or friend's parent's) account - change the primary email address, then change the password. Separate accounts and passwords for the people "in charge" makes a lot of sense.

Down the road... yeah, once someone splits off of a family share, they may have to buy stuff that had previously been shared from another family member's account. But in many cases, only one person wanted a particular song or app in the first place - seems to make more sense to leave with some stuff than to leave everything behind.

You missed the point. I want to merge "MY" accounts. See, I have three iCloud accounts. One for contacts and such, and the other two I purchased iTunes stuff on. Would be nice to merge these together.

 

[ApfelKuchen]

yup. would be best thing apple did since its inception
[doublepost=1461120919][/doublepost]

You missed the point. I want to merge "MY" accounts. See, I have three iCloud accounts. One for contacts and such, and the other two I purchased iTunes stuff on. Would be nice to merge these together.

You may have missed mine. Create a Family Share for yourself, add all your accounts to it.

 

[WiseAJ]

You may have missed mine. Create a Family Share for yourself, add all your accounts to it.

Family Share isn't the same as merging. All my iTunes purchases are listed under that Apple ID because I created it before I had iCloud. I would like to "merge" or transfer all that data and history with/over to my icloud account so I can stop using that Apple ID and just use my iCloud login for everything. From my understanding of family share (I could be wrong since I haven't looked into it much seeing as I have no use for it) It just allows you to share purchases as long as the accounts are connected but the original purchase is tied to the original account buyer should family share be removed.

 

[ApfelKuchen]

Family Share isn't the same as merging. All my iTunes purchases are listed under that Apple ID because I created it before I had iCloud. I would like to "merge" or transfer all that data and history with/over to my icloud account so I can stop using that Apple ID and just use my iCloud login for everything. From my understanding of family share (I could be wrong since I haven't looked into it much seeing as I have no use for it) It just allows you to share purchases as long as the accounts are connected but the original purchase is tied to the original account buyer should family share be removed.

Apple's just not going to do it. From my perspective, they run into too many issues of ownership - there are definitely problems proving that the "merger" isn't really a fraudulent account take-over. Does Apple want to get into validating all that, and risk issues if they turn out to make the wrong decision ("this is the same person")?

It's possible for you to move most (or all) of your iCloud data into your old iTunes account, though Apple won't do it for you. The easiest part are your Contacts. When you sign out of iCloud you're asked if you want to keep your contacts on your iPhone. Say 'Yes,' of course, and then when you sign into the other account, you'll be asked if you want to merge the contacts on your phone with that iCloud account. In most other cases, you need to backup the data from one account and then import it into the other. This article explains how: https://support.apple.com/HT204055

One factor not addressed by that strategy is if your "iCloud account" is an iCloud.com email address. No way to reassign an icloud.com/me.com/mac.com address to another account the way you could if it was a non-Apple email (gmail.com, yahoo.com, etc.). To Apple, those addresses are always accounts (or if they're aliases, permanently attached to an account), so their "no mergers" policy applies.

On the assumption that Apple won't help people "simplify" by eliminating multiple accounts, Family Sharing (which preserves the individual accounts, so things can be un-done when/if necessary) is the workaround. Sure, you can't "simplify" to a single account, but I'm fairly certain the "legacy" account does not have to be signed in once the share has been setup. In other words, you could sign into iTunes/App Store purchases with your iCloud Apple ID for new purchases, while relying on the old iTunes/App Store Apple ID for past purchases without being signed in somewhere. Yes, you would have one more account name and password to keep track of in your records, but if you're like many people, you already have dozens or hundreds of login accounts to keep track of. It would be nice to clean house a bit, but in all my years of having keys on key rings, about the only time I could "simplify" was when I moved into a new house (or got a new job) that had fewer doors than the last.