xbox live question concerning purchases

[Shannon]

If I attach a credit card to my son's xbox live account and have the "Purchasing" option in the "Privacy and Online Settings -> Activity" set to blocked. Will that prevent him from adding xbox live points on his own?

 

Figured I'd ask. At some point we are just gonna get a pre-paid VISA card to be safe.

[+FujiSkunk]

This doesn't directly answer your question, but my advice is not to attach a credit card at all. XBox Live has been cracked before, and people's account information has been stolen. Perhaps the problem is as small and "isolated" as Microsoft claims it is, but as far as I'm concerned it's still a real concern, enough that I don't let them touch my credit card.

 

If you like the convenience of getting more points without having to go out and buy cards, you can buy points from Amazon and other online retailers, and then get the code on the spot. It's an extra step in actually typing that code in, but it still beats making the trek to Wal-Mart or GameStop.

 

Yes, I know, that still means some online company gets your credit card. Call me biased but at this point I trust Amazon more than I do Microsoft.

Edited April 24, 2012 by FujiSkunk

[SoulBlazer]

Or you can link up your PayPal account to one of your secondary banking accounts, or just leave money in your account. That's what I do. I still get the convenience of buying points right away.

 

Yet another option you can do is add a secondary CC, buy the points, and then remove the CC.

[moycon]

I had a credit card attached to my gamertag when I got my Xbox 360 shortly after launch.

My advice is to not attach one to your account. Use the pre-paid cards or buy an instant code (Amazon, eBay etc..) for points and/or for Gold subscriptions.

I didn't have any huge issues other than when I wanted to remove the card from the account I COULD NOT because my Live Gold subscription was still active. I had to wait for the subscription to expire before I could remove the card! (Yes I called MS and they confirmed this nonsense) When I heard that I said f*ck that. Never again. There have been mild breaches in security regarding the use of credit cards on Live account. I've heard of people hacking accounts, using the CC (To the amount of $100's of dollars) to buy physical cards in some Soccer game and then selling the cards. Not a HUGE deal, but big enough to make me think twice about tieing a card to the account, and to not recommend attaching one to a gamertag to someone else.

[onlysublime]

A credit card attached for game purchases, DLC purchases, etc. can easily be removed from an account through online methods.

 

But if you attach a CC that was used to purchase a Gold membership, you will always need a CC to be attached as long as the Gold is active. If you uncheck the "autorenewal" option before the expiration of the membership, when the membership expires, the account will become Xbox Live Free and you you can then remove the CC.

 

The worst case is you forget to uncheck the autorenewal and then when Xbox goes to renew your membership and finds out your CC is invalid or expired, your account gets flagged and you will have to deal with the billing department to fix things.

[Shannon]

Bummer I was afraid someone was gonna say that. I did uncheck the auto renewal..

 

If I get a pre-paid card can I tie the gold account to that and then remove my other one..

 

Microsloth and their wacky tactics!

[onlysublime]

I assume you're talking about gold membership with a CC? Yes, you can keep substituting cards but you need at least 1 card to be in place if a card was used toward purchasing membership time.

[moycon]

I assume you're talking about gold membership with a CC? Yes you can keep substituting cards

 

I think the answer to what Shannon was asking is "No". I say that because in my experience, I called MS support and told them I didn't want my credit card tied to my gamertag anymore, but the website wouldn't allow me to remove it. I was informed I would have to wait till the Gold expired and then I could remove the CC from account, and use a Pre-Paid card going forward. There was no option to remove the CC and substitute a Pre-paid card in it's place so I could remove the CC immediately even when calling the help desk, nor did they mention substituting another CC (Although I don't know if I actually asked them, because I didn't want any CC's tied to the account). Unless something has changed in the last couple years (which is very possible as I only use pre-paid now), you can't do anything until the current Gold Subscription expires. In my case it wasn't a HUGE deal since my Gold subscription was expiring in about a month anyways. That's not to say you can't add another CC to your account, or even a Pre-paid card for Live gold, but neither can be used as a substitute to the current subscription is what I was told, which seemed right stupid so I might have been fed a bunch of BS. I mean the current Gold subscription was PAID IN FULL, why would I have to keep it tied to the account!?? Still, that's exactly what I was told when I tried.

[Shannon]

Sounds rather moronic! In the latest news my little "block premium purchases" seems to prevent any "accidents" from my son in the meantime.

 

I attempt a pre-paid care in the near future.

[Metal Ghost]

I assume you're talking about gold membership with a CC? Yes you can keep substituting cards

 

I think the answer to what Shannon was asking is "No". I say that because in my experience, I called MS support and told them I didn't want my credit card tied to my gamertag anymore, but the website wouldn't allow me to remove it. I was informed I would have to wait till the Gold expired and then I could remove the CC from account, and use a Pre-Paid card going forward. There was no option to remove the CC and substitute a Pre-paid card in it's place so I could remove the CC immediately even when calling the help desk, nor did they mention substituting another CC (Although I don't know if I actually asked them, because I didn't want any CC's tied to the account). Unless something has changed in the last couple years (which is very possible as I only use pre-paid now), you can't do anything until the current Gold Subscription expires. In my case it wasn't a HUGE deal since my Gold subscription was expiring in about a month anyways. That's not to say you can't add another CC to your account, or even a Pre-paid card for Live gold, but neither can be used as a substitute to the current subscription is what I was told, which seemed right stupid so I might have been fed a bunch of BS. I mean the current Gold subscription was PAID IN FULL, why would I have to keep it tied to the account!?? Still, that's exactly what I was told when I tried.

 

I may very well be wrong, however, as you mentioned I believe that you can add a second credit/debit/prepaid card to your account. Once you have the 2nd card tied to your account, you can delete the 1st. As long as there's one on the account at all times, you are fine. Based on your wording at least moycon, it sounded as if you were trying to "(first) remove the cc and (then) substitue a pre=paid card in it's place....". Unless I'm reading too much into it.

[NE146]

Yeah.. I basically generated a "virtual credit card" (since Citi has that feature) which expires immediately after 1-use, put that in my account to make a small purchase, and then AFTER that I was able to take out my "real" credit card. So in other words I still have a CC in my account, but it's expired (and, virtual). But even then after that, I had to disable auto-renew. Pretty much a pain in the butt. I would, like Moycon, prefer there to be NO credit card info in there at all. Period. Expired or not.

 

And it makes sense really.. it's not worth the convenience as far as I'm concerned. Especially these days when it's not hard at all to get a code off Amazon, and just enter it in at Xbox.com and boom.. you got instant points on the fly, as needed.

[moycon]

I may very well be wrong, however, as you mentioned I believe that you can add a second credit/debit/prepaid card to your account. Once you have the 2nd card tied to your account, you can delete the 1st. As long as there's one on the account at all times, you are fine. Based on your wording at least moycon, it sounded as if you were trying to "(first) remove the cc and (then) substitue a pre=paid card in it's place....". Unless I'm reading too much into it.

 

This could be right, like I said I didn't actually try to substitute with another Credit card or Pre-paid card first.

 

So if you added another years worth of Gold via a Pre-pay card, and still had 3 months left on your current subscription via the old CC, you are saying you can switch to the new pre-paid card and remove the CC? If so would you lose that 3 months?

[onlysublime]

So if you added another years worth of Gold via a Pre-pay card, and still had 3 months left on your current subscription via the old CC, you are saying you can switch to the new pre-paid card and remove the CC? If so would you lose that 3 months?

 

you won't lose any time. it's supposed to concatenate.

[moycon]

you won't lose any time. it's supposed to concatenate.

 

Then the help desk lied to me. He said I had to wait for the Gold subscription to lapse, and then add a pre-paid card subscription to the account and then I could remove the CC. #%$%^&

[Atariboy]

My account dates to the original console a few years before the 360 launched back when a credit card was required information for everyone creating a Xbox Live account. That card was never used for a single thing for this service beyond purchasing the two booster packs for Project Gotham Racing 2 a year or two afterwards.

 

Years later when Xbox Live was shutting down for the original console, I entered a new credit card into my account to make some purchases. When I went to remove both cards from my account via their website afterwards, I could only remove the one I just had entered to make some purchases. The other one that I entered when I originally created the account years earlier said it was tied to my account due to a prepaid subscription (Notice that word "prepaid"). In addition, I started that account with a prepaid card included with a XBL starter kit and then used prepaid cards every year since then (and always using points cards to make purchases on my 360). Even entered my purchase history at the site and confirmed that I never accidently forgot and had it autorenew on me with that card. The only purchases ever done to that CC were two pieces of DLC nearly half a decade earlier.

 

I could only remove that card information when I let my subscription lapse 6 months ago or so before renewing again. Just like Moycon said, it could only be removed after the subscription lapsed (Even though in my case, it had never even been used to purchase a subscription and hadn't been used in years).

Edited April 28, 2012 by Atariboy

[onlysublime]

I'm pretty sure things have changed since you guys had your experiences... time does move on...

 

just like people still think that you can only change licenses yearly (now it's every 4 months).

[moycon]

I'm pretty sure things have changed since you guys had your experiences... time does move on...

 

just like people still think that you can only change licenses yearly (now it's every 4 months).

 

Yep when I did this it was when we were at our old house, a couple years ago. So time moved on around 2 years in that case.

I didn't think that licence transfers were still once a year however.

 

Here is more info about removing a Credit Card....

 

http://support.xbox.com/en-US/billing-and-subscriptions/manage-payment-options/remove-xbox-live-payment-option

 

According to this page, you can also now use PayPal directly from the Live site. That I did not know.

I like this part....

 

If you don’t want to add another payment method, Contact Xbox Support for help removing your payment method. When you call, please have your gamertag and payment information available.

 

That's exactly what I did a couple years ago, and they told me I was SOL!!

[Atariboy]

I'm pretty sure things have changed since you guys had your experiences... time does move on...

 

Maybe, but what I'm talking about was very recent (Actually less than the 6 months I stated above). Still couldn't remove that credit card information as of December or so (After trying on occasion when logging into XboxLive.com for other things over the past several years) and was unable to until earlier this year when I let my gold account lapse into silver status for a while.

 

Either way, my reflections were to demonstrate part of the reason why in general I would really hesitate to ever let them have such information again in the future. Circumstances very well may of changed about this specific issue in recent weeks, but my distrust about how they handle such things is still very much there.

 

Highly recommend that people stick with subscription and points cards with this company.

Edited April 28, 2012 by Atariboy

[Shannon]

ok.. apparently "Purchasing" option in the "Privacy and Online Settings -> Activity" prevents him from actually getting a game when he has microsoft points. Which to me makes absolutely no sense at all. But whatever.

 

I'm gonna go the pre-paid card route just to get my current card info out of the system. Then from there I'll probably let the subscription expire and go Amazon all the way from then on.