Parents Receive $8,000 Bill For Son’s Microtransactions

Parents in Ontario, Canada managed to get stuck with an $8,000 bill from their son’s microtransactions. On December 23, Lance Perkins, owner of a local convenience store, received a bill of $7,625.88 from his 17-year old son after he bought in-game purchases while playing FIFA, a popular online soccer game. Mr. Perkins said that “There will never be another Xbox system or any gaming system in my home.”

The son was also shocked about the bill, he confessed using the card but didn’t realize how much he spent. I understand that kids sometimes use their parent’s money to buy small things that their parent wouldn’t notice. But when does that go to, “Hey I’m going to buy everything I can on the Xbox store?” However, the parents should feel somewhat responsible since they should have been watching their account’s activity online How can a kids racked up an $8,000 bill?

What makes this even worse is how quickly the kid amassed such a bill. This was done in one month! Not one year, not even 6 month, but one month, this kid manage to spend $8,000 in one month. What can you even buy for $8,000 dollars in FIFA?

The credit card company said that unless Mr. Perkins charged his son with fraud, there is nothing they can do and he will have to pay the bill. We all hate credit card companies, but they aren’t wrong; they facilitated the payments. Mr. Perkins later sent his bill to Microsoft stating that his son is a minor but Microsoft sent out a statement about making purchases under a parent’s account, it reads “Purchases made using a parent’s payment account are legitimate transactions under the Microsoft Services Agreement, and we encourage parents to use the many platform and service features we make available to prevent unapproved charges.” With no way out,  Mr. Perkins is now stuck with the bill.