Help child stole bank card

katiek102010

My 12 year old took my card and bought 100 quids worth of bloody V bucks in fortnight.

My ex got the emails and rang me.

Is there any hope of getting the money back

Dravokivich

Fortnite is run by epic games and their refund policy here seems to suggest the virtual currency is non-refundable. Although it's for their American region. I'd expect it to be the same here.

https://www.epicgames.com/site/en-US/store-refund-policy

pinkfloyd34

Happened me a good few years ago with xbox I think, I phoned them and explained and got through to them in America, was told that they would refund it as a once off but if it happened again they would not refund, seems they are well used to it.

Purple Mountain

I don't know how v bucks works with a credit card. I'd be worried he set up a recurring charge inadvertently.
I've only ever bought v bucks through vouchers because I was always worried about that possibility.

ted1

Can you cancel the purchase under distance selling laws. Right to cancel within 7 days

katiek102010

ted1 wrote: »

Can you cancel the purchase under distance selling laws. Right to cancel within 7 days

He used the v bucks to purchase stuff so I don't think so

A2LUE42

Not sure on Playstation, but on xbox you can just click to have it refunded if it hasn't been used. If the child has already used the vbucks, then it may not be possible.

Had almost €400 refunded a couple of months ago after the little lad was clicking buttons on his older brother's game and buying stuff left right and center. I got a paypal notification and almost had a heart attack :-). I normally don't leave any payment methods set up, but had bought him a game a couple of days before and hadn't removed the payment details after.

F1ngers

I've deleted the parenting advice - Parenting forum for that.

If you can't help with recovering the money used, don't post.

Varik

Do you know if the account used was a full account or a child's sub account which was tied to his dads account (going by the emails he got). There's plenty of parental options to control time and spending there including a lot of new ones added.

Most normal banks and cards don't have great options for control but the likes of Revolut and N26 give a lot of instant control, and allow you set up child account where you'd be able to deny or control any spending. If this had been an option when I was young I'd have bought less magazines and probably eaten lunch more often. Going forward this might be an idea as cashless transaction become the norm.

I'd contact Epic first and see what they say, and then try Sony depending on that as Sony can get ban happy over TOS violations. I'd say they're more than used to children doing this.

Probes

Unfortunately Sony are typically creeps when it comes to refunds. Be careful not to just reverse the transaction because Sony tends to lock accounts that do that.

silvara

As others have said, find out what the account name is (if possible) and the email address, then submit a ticket to Epic/Sony/Microsoft (depending where they were purchased) saying that a minor made unauthorised charges with your card. Then make sure that the account is set to child to prevent it happening again - Epic can probably assist with that if you aren't sure how.

Don't do a reversal for the charges through your bank, unless there is no other alternative, as it would be likely that Epic would ban the account.

Doodah7

Epic will assist if you contact them. It's happened thousands of times all over the world. Contact them and explain the circumstances. They will refund you (it may take several days for the money to be returned) as a once-off gesture but you should be ok.

andekwarhola

Put a password on the PlayStation store checkout as well. It's easy enough to do and will stop it happening in future. Good luck getting the money back but I wouldn't count on it unfortunately.

TomTomTim

Probes wrote: »

Unfortunately Sony are typically creeps when it comes to refunds. Be careful not to just reverse the transaction because Sony tends to lock accounts that do that.

Agreed. I had an issue a few years back, where I had purchased two years of PS plus instead of one. It only happened as it did because there was nothing on their site or my email that confirmed the purchase of the first year, so I tried it again, and eventually got two emails that came in an once confirming both. For some reason there was clearly a processing delay on their end, and I suffered because of it.

Snotty

What about the EU regulations about purchases online and 14 days return policy, Sony has European operations

I had this happened twice in last 5 years,

Once with Minecraft, 450 euro worth of stock, every skins pack and add on possible.

Then with Fortnite.

Both times i had set up the payment method and required a password for authorisation. both times this happened the password was not asked for.

Got the money back both times, Epic were actually grand about it to be fair, just emailed user name, email and details. My young lad had spent the money but they didn't take back what he bought, just refunded the money less a 15 euro bank fee. Obviously I got told it was a once off from them

Varik

Snotty wrote: »

What about the EU regulations about purchases online and 14 days return policy, Sony has European operations

Distance selling doesn't apply if you've opened or used the product it's meant to give the same access you'd get in store, for digital that means downloading/streaming/ect.

un5byh7sqpd2x0

Snotty wrote: »

What about the EU regulations about purchases online and 14 days return policy, Sony has European operations

That doesn’t apply to digital sales.