The Times - UK (2020-10-17)

the times | Saturday October 17 2020 1GM 59

Money

R

achael Davies was under

pressure during lockdown

and, like many parents, she

let her children play more

computer games than nor-

mal. “I am generally against online

gaming but working from home, home-

schooling three children and with my

husband working to keep his business

afloat, I was desperate to keep them en-

tertained.”

She let her daughter Isabella down-

load the games platform Roblox, and

she wasn’t alone. Kids Insights, a

market research company, has con-

cluded that 8.8 million children played

computer games during lockdown.

There is a hidden cost to many

games, however. Isabella, who is eight,

had not realised that the in-game

money she was spending had a real-

world cost. Rachael said: “To my horror

I discovered that from March she had

made purchases of more than £900. I

nearly fainted, and cried all night.”

Rachael contacted Roblox which

said she would have to approach Apple

because the payments had been made

on an iPad through the company’s App

Store. Apple’s customer service team

was sympathetic but said it could only

refund payments made in the last 60

days. Isabella had been playing and un-

knowingly spending for four and a half

months: her parents hadn’t realised

because they had unthinkingly set up

the invoice emails to go to their daugh-

ter’s email address.

“Apple refunded £386, but this

means we have lost in excess of £500,”

she says. “I accept our role in this but, in

my defence, I am very green with tech-

nology when it comes to gaming and

didn’t realise that my husband’s card

was directly linked to the iPad.”

When The Times approached Apple

it agreed to give Rachael a full refund.

So how can parents be sure they will

not get unexpected bills?

Many online games are now free to

download and play but make their

money through in-game purchases in a

business model known as freemium.

One of the most popular free-to-down-

load systems is Roblox, a global gaming

platform where people, mostly child-

ren, can play games created by other

users while messaging each other, and

ways realise the purchases children can

make when you hand over your tab-

let.“It’s like giving a child access to their

Amazon account,” said Robertson. “If

you have a credit card in there and it’s

not password-protected then your

child can order things.”

He said that a popular launch this

month is the free-to-download game

Genshin Impact, which allows players to

spend real money on outfits and other

items. Robertson thinks that if you put

controls in place games can be positive

learning experiences that arm children

with useful budgeting skills.

“If you get it right, this is a great way

for them to understand currency. It gets

them used to the idea that if they spend

money then it’s gone. I offer around £20

a month each, although we have of-

fered reward and incentives for excep-

tionally good behaviour or schoolwork.

“With Roblox, you can subscribe and

get some Robux each month. That’s a

nice way to do it because then you don’t

have to link a credit card.”

Roblox said: “We work with parents

directly, whenever possible, to provide

a refund if their child makes unauthor-

ised purchases.” The company said it

was important to set controls when

playing the game through third parties

such as Apple’s App Store, Google Play

or PayPal, because they store payment

information.

all of the savings you make by using the

cards in the first place.

With Covid-19 putting a stop to holi-

day plans, this is likely to catch out

many people who have never been

forced to stay put for so long before.

MoneyCorp charges £3 a month for

inactivity. Travelex, FairFX, Inter-

national Currency Exchange and

Caxton all charge £2 a month after the

first 12 months of inactivity. Some com-

panies don’t make this fee clear on

their websites.

Shon Alom from Bidwedge, a foreign

currency exchange, said: “Inactivity

fees aren’t new, but because people usu-

ally have regular travel plans, very few

have taken notice of them.”

Katherine Denham

Don’t waste money on boiler cover

M

ost households would be better

off paying to repair their boiler

rather than taking out boiler

insurance cover.

The consumer group Which? found

that nine out of ten people who needed

repairs or services on their boiler would

have saved money by not having be-

spoke insurance and just paying for the

work themselves.

Boiler cover costs an average of £288

a year, Which? said, while the average

repair was £107 and an annual service

costs £80. If you only needed to repair

your boiler once in ten years you would

be more than £2,000 better off paying

up front for servicing and repairs than if

you took out annual cover.

Even replacing the boiler once every

ten years would be cheaper — a typical

new gas boiler with thermostatic radia-

tor valves, excluding radiators, costs

£2,300, but a decade of insurance costs

an average of £2,880.

More than 7,000 people were ques-

tioned — 1,120 with boiler cover — and

only 420 (six per cent), would have been

better off with bespoke cover, given the

cost of their repairs and services. Al-

most a quarter of people who paid for

boiler cover were actually already

covered by the boiler’s warranty or

their home insurance.

Home emergency cover, which can

also include heating, plumbing and

electrical repairs, is available for under

£100. Smart Cover charged £98 and

Nova £99 for a four-bedroom house in

London, with a boiler that was less than

a decade old.

“Our analysis shows that boiler cover

is rarely worth the money — with

excessive premiums costing customers

hundreds if not thousands of pounds

more than if they paid for repairs and

servicing themselves,” said Harry Rose

from Which?.

“If you want boiler cover for peace of

mind, there are simple steps you can

take to get a better deal,” he said. “Make

sure you don’t pay for cover you don’t

need and check you are not at risk of

having to pay extra for unexpected

exclusions like servicing.”

The consumer group Compare the

Market found that more than 800,000

households face being automatically

switched on to more expensive default

energy tariffs before Christmas as their

fixed-rate deal comes to an end. Some

469 tariffs will end in the final three

months of this year, the largest number

in any quarter in the year. It said default

tariffs could cost UK households over

£100 million a year extra.

David Byers

Not going away? Currency

cards could still cost you...

W

ould-be tourists who haven’t

been able to go abroad this

year could be hit with inactiv-

ity fees on currency cards.

These prepaid cards appeal to globe-

trotting travellers because they usually

come with competitive foreign ex-

change rates and low transaction costs.

They work like a normal bank card,

with chip-and-pin protection, making

them a safe way to take money abroad

compared with physical cash. You top

up the balance online and convert your

money into a currency of your choice.

However, some currency cards start

charging fees if you haven’t used them

over a certain amount of time, typically

12 months. Fees can be up to £3 a

month, which could wipe out some or

also build their own games. It uses an

in-game virtual currency, Robux,

which is purchased with real cash.

Players spend Robux on costumes,

virtual pets, weapons, vehicles and pri-

vate servers that allow them to play a

game only with invited friends. People

new to Roblox can be teased by other

users and there is pressure to buy acces-

sories so that they look more of a pro.

To control children’s spending on

their Apple devices, you can set up a

Family Sharing group and turn on Ask

to Buy on every child’s tablet or phone.

If they use an adult’s device then you

can ensure that a password is always

requested for purchases. Go to settings

on the device, then iTunes & App Store

and password settings to tell it to “al-

ways require” a password for purchases.

With Google Play, apps and games in

the Kids section are automatically set

to request a password before allowing a

purchase. Adults should also adjust the

settings on any device that is linked to

their Google account to prevent

any other purchases. Open the

Google Play store app, go to the

Menu and tap Settings, then

scroll down to Require Au-

thentication for Purchases.

Russell Bower, the father of

Darcy, ten, and Rufus, seven,

has also set up a Google

family account linked

to the children’s Rob-

lox account, just to

make sure. “It’s like

an extra level of

security on top of

the game itself,” he said. The easiest

way to set it up is on your phone,

through the Play Store. Open the menu

and choose the Account option then se-

lect the family setting and sign up. This

feature for Android users allows a

family to share purchases such

as music subscriptions and

means parents can set up pur-

chase approval, so they have

to approve any new apps or

in-app purchases made by

other family members.

Andy Robertson, the ed-

itor of the Ask About

Games website, said

that parents don’t al-

l b ild h i Wi h G l Pl d i hilf”hid Th i

Rachael Davies

had a £900 bill

When Rufus Bower, seven, plays Roblox he is linked to a Google family account which allows his father to limit spending

The £900 bill from online gaming

Don’t let your child be

caught out by in-app

purchases while they

play with their friends,

says Felicity Hannah

What do they spend it on?

We asked some young fans...

Olivia, nine: “Buying Robux for

Roblox means you can fly and ride

pets, you can buy houses which

you can then decorate and you can

dress up the pets. This makes the

game more effective and more fun.

If you buy Robux you can change

your avatar and be creative.”

Will, nine: “You can buy better stuff,

like better pets. It can help you in

the game and some people like to

‘flex’ [show off] to their friends.”

Phoebe, eight: “Spending money

on Roblox makes it more fun as you

can buy things of interest and you

don’t get bored. If there’s a pet you

like on Roblox game Adopt Me,

then it’s easier to save your money

and then look on eBay as people

sell them on there.”

Grace, nine: “Spending money on

Roblox helps you get nice pets on

Adopt Me and then people like to

do trades with you.”