Want to be in Family Plan with Shared Purchases and still charge purchases to your own credit card?
If you are like me, you are in a Family Plan, and your Family Plan Organizer has a payment method configured and Shared Purchases enabled. You make a purchase and find out that the Organizer's card has been charged, even though you have your own personal credit card on file associated with your Apple ID.
You have searched and searched and nobody will tell you how to make purchases using your own credit card instead of the family organizer without disabling Shared Purchases and removing Shared Payment Method.
So, you get clever, and buy yourself an Apple Gift Card. Then, you mail it to yourself. Then you redeem it. Now you have a credit balance associated with your account (which will be used before charging the Family Organizer). But inevitably, that credit runs out and your Family Organizer gets charged again.
THERE'S A WORKAROUND!
- Using the Apple Store App, click on your photo or sign in and do so.
- Make sure you have a credit card configured in your Primary Payment section.
- Under the Apple Account Balance section, click "Add money to your balance".
- You will then be taken to a webpage that lets you select an amount, or configure "Auto Reload".
Both of these options, according to Apple Technical Support (even though it doesn't say so anywhere in any support document) will use the credit card you have on file associated with your personal Apple ID, and NOT the card of your Family Organizer.
If you use the Auto Reload feature, you can configure a minimum balance and an amount to automatically add if you go below it. So, you can in-effect say, "if my balance goes below $1, add $5 from my credit card." According to the Apple Support Representative, it will keep adding money until the cost of the purchase is met, then leave a balance on the account.
Problem Solved.
