How to Budget for In-Game Purchases: A Guide for Parents

By CreditMeadow Editorial Team · Updated October 16, 2026

In-game purchases are easiest to keep under control when the amount is decided before anyone asks: a fixed monthly gaming budget, paid in a form that can't go over, plus device settings that require your approval for every purchase. Small charges inside a game rarely feel like spending in the moment, which is why the limit needs to be set in advance.

This guide is for parents. It covers how purchases inside games add up, what FTC cases say about charges children made without permission, a worked example of a yearly gaming budget, and what to do if unexpected charges show up on your card.

How in-game purchases add up

The FTC's guide to kids and video games notes that many games encourage kids to buy digital goods, such as weapons, in-game currency, loot boxes, outfits or bonus levels, with the credit card linked to your account. Among the questions it suggests asking about a game: does it manipulate kids into buying in-game purchases to succeed, or to prevent something bad from happening in the game?

The purchases are also easy to miss. In a 2025 consumer alert, the FTC warned that some kids' games say they're ad free but aren't, and that when a game shows ads for parts your child can reach only by clicking, it might not make clear that each click is a payment.

Small amounts compound. Suppose your child makes three $1.99 purchases a week. That is $5.97 a week, or $310.44 over a year, without any single charge looking large.

Why virtual currency makes prices harder to see

Many games sell their own currency in bundles and price items in that currency rather than in dollars. In a January 2025 settlement, a game developer agreed to pay $20 million and to block children under 16 from making in-game purchases without parental consent. The FTC's complaint alleged that players had to exchange real dollars for bundles of virtual currency that then had to be re-exchanged multiple times, with exchange rates in unusual denominations, and that this misled players about how much they were spending. The order requires the company to disclose exchange rates for multi-tiered virtual currency.

Bundle sizes alone can raise what you pay. Suppose a game sells 500 coins for $4.99, and an outfit costs 800 coins:

The leftover coins can't buy the next item on their own, which nudges another bundle purchase. Converting the coin price to dollars before you say yes keeps the real cost visible.

What the FTC's case against Epic Games found

The largest FTC action on this issue involved Epic Games, the maker of Fortnite. In December 2022, the FTC announced agreements totaling $520 million: a $275 million penalty over children's privacy and $245 million to refund consumers over billing practices. According to the FTC's complaint:

• Until 2018, children could buy the game's virtual currency by simply pressing buttons, without any parental or card holder action or consent.
• Some parents complained that their children had run up hundreds of dollars in charges before they realized their credit card had been charged.
• The company locked the accounts of customers who disputed unauthorized charges with their credit card companies, and those customers lost access to all the content they had purchased.

The FTC finalized the order in 2023. It prohibits the company from charging consumers without their affirmative consent and bars it from blocking consumers from their accounts for disputing unauthorized charges. Refunds went out in two rounds: more than $72 million in December 2024 and more than $126 million in June 2025, nearly $200 million in total.

The claims deadline was July 9, 2025, and the FTC is not accepting new claims. Eligible people included those whose child made charges to their credit card without their knowledge between January 2017 and November 2018. The FTC expects to send additional payments in 2026. It has also brought similar claims against other companies for billing consumers for in-app purchases children made in mobile games without their parents' consent.

A yearly gaming budget: a worked example

Pick the amount first, then the rules. Suppose you give your child $10 a month for games and add a $25 gift card for a birthday and another for the holidays:

That is $140.44 less than the $310.44 a year of unplanned $1.99 purchases from the earlier example, and it is a number you chose. A few rules make the budget work:

• Unspent money rolls over. If your child wants a $20 item, saving two months of the budget teaches the trade-off better than an extra payment.
• No top-ups mid-month. When the month's amount is gone, purchases wait until the next month.
• One amount per child. With several children, set an amount for each and add them up for your own budget.

In your household budget, gaming money is a want; in a 50/30/20 budget, it comes out of the 30% share. Bigger known costs, like a new game as a birthday present, fit in a sinking fund so they don't land on a single month.

Parental controls and purchase passwords

Settings can enforce the budget so you don't have to say no each time. The FTC describes in-game purchase restrictions that let you limit or block spending by turning it off, requiring a password or setting a dollar limit. If the game is an app, it suggests checking what your phone's operating system offers, such as requiring a password for in-app purchases.

Two more steps from the FTC:

• Separate profiles. Create profiles for different family members with different limits, instead of letting kids play on an unrestricted adult account.
• Lock shared devices. Add passcodes or PINs to shared devices, or create separate profiles, so no one can make purchases under your account without your permission (FTC).

Controls are no substitute for talking with your child about your rules and expectations, the FTC adds. Agreeing in advance on what happens when the month's budget runs out avoids a negotiation at checkout.

Gift cards and prepaid cards as a spending cap

A gift card loaded with the month's amount turns the budget into a hard limit, as long as no credit or debit card is saved in the account or on the device's store. The CFPB describes the same logic for prepaid cards: you can spend only the money you deposited beforehand.

Two cautions from the FTC's gift card guidance: look a card over before you buy it, because scammers can get the gift card number and PIN before you buy the card, and treat anyone who contacts you unexpectedly and says the only way to pay is by gift card as a scam.

If you find charges you didn't approve

The FTC suggests checking your credit card statement as soon as possible to keep track of your spending and spot mistakes or unauthorized charges. If you find purchases you didn't approve:

1. Contact the seller. Ask the store or game publisher about reversing the charge, but don't let a slow process push you past the deadlines for disputing with your card issuer, the FTC cautions.
2. Dispute a credit card billing error in writing. Under the Fair Credit Billing Act, billing errors include charges that were unauthorized. You must dispute them in writing within 60 days of the date the first statement with the error was sent to you, at the issuer's address for billing disputes, not the payment address. The issuer must resolve the dispute within two billing cycles, but not more than 90 days.
3. Call your debit card issuer quickly. Protections for debit cards are different from those for credit cards, so contact the issuer, often your bank, as soon as you know there's a problem.
4. Report it. You can report bad business practices to the FTC at ReportFraud.ftc.gov.

If a message about an FTC refund asks for money, it's a scam: the FTC says it will never ask you to pay to file a claim.

Key takeaways

• Small in-game purchases add up: three $1.99 purchases a week come to $310.44 a year.
• Convert virtual currency prices to dollars before buying, and watch for bundles that leave coins over.
• Set a yearly gaming budget in advance, such as $10 a month plus gift cards for occasions, and let unspent money roll over.
• Use parental controls to turn off purchases, require a password or set a dollar limit, and lock shared devices.
• Check statements, contact the seller and dispute credit card billing errors in writing within 60 days.