Life Savings--------->*poof*
 

OK so he has not had that much of a life yet not the opportunity to build up much savings but what he had is considerably less than he had a month ago.

My most honorable (and foolish) son #1 (16 years old) set up a PayPal account hooked to his savings which he is slurping $$ out of to make "donations" to an online game site or two. :fix:

Just thought I'd mention my tragedy so that it does not become yours. I usually just gave him his monthly statements from the bank and did not worry about it. Make sure you check your kiddos' every once in a while.

Bummer.............

Did #1 have any idea the money would actually be taken?

Oh dear Lil. When I was a kid I knew it was not worth my life to touch my savings. I don't even think I had any of my account details!

With regard to my little one's savings I intend to give him a pocket money account when he's older and lie lie lie about how much money he's got in his proper savings account, until I know he'll spend it on a car/house or both.

Hopefully, it's a lesson he's now learned. A tough lesson, but if learned now ... maybe he'll avoid worse problems in the future. :wish:

Lil? Does the site have an age agreement in order to play? I don't know the rules for this but maybe something can be done if he isn't of age to make such "donations".

Life's lessons suck when you're watching them happen to someone you love...eh?

I'm sure he lied about his age somewhere in the process. I say he's just SOL when he doesn't have gas money. Its natural consequences.

Another warning.. number 1 son here decided to join online poker. He was playing for fun and points. But during chat with other players, someone planted in a download of porn they sent him a way to get into his computer, thus our home network. We do much of our banking/paying bills online.. well. minus $600 later in our account, we blocked the poker site AND did file fraud charges against the people eft our account and did get the money back. It took about 60 days though...

The things our kids do! :rolleyes:

Cheyenne, does your son have his own computer or was he using the families computer? I ask because we do our banking online as well, but my kid has her own computer. I certainly wouldn't want some porn hacker taking our money!! :mad: I'm glad to hear you got yours back, but what a terrible hassle.

My kid is on websites that seem to want all the kids money for things like houses and cool clothes for their virtual dolls. We went along with her for awhile and let her buy stuff since Joe had a paypal. Well, this summer that paypal has been shut down. ;) There is better ways for a 15 year to waste their money on.

Hmm...hoping I wasn't too blase in letting #2 son (also 16) use the card to d/l Itunes...yup, I'll be checking up on that now...

Tess - he was on his own computer. We have a home network with servers so once the plant hit his computer thru him accepting the image, we all were toast.

we get a mag from usaa every month or so and they highlighted kids and money a few issues back - studies have shown that the more responsibility and freedom you give to your kids regarding their money (along with advice of course) the better off they'll be in the future, even if they manage some major fuck ups along the way.

I agree. He does some pretty smart things with money usually. For instance, he takes out $$ and puts it on a gas gift card so he always has gas $$ even if he has no cash on hand.