This is my 16-year-old son Kyle. As with most teens he lives for his phone and his video games. As a mother, and an Amazon Prime member, I would LOVE to give him access to my Prime membership and my credit card, but as a SMART mother, I knew that I couldn’t. That is – until now. Amazon has now introduced a way for me to manage his online shopping and spending.
This is a sponsored post on behalf of Amazon. All opinions are my own.
Kyle is a lot of things. He’s funny, caring and a big teddy bear, but frugal is not in his vocabulary. I remember giving him access to my Amazon account and credit card once, just once, and it was enough for me to say never again. So, when Amazon introduced a new way for teens like him to shop, I was intrigued. I needed to learn more, and what I found out is that it is exactly what I need. I’m going to be able to manage his purchases, notice I didn’t use the word, control. I don’t want to control what he buys, I want to be able to give him his independence, but still have inside knowledge of what his purchases are.
So how does it work?
Well first you need to sign up.
Signing up is super easy and only takes a few minutes. Parents can start the sign-up process or teens can do so. As a parent, you have the option of adding up to 4 teens (13-17 yrs) to your account for free, you then get to choose the payment method and an approved shipping address where your teen will be allowed to ship to. Your teen then creates their own login user name and password, downloads the Amazon App on their mobile device, and then begins shopping.
How it works:
Once your teen finds something that they wish to purchase, they place their order via the Amazon App and the parent will receive a text alerting them that their teen has placed an order that needs approval. You then have the option to either approve or decline their purchase. If you don’t respond, the order will be canceled within 48 hours. If you would like to bypass the approval step, you can set a pre-approved spending limit for your teen.
What if you’re an Amazon Prime member?
Great news! If you’re a Prime member you can share select benefits with your teen at no additional cost. That means that your teen can also get Free Two-Day shipping on more than 50 million items. Prime Video is also included along with Twitch Prime. With Twitch, you get in-game loot on Twitch and 20% off most pre-released boxed games.
Worried about a product not meeting your expectation? Each purchase is backed with Amazon’s A-Z guarantee.
I decided to try a little experiment with my son. I gifted him a $100 Amazon gift card after signing him up to the program, and I’m going to be honest here with you. It turned out exactly how I thought it would turn out. Kyle spent his entire $100 on an Xbox Live digital card. Go figure! However, before he was able to order his card, I got a notification via text alerting me that he had placed an order and that it needed to be approved. I decided to ignore it, and he sent a reminder that I shouldn’t forget to approve his order. I eventually did, but what this taught me was that he would NOT be having an approved spending limit; all of his purchases would need to be approved. This new service however gives him the independence that he craves for, and gives me peace of mind that he’s not logging into my account to make purchases that I’m not aware of. Win-Win for both of us!
Parents and teens can sign up at amazon.com/forteens.
