Dad angered after son spends £691 on Fortnite in three days

Fortnite has quickly become one of the world most popular games on both PC and all major games consoles, shipping as a free to play title which earns money through the sale of optional in-game items and cosmetic add-ons. 

With the game being free to download, it is easy to see why young gamers have started playing the online Battle Royale game en masse, allowing them to take part in one of gaming most popular merging genres without having to ask their parents or guardians for money. 

Today, we will tell the tale of Steven Harrison, a father who was hit with £691 in card charges after his son completed 81 in-game transactions over a period of three days. This event occurred after Steven used his bank card to purchase a birthday gift for his son on his Xbox, forgetting to remove his card details from the system afterwards.     

This situation should act as a warning to parents across the world to use the parental control systems included in every modern games console, which are designed to prevent such purchases without a parents permission. For example, Microsoft’s system can prevent payments from controlled accounts unless a parent signs into the system to verify all transactions. Sony also has a similar system on PS4, while also having a pre-paid card system that eliminates the need to attach credit/debit card information to the system altogether. 

Steven Harrison’s bank, Natwest, has not given a refund to the father’s disputed payments, though it is hard to argue with this decision given the fact that these payments are the result of his error. If Steven Harrison exercised appropriate caution and made use of Microsoft’s Xbox parental control system, this entire fiasco could have been avoided.