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Working out what it costs, in Australian dollars
Step four of seven. This page does not list prices — they change, they vary by platform and region, and a figure copied onto a third-party page in September is a liability by March. What it does is explain the shapes spending takes in this category, how to read a payment screen properly, and what the Australian Consumer Law gives you after money has changed hands.
Four shapes of spending
Almost every payment in an online game of this kind falls into one of four patterns, and the pattern matters more than the amount. A five dollar decision made once is not the same kind of decision as a five dollar decision made weekly by someone who is not the cardholder.
| Shape | What it is | Check before paying |
|---|---|---|
| One-off purchase | A single payment for access, an area, or a permanent item | That it is genuinely one-off, and what happens to it if the account lapses |
| Recurring membership | Access sold by the month, quarter or year, renewing until cancelled | The renewal date, the renewal amount, and exactly where the cancel control lives |
| In-game currency | A pack of tokens bought with money and spent inside the game | The dollar amount, not the token count — and whether leftovers are strandable |
| Bundle or offer | Several items packaged together, often time-limited | Whether you would have bought the contents separately at that price |
In-game currency is the one worth pausing on. Converting dollars into tokens puts a layer between the spending and the money, and packs are frequently sized so that a purchase leaves a remainder too small to use and too large to ignore. That is a design choice, not an accident, and noticing it is most of the defence against it.
Reading a payment screen
- Find the currency. Confirm the amount is in Australian dollars. If it is shown in another currency, your bank or card issuer will convert it, usually at its own rate and sometimes with a fee, so the amount leaving your account will not match the figure on screen.
- Find the frequency. "Per month" printed in small grey type beside a price is the difference between one payment and twelve.
- Find the renewal date. A trial or introductory period has an end date. Write it down, or set a reminder for a day or two before it.
- Find the total. Taxes, platform fees and currency conversion are added at different points depending on where you are paying.
- Keep the receipt. The confirmation email is the evidence you will need if a charge has to be disputed later.
Who you are actually paying
On a phone or tablet, purchases usually run through the app store account rather than the publisher. That affects who to contact first about a charge, which refund process applies, and which spending controls are available to you. On a desktop, payment is more often made directly to the publisher. Knowing which of the two applies before you pay saves a great deal of time afterwards.
Purchases made by children
Unintended spending by a child is the most common money problem in this category, and it is usually a settings problem rather than a behaviour problem. The practical controls are the same on every platform: do not leave a payment method saved where the game can reach it without a check, turn on purchase approval or a purchase password in the device or app-store settings, and use the account's own spending controls if it has any.
Prepaid cards and store gift cards are a reasonable middle ground for an older child, because they cap exposure by design. Whatever the approach, the conversation is worth having before the first prompt appears rather than after, alongside the chat and classification discussion in step five.
Your rights after paying, under Australian law
Digital products and services sold to consumers in Australia come with consumer guarantees under the Australian Consumer Law. Those guarantees apply in addition to whatever a seller's own refund policy says, and a policy stating that all sales are final does not remove them. The ACCC sets out what the guarantees cover, and what remedies are available when something is not as described or does not work, on its consumer rights and guarantees pages.
A change of mind is a different matter: the guarantees do not exist to reverse a purchase you simply regret, and whether a seller accommodates that is its own commercial decision. Where a remedy is not resolved directly, the ACCC's site explains the complaint route, and each state and territory has a consumer affairs or fair trading office that handles individual disputes.
What to watch out for at this stage
- Buy in-game currency only through the game or its official store. Third-party sellers offering currency or items below the going rate are a long-standing source of chargebacks, account bans and stolen card details; Scamwatch collects reports of scams of this kind.
- Take any offer framed as expiring in minutes as a reason to slow down rather than speed up. A genuine price is still there tomorrow, and if it is not, you have avoided a decision made under pressure.
- Check whether a title sells randomised items — packs or boxes whose contents are not known before purchase. Whether a particular game does is a question for the game itself and the vendor's own pages; the entry in the national classification database may also carry consumer advice about in-game purchases. Look it up at classification.gov.au rather than assuming either way.
- If a charge appears that nobody recognises, contact the seller or store first and the card issuer second, and keep the correspondence. Reversing a payment without notifying the publisher can result in the account being closed.
Cancelling something recurring
Cancellation is the part of the process designed with the least enthusiasm, and it is worth locating the control before subscribing rather than after. Three points cover most situations:
- A membership bought through an app store is cancelled in that store's subscription settings, not inside the game. Deleting the app does not cancel anything.
- A membership bought directly from a publisher is cancelled in the account settings on the publisher's website, and a confirmation email is worth keeping.
- Cancelling usually stops the next renewal rather than refunding the current period. Doing it a few days before the renewal date avoids an awkward conversation about a payment taken in the meantime.
Where to read current pricing for the title covered here
Star Stable Online is the one product this site covers in detail. Its pricing, the platforms it supports and its regional availability are published by the vendor; Solid Digital does not restate any of that, because a price copied here would be out of date without warning and you would have no way of telling. The vendor's own site is the place to read the current figures, in the currency that will actually be charged.
Paid link. If you open it and go on to create an account, the advertiser pays Beshine s.r.o. a commission. Your price is unchanged, and the payment plays no part in the advice on this page, including the advice to read the amount in Australian dollars before confirming. Visit the Star Stable Online website
Step four in one line
Identify the shape of the spending before the amount, read the currency and the frequency on the payment screen, know where the cancel control is, and remember that the consumer guarantees apply whatever a refund policy claims. Next: step five.