Buying games for my kids, without me "attaching" a credit card My child has his own email address and his own account on a tablet that we share. He wants to spend his allowance on a video game, and I wish to trade his allowance cash to me buying this game for him somehow.

I refuse to enter my credit card or use PayPal on that tablet, because, well, Android, as much as I like it, given the apps my child installs randomly at will, and given that Android clearly is not a secure system at all, I feel I'd be running a major risk entering any passwords on it.

So, I envision me on my secure Linux system, purchasing some sort of Play Store currency, which I can hand over to my child somehow, like through an email or something. I don't want to physically go to a store to buy a gift card which can then be redeemed. I want to buy something, once, online, that allows my child to then purchase the game he wants.

Is this possible?

P.S. I'm in Canada.
You can buy an application in the website version of the Play Store to remotely install application in the tablet. This way, you'll be entering your credit card details in a computer you can trust.

In the tablet itself, if the child goes to Play Store to purchase a paid application, the last 4 digits of your credit card numbers will be displayed on the device. When you use the default setup (which is to ask to reenter password for every purchase), he will not be able to make any purchase unless he knows the Google Account's password.

If him knowing your last 4 digits of your credit card number is a worry for you, you can detach the credit card after every purchase. I think this is probably unnecessary, if he wants to know your credit card number, it will be a lot easier for him to just snap a picture of your credit card out of your wallet if you live together.

I recommend using a dedicated account for app purchase rather than using your own personal account (you probably don't want him reading your emails) or your child account (he probably should know the password to his own account). You can attach multiple Google Accounts to a single device.

Another possibility is to just tell him to buy the gift card himself. He wants the game and he has the money, he can buy the gift card himself. This is assuming he's mature enough to go to a supermarket/store alone.