Free to install does not mean free, and the stores are quite open about it if you know which part of the listing to read. This guide covers where the information is, what it means, and what to do when something has already been charged.
Where the numbers are published
Both stores disclose this, in different places and with different levels of detail.
- Google Play. Under the install button sit two labels: In-app purchases, with a price range, and Contains ads where that applies. The range runs from the cheapest item to the most expensive one, in Australian dollars.
- App Store. Scroll down to the In-App Purchases section, which lists individual items by name with their Australian prices. This is more specific than the Play range, since it shows what the items actually are.
The top of the App Store list is the most informative single fact about a free game. An expensive top item does not mean the game is a scam; it means the game's economics assume a small number of people spend a great deal, and level pacing is usually built around that assumption.
What the money buys
In sweet-themed match games there are usually three things for sale, and they are worth distinguishing because their value is very different.
- More attempts. Extra lives, or a refill of the pool. This buys time rather than capability; the level is no easier, you simply get to try it again now instead of in half an hour.
- More moves on the level you just lost. The most expensive way to buy the least, and always offered at the moment when it is hardest to refuse.
- Boosters and currency packs. Genuine capability, and the only one of the three that changes the odds. Bought from the shop while calm, they are also usually better value than the same thing bought from a failure screen.
A rule that costs nothing to adopt: never buy anything from a screen that appeared because you lost. If the same item still seems worth having ten minutes later, buy it from the shop instead. Most of the time it will not.
Locking down a shared device
If a child uses the tablet, both platforms can require authentication for every purchase rather than once per session, and both are switched on in a couple of minutes.
- Android. Open the Play Store, go to Settings, then Authentication, and set purchase verification to be required for every purchase.
- iOS. Settings, then Screen Time, then Content and Privacy Restrictions, then iTunes and App Store Purchases. In-app purchases can be turned off entirely there, or set to always require a password.
Family payment settings are worth checking at the same time. On both platforms, a family group can be configured so a child's purchase request has to be approved by an adult before it goes through.
When something has already been charged
The charge is a transaction with Google or Apple, not with the game studio, and this catches people out constantly. Writing to the developer will not produce a refund because the developer cannot issue one.
- Google Play. Refund requests start in the Play Store order history, and there is a shorter window for self-service requests, after which the request goes to a review process.
- Apple. Requests go through the report a problem process using the Apple ID that made the purchase.
Under the Australian Consumer Law you also have rights that apply regardless of a platform's own refund policy, particularly where a purchase was not authorised or a product did not do what it was said to do. The ACCC publishes plain-language guidance on this, and mentioning consumer guarantees in a request tends to move it along.
What this site does not do
Merqavell carries no advertising, has no affiliate links and receives nothing from any store link on any page. The one thing sold here is a PDF I wrote, which contains writing rather than game items. Nothing on this site can add currency to a game or take it away. If you meet a site claiming to generate coins or gold bars for these games, it is either collecting account details or collecting survey completions, and in both cases the currency does not exist.