Got Parents? That should be the tagline for this site. Or maybe “Got SugarParents?” OK, it’s not really that bad and might actually be useful, especially for long-distance parents of college students, boarding school kids, or separated families. Other uses could include grandparents or extended family as well.
BillMyParents is a website that allows kids to shop on shopping portals and sites with BillMyParents acting as a sort of alternative payment source: kind of a combination of PayPal and Delicious. It works by allowing children to shop and mark things they’d like. Then parents can revue those items and decide whether or not to buy one or all of them.
Sound a lot like an Amazon Wish List or Watched Items on eBay list? That’s basically how it functions, but it’s not site-specific, so kids can shop from just about any site on the ‘Net for things they’d like.
Parents retain full control over what is purchased and what isn’t as well as their children’s information—items can be shipped to the parents rather than the children, protecting privacy, for instance.
BillMyParents is a useful site, all told, and as the retail sites it functions with expands, it will become even more so.
All of that said, BillMyParents may face some competition soon. Rumors say that PayPal is working on a similar system and it’s likely that the eBay company would have a much bigger leg up on a service like this.
Right now, BillMyParents is free to use and they monetize mainly through affiliate sales. Definitely worth looking into if you have a need for this type of service.
