I would like my family to use my gamercard. I have already purchased many arcade games they would enjoy playing and have MS points on that account.

I would not like my 5 yr old son to purchase content without my permission.

I cannot always monitor him.

I do not want to create a special account just for him where I will have to pay for the same games again.

Can I set up my account somehow to ask for a password before downloading pay content from Xbox Live?

As far as I know, the answer is no. Why? Because MS is perfectly happy with your 5 year old 'accidentally' spending your MS points. MS' response when you call to complain "that ain't our problem, you spent the points. You wanna buy some more?"

Um, why does the family need to use your gamertag? Seperate gamertags on the same Xbox have access to the same games. I have bought Geometry Wars on my account. My girl has bought Cloning Clyde on her account. We can each play both games under either account.

Sounds like the solution is to make your son his own account, or only buy MS Points cards and activate the cards only when you want to buy something.

So, I have my tag linked to this 360. I created a new tag called Family. I logged in as family and tried to play geometry wars. It said I could only play the trial game.

So, I have my tag linked to this 360. I created a new tag called Family. I logged in as family and tried to play geometry wars. It said I could only play the trial game.

You still using the original console with the original harddrive? I'm guessing not, which causes your problem.

This is a new 360. Now, am I out of luck?

This is a new 360. Now, am I out of luck?

yes, d/l's are primarily tagged for the system they were purchased on, and secondarily tagged for the gamertag.

games d/l'd on a system can be played on any gamertag on the original console, once the console tag is gone, the d/l has to be verified by the tagged gamertag, signed into xbox live to verify.

yes, d/l's are primarily tagged for the system they were purchased on, and secondarily tagged for the gamertag.

games d/l'd on a system can be played on any gamertag on the original console, once the console tag is gone, the d/l has to be verified by the tagged gamertag, signed into xbox live to verify.

That's all fine... if I can simply let him use my tag but prevent him from buying something else with the cache of points I have stored on said tag. Any help there?

That's all fine... if I can simply let him use my tag but prevent him from buying something else with the cache of points I have stored on said tag. Any help there?

Don't believe it's possible. One of the reasons people were hoping MS would fix the way they are stored/verified when the HD or Gamertag moves systems.

They can play with their own gamertag as long as your gamertag is logged into an extra controller. If you make their account an xbl silver account they can have friend lists and can post their high scores to leaderboards.

Any new games/dlc you download on that 360 will work for them without doing the login to an extra controller trick.

You may be able to re-download the games and get them to work on all accounts on your new XBox.

I think I read that somewhere or heard it on a Major Nelson podcast.

If not, you can contact MS to get them to add points to your account so you can re-buy them on your new console.

They can play with their own gamertag as long as your gamertag is logged into an extra controller.

I have not tried what ileff suggests, but I do remember reading this in another thread. Give this a try.

One thing to try is to delete the game in question off of your HDD, and then re-download it. It will let you d/l it without paying again, and quite possibly the full game should then be playable from a 2nd GT, or with your primary GT when it is not signed into XBL.

I had this issue with the theme I had when I sent my Xbox in for repair/ replacement. When I received the new 360, the theme would only appear once I was logged into XBL (I use the password option, so it doesn't log in automatically). At first, I tried re-downloading the theme without first erasing it from the HDD, but that didn't fix the problem. Then I erased the theme from the HDD, and re-downloaded it (it didn't make me pay again, it gave me the 'download again' option), and voilá the theme now appears as soon as my 360 boots up, without me having to log into XBL. I ended up doing this erase/ re-download with a few of the XBLA games that weren't playable on the replacement 360 without me being signed into XBL, and they now work as well.

Worth a shot, anyway. I'm pretty sure this is the workaround Major Nelson talks about when you migrate GTs to a new HDD.