The Roommates Share Streaming Services Their Families Pay For. One Didn't Notice He Was Being Charged Directly to His Credit Card Instead of His Parents. Now He Wants the Roommates to Help Pay. Should They?

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A group of young adults in their 20s are roommates. They use each other’s streaming services because they all watch them together. One roommate had HBO Max, which all the roommates have been watching. All of the subscription services are paid for by their families, so neither roommate pays for the services directly. However, an incident happened, and she is reaching out to the online community to ask if she is wrong to feel annoyed.

One of the roommates discovered that his account was actually attached to his credit card instead of his parents. He just found out now after 7 months of his credit card being charged for HBO Max. Now he is asking all four roommates to share the cost with him. The total is $135, so he wants everyone to pay $67.50 to help him cover the cost.

Although she feels terrible that he was charged, she wonders how he didn’t check his credit card statement properly for the last 7 months. Especially when she checks her credit card statement at least once a week. Instead, she suggested that they split half the cost, $67.50, four ways even though she doesn’t even feel like the roommates should be contributing.

She says the roommate has much more money than everyone else. He currently works at a job that pays six figures, but the rest haven’t found a job after graduating yet. She feels he is more able to sacrifice money than the others. In addition to this, she believes he was irresponsible for not checking his bills for the last 7 months. She says they would have stopped using the streaming service and told him to cancel it if they knew he was being charged.

She says she will just pay it because they are friends and it’s not a large amount of money, but still, she feels it was her roommate’s fault, and he should pay for the entire cost. She is asking if she is correct or not.

Many readers said there was a verbal agreement to share streaming services without payment, so they shouldn’t have to pay.

“You’re all sharing your streaming services with each other. It doesn’t matter who pays for it; that was the agreement. He can start charging you all moving forward, and you can say no and stop sharing with him. But he can’t retroactively charge you. That’s not how it works.”

“Charge the dude for each month he’s used your streaming stuff since he needs to be an adult and pay for his part. “Be an adult and pay your part” is ironic given this whole situation is because his roommate isn’t “an adult” and didn’t check his statements. They share their services. Weird to penny pinch like this, especially when it’s your own fault.”

Some readers questioned why he didn’t ask his parents for the money when they were supposed to pay for the subscription.

“This is his problem. It doesn’t matter if your subscription is paid for by your mother or your fairy godmother. He can ask his parents for a refund. The only thing that matters is that each of you pays for a subscription, and you use it all together.”

A few people said she was wrong for not wanting to pay her share.

“If your account wasn’t free and you have all been using it, you need to be an adult and pay your part. And consider yourself lucky for having family paying for the rest of all your guys’ stuff.”

Finally, some people say that everyone is wrong in this situation.

“His finances are not your business, and you are not entitled to use his things or judge how he budgets or uses his money just because he has more than you.”

“1. It’s unfair of roomie to ask for money after the fact like this. Didn’t he know he was paying for SEVEN MONTHS? His problem. 2. You don’t want to pay for streaming you were getting for free? Your parents pay for yours. He pays for yours. You say he’s “way richer” than you, yet you get free stuff from mom and dad. Offer to split the cost of all the services you share equally moving forward, regardless of whose name they’re under or whose credit card is on the hook. Oh, and all this bickering is over $32.50, or really, in your mind, $16.25. Come on.”

What do you think? Should she and the other roommates be on the hook for paying for the HBO Max streaming service for the last 7 months that they didn’t know would cost him money? Should they refuse to pay it? Or should they pay, so they don’t ruin the relationship?