Opinion: microtransactions and subscriptions for items we 'own' are getting out of hand

It used to be that the purchase price was the only cost you'd face. Increasingly, it's little more than an initial deposit with further payments due down the line, writes John Fitzsimons.

Most of us are looking closely at our subscriptions at the moment, thanks to the cost of living crisis, in order to check we are getting good value for money.

Which is perhaps why a new subscription offer from BMW on some of its UK cars has attracted so much attention.

For just £15 per month, you can enjoy heated front seats, while a heated steering wheel will cost you an extra £10 a month.

Now, you might - justifiably - be wondering how this can possibly work. 

Does someone from BMW come and add these features to your car when you sign up?

The reality is somewhat stranger, in my view.

The cars already have all of the necessary components in place in the car you bought, but these 'extra' features are being blocked by the vehicle’s software.

When you sign up for a subscription, BMW just removes those blocks.

To be fair to BMW, subscriptions for its vehicles have been around for some time.

It argues that these deals are useful for drivers who change their mind about the features they want after the initial purchase, as well as for second-hand owners who might want something different from the original buyer.

Nonetheless, it's provoked plenty of anger and confusion on social media.

It just seems bonkers to me - and others - that you have to pay extra to make the most of the features of the car you’ve already bought.

The DLC phenomenon

While most car manufactuers don’t behave like this, it’s an approach that we have already seen in other areas, particularly gaming.

When I was young, I was a keen gamer, whiling away hours on my SNES and PlayStation.

It was a simple hobby ‒ I’d save up my pocket money, then head to WH Smith or Game and pick up the game that had taken my fancy.

Yes, it might be expensive ‒ £30 was a lot of money ‒ but at least I knew I had the entire game at my fingertips.

That’s not how games work anymore, though. Not only has the headline price rocketed, but there are additional payments too.

Downloadable content, or DLCs as they are known, are extra bits of the game that you have to cough up more cash in order to enjoy.

It might be additional levels, new chapters, or extra characters that you can play with. In some egregious examples, you even have to make certain in-game purchases in order to finish the game.

The end effect is that you pay more for the product at the outset, and then face additional costs down the line. 

Essentially, the headline price of the game is basically a deposit, with the rest payable later on if you want the full experience.

But this is my house?

Nowhere have these added costs been quite so alarming as the housing market though.

The way in which leaseholders have been ripped off has been utterly staggering, conned into signing up for dodgy deals which not only mean they pay through the nose for basic services, but can do nothing as those charges rocket each year.

Back in 2020, the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) launched an investigation into four of the nation’s biggest housebuilders over this very subject.

Countryside and Taylor Wimpey were accused of setting unfair contract terms, while Barratt Development and Persimmon Homes were believed to have been mis-selling leasehold homes.

In some cases, properties were sold with clauses which meant that charges like the ground rent would double every 10 to 15 years, which not only made the property unaffordable to maintain but also difficult to sell on.

There were also issues over how challenging it could be for the owners to purchase the freehold.

Thankfully, ground rent itself has now been banned from all houses or flats bought on a leasehold basis, while the Government has banned the sale of new-build houses on leaseholds.

Getting out of hand

While it’s welcome that some of the worst examples of these microtransactions and added costs are being removed from the housing market, they are evidently emerging in other areas.

I find that an incredibly troubling development.

It’s clear that, so long as shoppers continue to go along with this tactic, and keep coughing up the extra fees as and when demanded, businesses will continue to employ it. 

It’s only by withholding our business ‒ and making it clear why ‒ that we can push businesses into delivering the whole product at the outset, rather than this bizarre quasi-pay-as-you-go approach that only ends up costing us more in the long run.