Hi, I want to add another wow account/sub for my kids to play.
I also want to be able to transfer their characters from my account to theirs.
I’m a little unclear on if both subs will be under my battlenet account or if they will have their own battle.net account.
What is the best way to get them setup with their own wow account and still be able to transfer their characters to that new account? We want to be able to play at the same time.
Creating a new Battlenet account in your name for each child is the way to go. The each need one. When they turn 18 you can have it put in their name.
This thread from a week or so ago covers all of it I think.
The best option is to set up a new Battlenet account for the minor.
You can use your name, or if they are over 13 you can use their name. However you would still want to set up Parental Controls on it. I would also make sure the Bnet account email is one you control and have authentication set up on such as a gmail account. A ticket can be put in to move the license to that new Bnet account with whatever proof Blizz requires for family.
Having that separate Bnet account now allows:
- Parental Controls to be set up that don’t impact your account. This includes preventing purchases, setting locked game time hours, limiting chat options, getting play time reports, etc.
- It means whispers sent to your Bnet account don’t go to a child by accident.
- It means a child who makes a mistake and gets a penalty does not impact your account.
- It means everything they earn on it they get to keep!
- It means you can play together without any issues, including pet battles which are limited to one license per bnet at a time.
When the child turns 18 you can have the name on the account changed to theirs.
The biggest drawback I can think of is currently security. If you wanted to put an Authenticator on the Bnet account a unique phone number would be required. They have removed some of the restrictions so some pre-paid services are now supported.
When you say, ‘in my name’, what does that mean? the email address can’t be re-used by battlenet can it?
The login “name” for the account is an email. You need a unique one for each account.
Each account also has a public display nickname called a Battletag that you create.
The legal name on the account is your legal human name. The one on your Govt issued ID. You are the adult who can agree to the contract (software license and rules).
I was saying the legal name on the account should be the parent or legal guardian responsible for the minor.
Each minor needs a separate Battlenet account. They can’t share.
Will I be able to transfer chars from my existing account to the other battlenet account?
As long as the legal name on the two accounts matches, yes.
Keep in mind that there are other char transfer restrictions and that all the pets, mounts, transmogs, etc stay with the original Battlenet account.
Read that carefully before paying to move the chars
With battle pets, if you can put them in a cage then you can mail them to your child’s account after the characters move. The restriction there is that the character you mail from and the character you mail to need to be on the same realm or same connected realms.
That is all well and good advice NOW but that is NOT how it was done when my kids were little so tell me how to fix this for my daughter when she was already on our bnet and I just learned an hour ago that tomorrow morning she will no longer be allowed to move her toons to her own account at 18.
Firstly, oof.
Always best to start your own thread when what you’re seeing is anything older than a couple of weeks. But since we’re already here…
Unfortunately, there is never a guarantee that things will forever remain the same. This is just one of those things that has had to shift and adapt with how account-bound collections and unlocks behave, as well as the upcoming Warbands and account-wide access to all the things.
At the eleventh hour, as it were, you can try to hurriedly create a new Battle.net account to transfer her character(s) over - or if that isn’t feasible, then I’m afraid the only other thing that can be done will be for you to create her a new Battle.net account, and she can re-roll and start from scratch.
Neither option is ideal, but there really isn’t anything better that I can offer with it being nearly 2am EST and weekly maintenance just hours off. I’m sorry you find yourself in this position.
That advice you replied to was from me, and it was given in 2022. Two years ago. It was not new advice even then.
Once all the mounts, pets, heirloom, achievements, toys, and other things became Battlenet Account bound, the best practice has been to set the child up on a separate Battlenet Account and then change the name on it when they turn 18. That way they did not lose all their Bnet account bound things.
This is the only option left. 
This is also why they notified us of the changes coming to transfers weeks ago.
I am very sorry to hear you find yourself in this position though, and sorry for your child that they won’t be able to keep anything when they move to their own Bnet account.
It’s not an acceptable solution, she has decided if they don’t respond to her ticket treating her as grandfathered in she is finished with blizzard. We all know they won’t, they do not care. If she quits I’ll probably as well even though we are paid up into 2026 and of course paid for new xpacs. Sorry about reopening a 2 year old thread, was searching for info and landed here from a 10 day old one, I don’t often comment anywhere… unless mamma bear hackles are raised lol.
Not really a matter of being ‘grandfathered’ - it’s a matter of system changes and what can and cannot be done any longer.
I have ALWAYS recommended a detached Bnet under a parents name. It’s always been a much cleaner process and avoids a ton of other secondary issues from security to misstells if two licenses were on at the same time.
Since this is two years old, I’m going to lock this one up.
Best of luck to you and yours no matter your decisions going forward.