Payment & Coins Terms

Payment & Coins Terms

Paid features currently run in test mode: no real money is charged or paid out. These terms will apply when real payments start. The Fee Schedule explains exactly how money is split.

1. Coins

• Coins are bought on the web through Stripe (and, if offered, through Apple or Google in our apps, under their payment terms). The price, including any taxes we must show, is shown before you pay.
• Coins are a limited, personal, non-transferable licence to use features in HearStage: gifts, tips, beats and sounds, avatar items, tickets, Studio services and similar. They are not money, not a deposit, not a payment instrument or e-money, have no cash value, and cannot be exchanged for cash or sent to other users as money, except creator earnings under section 4.
• Coins do not expire while your account is active, unless the terms of a specific promotion say otherwise.
• We may change coin prices for future purchases. Coins you already hold keep their value in the app.

2. Gifts and tips

• Listeners can send gifts and tips to hosts, speakers and creators in live rooms, podcasts, posts and profiles. A gift or tip is shown in the room chat or on the post.
• Gifts and tips are voluntary. They do not buy any service, private contact or special treatment, and they are final once sent, except for mistakes or abuse that we fix.
• Do not ask for gifts in exchange for anything that breaks the Community Guidelines, and never ask for payments outside HearStage.

3. Refunds and your rights

• Mandatory consumer rights come first. Nothing here limits refund or withdrawal rights you have by law.
• EU, EEA, UK and Swiss consumers (14-day right of withdrawal): coins and other digital content are delivered immediately. Before you pay, we ask for your express consent to immediate delivery and your acknowledgement that you lose the right of withdrawal once delivery starts. If you have not used the coins or content from a purchase, you can still ask for a refund within 14 days, and we will refund the unused part.
• Brazil: purchases made online can be cancelled within 7 days (Art. 49 CDC) for unused coins.
• Everywhere else: coins and items are not refundable once delivered, except where the law requires, where we charged you by mistake, or where a feature you paid for did not work and we could not fix it.
• App-store purchases are refunded by Apple or Google under their policies.
• Chargebacks: if you dispute a valid charge with your bank, we may reverse the related coins and suspend wallet features while the dispute is open.

4. Creator earnings and payouts

• Creators earn from gifts, tips, sales, tickets and bookings as shown in Earnings and the Fee Schedule: creators receive 70% of gross, the app keeps 30%, and processing and store fees come out of the creators' share. Tips show their own app fee when you send them.
• Payouts are made through Stripe Connect to a verified adult with a connected payout account, once the minimum cash-out amount is reached. Stripe's Connected Account Agreement applies.
• You are responsible for taxes on your earnings. We may collect tax information and issue tax forms (for example US Form 1099-K or similar) where the law requires.
• We may hold or reverse earnings that come from fraud, chargebacks, refunds, test coins, bots or breaches of these terms, and we will tell you why.
• Earnings that are not yet paid out are lost if your account is closed for serious abuse, unless the law requires otherwise. If you close your account yourself, you can cash out available earnings first.

5. Avatar items, beats and other purchases

Items bought with coins (avatar characters and accessories, beats, sounds, tickets) are a licence to use them inside HearStage, as described in the Terms of Service. They are not transferable and have no cash value. Prices are shown before you buy, and "Buy all" shows the total before you confirm.

6. Test coins and bots

Test coins in test mode have no value of any kind and cannot be cashed out. Accounts labeled as demo or bot accounts use test coins only.

7. Promo coins

• Promo coins are given for free (for example as a welcome bonus). They are kept in a separate balance.
• They are never withdrawable, never convertible to cash, not transferable and cannot be sent as gifts, so they never become creator earnings.
• They can be used only for HearStage services that accept them, and may expire 12 months after they are credited. They are void if the account is closed for abuse.

8. Age-check fee (not active)

This fee is not charged today. If it is introduced: a one-time fee (shown before you pay) for the ID age check by our provider; if you pass, a one-time bonus of promo coins, which is a promotional bonus and not a refund. If the check cannot be done because of a technical failure on our side or the provider's, you can retry once without paying again or ask for a refund of the fee. Your statutory rights are not affected.

9. Taxes and currency

Prices may be shown in your local currency. Sales tax, VAT or GST is added or included where the law requires and shown at checkout.

10. Changes

We may update these terms as described in the Terms of Service.