Terms of service

LocalChum uses one-time verification codes to help you sign in and verify your phone number.

When you enter your own mobile phone number and request a verification code, LocalChum may send you a one-time text message containing the verification code. These text messages are strictly transactional and security-related. We do not send marketing or promotional text messages.

Message frequency varies and is generally limited to one message each time you request a verification code. Message and data rates may apply.

By entering your mobile phone number and clicking “Send code,” you consent to receive the requested verification text message. Consent is not a condition of purchase.

You may reply STOP to any text message to opt out of future text messages. You may reply HELP for help or contact us at support@localchum.com.

We do not sell your personal information or share your mobile phone number or text messaging consent information with third parties for their own marketing or promotional purposes. See our Privacy policy for details.

Carriers are not liable for delayed or undelivered messages.

A voucher is redeemed in person at the merchant. To redeem, the user scans the merchant’s Redeem QR code with their own phone, signs in if they are not already signed in (with a one-time code sent to the phone number on their LocalChum account), and chooses the amount to redeem. The merchant then sees the user’s first name, last initial and the amount, and confirms the redemption. The redemption is recorded only when the merchant confirms it. A request the merchant does not confirm within 5 minutes lapses and nothing is deducted.

By sending a redemption request, the user agrees that the amount is deducted from their voucher balance when the merchant confirms it. A user should send a request only for a redemption they are making in person, and should keep their phone secure. The user is responsible for any redemption requested from their signed-in phone. A merchant should confirm a request only when the person in front of them is the user who made it.

LocalChum records the time, the amount, the merchant, and the IP address and browser used for each redemption request, along with the time the merchant confirmed it, and may use these records to resolve a dispute. LocalChum cannot confirm who is holding a phone, and does not guarantee that any redemption was made by the account holder. After an account is recovered onto a new phone number, redemptions on that account are held for 48 hours.

After a merchant approves a campaign’s terms, the merchant answers one question: how to receive payouts (direct deposit to a connected bank account, or Zelle). The answer is filled in from the campaign’s terms and the merchant’s payout settings, and the merchant can change it at that moment or in the payout settings at any time, including during a campaign; a change applies from then on and does not alter a payout already in progress. Anything the merchant owes LocalChum is taken out of its payouts, never paid separately. For example, a customer disputes a contribution after LocalChum has already paid the merchant its share.

A campaign has no end date: it runs until LocalChum’s Admin ends it, and the merchant can pause it at any time. A merchant’s first campaign is free for the first months the campaign terms state, counted on the calendar from the start date (a pause does not stop them). After that, and from the first month of every later campaign, the merchant owes the monthly fee stated in the terms. The fee is billed on the same date each month (a campaign that starts on the 6th is billed on the 6th), and LocalChum sends a payment notice for each month. The fee is taken out of the merchant’s next payout, oldest first. While a campaign is paused, no fee is billed; if a billing date passes during a pause, unpausing starts a new month that day and the fee is billed at once. A monthly fee is never refunded. LocalChum does not keep a card on file and never charges a card automatically.

A merchant who connects a bank account is paid by direct deposit; a merchant who does not may choose Zelle payouts, to the phone number or email the merchant gives for Zelle (it can be different from the ones the merchant signs in with, and the merchant can change it at any time). Each contribution is paid out the number of days after it that the campaign terms set. LocalChum pays all the contributions of one campaign that come due on the same day together, as one payout. Before every Zelle payment, LocalChum asks the merchant, in the app, to confirm the Zelle phone number or email it goes to, and sends nothing until the merchant confirms. A payout held for a dispute is paid after it is released, and is not paid if the dispute is lost.

What a merchant owes LocalChum (monthly fees, Stripe’s dispute fees, the card processing fee Stripe keeps, and any payout Stripe takes back) is taken out of the merchant’s next payouts, oldest first. If a payout is smaller than what is owed, the whole payout is used and the rest stays owed. A merchant that owes something and has no payout to take it from gets a notice once a week, with the amount and LocalChum’s Zelle number. A campaign Admin has paused holds its payouts until Admin lifts the pause.

If a customer’s card issuer disputes (chargeback) a contribution to a merchant’s campaign, LocalChum contests the dispute on the merchant’s behalf, using the records LocalChum keeps, when the customer has redeemed any part of that contribution’s voucher. If nothing was redeemed, LocalChum does not contest the dispute: it is accepted and the voucher is void. LocalChum does not promise to win a dispute.

If a customer disputes a contribution before the merchant has been paid for it, that contribution is not paid to the merchant unless the dispute is decided in LocalChum’s favor. If a customer disputes a contribution after the merchant has been paid for it, the merchant owes LocalChum the amount paid to the merchant for it. The merchant bears Stripe’s costs: the card processing fee Stripe actually charges on each payment, and, when a customer disputes a payment, the fee Stripe charges for receiving the dispute and the processing fee Stripe keeps when a payment is reversed. LocalChum passes each of these on exactly as Stripe charges it, and never assumes an amount. When LocalChum contests a dispute and the dispute is lost, the merchant also bears the fee Stripe charges for contesting it; if the dispute is won, Stripe returns that fee to LocalChum and the merchant does not bear it. LocalChum earns its own fee only on a contribution that stands: if a dispute is lost or is not contested, LocalChum waives its platform fee on that contribution.

Each time Stripe charges LocalChum, and each time a monthly fee is billed, LocalChum sends the merchant a payment notice in the merchant’s account, with that exact amount and what it is for. Notices are never combined. What the merchant owes is taken out of its next payouts, oldest first. A merchant never pays a notice by Zelle or by card. There is no minimum amount, and LocalChum never charges the merchant’s card automatically.

A payout is never held for an amount owed: the amount owed is taken out of it. Anything still owed when a campaign ends carries over to the merchant’s next campaign and is taken out of its payouts; it never stops the merchant from approving or starting the next campaign.

If the dispute is decided in LocalChum’s favor, what Stripe returns (the amount paid for the contribution and the card processing fee) is credited to the merchant: it cancels the notice it belongs to if that notice is still unpaid, and otherwise is added to the merchant’s next payout for the same campaign or, if there is no later payout, paid to the merchant. Stripe’s fee for receiving the dispute is not returned.

To the maximum extent permitted by law, LocalChum shall not be liable for any direct, indirect, incidental, or consequential damages resulting from the use or inability to use our website or services.

If you have questions about these Terms of service, please contact us at: support@localchum.com