Payments & Refunds

Last updated 10 October 2026

This policy is part of our Terms of Service. It covers cash gifts and Plus. If you buy a gift from a shop, the shop’s own payment and returns policies apply. We’re not part of that sale and can’t refund it.

How cash gifts work

You can chip in on a gift, or give to a cash fund, only when the list’s owner has set up a Stripe payout account.
You pay on a secure checkout page run by Stripe. Your card details go to Stripe, never to us. The charge is in US dollars, and appears on your statement under our name.
The money goes to the owner’s Stripe balance. Stripe then pays it to their bank on its usual schedule, normally within a few business days.
A cash gift is money for the owner to spend as they choose, even when it was given toward a particular item. Neither we nor the owner is obliged to buy that item.
The Gift Guide doesn’t place orders. When people chip in on an item, the owner receives the money and buys it themselves, from the shop, with their own address. The chip-in goal includes shipping and tax for that reason. We email the owner when a chip-in gift becomes fully funded. On a surprise list, the email doesn’t say which gift until they’ve opened their gifts.
The smallest gift is $15.00, except that you can always give the last amount needed to finish a gift, however small.
Gifts to a person aren’t charitable donations and aren’t tax-deductible.

Fees

There are no tips and no hidden charges. Every fee is shown before you pay. Each cash gift carries:

Card processing, passed on at cost: currently 2.9% + $0.30 of what’s charged.
A service fee of 0.5% of the gift, which covers the cost of paying out to the owner. Lists owned by Plus members don’t have this fee.

You choose who pays them. If you cover the fees (the default), the owner gets the full amount you chose. If you don’t, the fees come out of the gift. For a $50.00 gift on a free list, for example:

covering the fees, you pay $52.06 and the owner receives $50.00;
not covering them, you pay $50.00 and the owner receives $48.00.

Refunds for cash gifts

Cash gifts are generally final once paid. But we’ll refund a gift in full, fees included, if you ask within 30 days and:

you were charged the wrong amount, or charged twice;
your card was used without your permission;
the list was misleading, fraudulent, or broke our Terms; or
the owner asks us to return your gift.

Write to hello@wantlist.app from the email address you gave when you paid, with the list and the amount. We may also refund, or block, a payment ourselves if we suspect fraud. Refunds go back to the original card, and usually show up within 5 to 10 business days, depending on your bank. When a gift is refunded, the money is taken back from the owner’s Stripe balance, and the gift comes off the list.

Please talk to us before disputing a charge with your bank. We can usually fix things faster. If you do open a dispute, the gift may be held or reversed while the bank decides.

Receiving cash gifts

Owners set up payouts through Stripe, and must be 18 or older and pass Stripe’s identity checks. Stripe decides payout timing, and may hold funds while it reviews an account. Owners are responsible for any tax due on what they receive. Stripe may issue tax forms, such as a 1099-K in the US. See section 7 of our Terms.

Claiming a gift costs nothing

Saying “I’ll buy this” doesn’t charge you anything. It holds the gift for 14 days so nobody else buys it, and you can release it at any time. You buy it from the shop yourself. If the owner has added a delivery address, it’s shown under your gift so you can have it sent straight to them.

Plus subscriptions

Billing. Plus is billed by Stripe, in advance, monthly or yearly, at the price shown when you subscribe, plus any sales tax or VAT that applies.
Automatic renewal. Plus renews at the end of each period, and charges your card on file, until you cancel. For yearly plans, we’ll email you before each renewal.
Cancelling. Cancel at any time from your account page (“Manage billing”), or by emailing us. Plus stays active until the end of the period you’ve paid for, and isn’t charged again.
Refunds. We don’t refund part of a period, unless the law requires it or we’ve charged you by mistake.
EU and UK. If you live in the EU or UK, you can cancel within 14 days of first subscribing and get your money back. We may keep a fair share for the days you’d already used.
Price changes. We’ll email you at least 30 days before a new price applies to you, so you can cancel first if you want to.

Questions

Anything about a payment: hello@wantlist.app.