Terms of Service

Last updated: 10 October 2026

Welcome to TipIns! These Terms of Service ("Terms") govern your access to and use of TipIns ("we", "us", or "our"), including any content, functionality and services offered on or through our app and website.

1. Acceptance of Terms

By creating an account or using TipIns, you agree to be bound by these Terms. If you do not agree, please do not use the service.

2. Eligibility

You must be at least 18 years old to create an account, receive tips or be paid out. You must provide accurate information about yourself and keep it up to date. TipIns is not intended for children, and we do not knowingly collect information from anyone under 18.

3. Use of the App

You agree to use TipIns only for lawful purposes and in accordance with these Terms. You are responsible for the accuracy of the information on your profile, and for making sure the QR code or tip link you share is your own.

The app can produce signs, stickers and cards with your code for you to print, and can turn a phone or tablet into a counter display that shows your code and thanks each person who tips. You are responsible for where and how you display them, and for having any permission you need from your workplace or venue to do so.

4. Payments and Fees

Tips are sent voluntarily by users. We do not guarantee any income. Payments are processed by Stripe and are subject to Stripe's terms of service. A 10% platform fee plus payment processing costs applies to each tip. By default the sender is asked to cover these fees, in which case the recipient receives the full tip amount; if the sender declines, the fees are deducted from the tip. The same fees apply however the tip is paid, including by card, Apple Pay, Google Pay or Tap to Pay. In a small number of countries we currently charge no fee on tips; where that applies, the tip page and the app show no fee before payment, and we may introduce the standard fees there later by updating these Terms. We may from time to time offer an account a reduced platform fee for a set period; where we do, the reduced fee and the date it ends are shown in the app, and the standard fee applies again afterwards.

On the sender's card statement a tip appears as "TIPINS" followed, where it can be shown, by the first name of the person tipped or the name of the group, for example "TIPINS* CAMERON", so that the sender and their bank can recognise the payment.

5. Payouts

Payouts run once per week, at a single scheduled time. Because that time is the same worldwide, the local day it falls on may differ depending on where you are. The app shows your next payout date in your own time zone. Balances at or above the minimum payout amount for your currency (A$25 or local equivalent) are paid out automatically. Smaller balances roll over to the following week and are released automatically after 90 days regardless of amount. We do not hold funds indefinitely.

6. Instant Payouts

Where available, you may request an instant payout of settled funds before your scheduled payout. Instant payouts carry a fee of 2% of the amount plus a fixed amount per payout (A$0.25, US$0.25, C$0.25, NZ$0.25, S$0.25, £0.25, €0.25 or CHF 0.25, and the local equivalent in other currencies: DKK 2, SEK 3, NOK 3, PLN 1, CZK 6, HUF 100, RON 1.25, HKD 1.50), which is deducted from the amount paid out and disclosed in the app before you confirm. Scheduled weekly payouts are free. Instant payouts are final and cannot be cancelled. They are not available in every country we support, and can only draw on funds that have finished processing. How quickly the money reaches your account is determined by your bank, not by us.

7. Refunds, Chargebacks and Reversals

A tip is a voluntary payment and is generally not refundable. If a sender disputes a payment with their bank or card issuer, the amount and any associated fee may be reversed from your balance, including after it has been paid out to you. Where a reversal leaves your balance negative, it is recovered from future tips. We may withhold a payout while a dispute is being investigated.

8. Account Responsibility

You are responsible for maintaining the confidentiality of your account credentials and for all activity that occurs under your account. Tell us promptly at admin@tipins.net if you believe your account has been accessed without your permission.

You can add a lock to the app in Profile → Sign-in & security, so that it asks for Face ID, your fingerprint or your phone's passcode when it is opened. The lock is an extra protection on your own phone; it does not replace keeping your password and your phone secure.

9. Identity Verification

To receive tips and payouts, you must complete identity verification through our payment partner. Providing false information may result in account suspension. Verification is required by financial regulation and is not something we can waive.

10. Groups and Tip Distribution

A group shares one QR code and tip link, and tips sent to it are divided automatically according to the settings chosen by the group's owner and admins, either equally or by the percentages they set. TipIns applies those settings; we do not decide them.

Group owners and admins are solely responsible for how tips are distributed within their group, for who is admitted to the group, and for whether the arrangement is fair to their members. TipIns is not a party to that arrangement and is not responsible for any dispute arising from it, including disagreements about shares, membership, shift approvals or amounts received. If you have a concern about your share of group tips, you must raise it with your group's owner or admins. We can show you what was distributed and when, but we cannot adjudicate, redistribute or reverse a completed distribution.

11. Active Shifts

Groups that split tips equally may require members to be on an active shift to receive a share. Where this is enabled, each tip is divided between the members who are on shift at the moment the tip is received, and that division is recorded permanently against the tip, and is not recalculated later. If no member is on shift, the tip is shared between all group members. Starting, approving, extending and ending shifts is controlled by the group's owner and admins, and any dispute about shifts is a matter for the group, as set out in section 10.

12. Tap to Pay

Where it is available, you can take a tip in person by having your customer hold their contactless card, phone or watch to your phone (Tap to Pay on iPhone, or Tap to Pay on Android). It is offered only in countries, and on phones, where our payment partner Stripe has fully released it, to verified accounts, and for personal tips only: a tap cannot be paid to a group.

To use it you must accept the terms that Apple or Google and Stripe present when you set it up, keep your phone's software up to date, and allow TipIns to use your location while you take a payment, which Stripe requires in order to accept in-person card payments. You must only take a payment with your customer present and agreeing to the amount shown on your screen. A tap is a card payment like any other tip: the fees in section 4 apply, and it can be disputed or reversed as described in section 7. A payment that is declined or cancelled is not charged, and we tell you when that happens.

Tap to Pay depends on your phone, your connection, the customer's card and their bank. We do not promise that any particular card will be accepted, and we may limit, suspend or withdraw the feature for an account or a country, including where Apple, Google or Stripe require it.

13. Notes, Thank-yous and Receipts

A person who tips you can leave a short note, and can give an email address to be sent a receipt. If they did, you can send them one short thank-you message for that tip. It reaches them by email or in the app, and they can stop further messages or report a message from a link in it.

You must keep thank-you messages polite and about the tip. You may not use them to advertise, to ask for anything further, to ask for contact details, or to harass anyone, and we may remove the feature from an account that misuses it. A tipper's note is that person's own words: we do not check notes before you see them. If you choose to show notes on a counter display, you are responsible for what is shown to people nearby, and that setting is off until you turn it on.

14. Saved Cards

If you are signed in when you send a tip, you can choose to save your card for next time. Saving is optional and only happens if you choose it. The card is stored by Stripe, not by us; we keep only a reference to it, never the card number, and Stripe shows you the saved card by its brand and last four digits. To keep your saved cards together, Stripe holds them against a customer record with your name and email address. A saved card is only ever charged when you send a tip and confirm the amount. You can remove a saved card at any time, and it is removed when you delete your account. You may only save and use a card that is your own, or that you are authorised to use.

15. Badges and Your Tip Page

The app awards badges for milestones such as tips received, amounts earned and days in a row with a tip. Badges are for encouragement only. They have no monetary value, cannot be exchanged or transferred, and may be changed, corrected or withdrawn, for example where a tip is refunded or reversed.

Once enough different people have tipped you, your public tip page can show a line such as "Tipped by 50+ people". It shows a rounded number only, never amounts or names, and you can turn it off at any time in Profile → Badges.

16. Notifications, Reminders and Messages from Us

We send notifications about your account, such as tips received, payouts, shifts, badges and security matters, and, if you leave them on, summaries and reminders. You choose which you receive in Profile → Notifications; messages that are essential to your account or its security are always sent. Our support team may also message you in the app or by email about your account, and may occasionally send an announcement about the service to all users. Marketing emails are only sent if you have opted in, and each one has a link to opt out.

17. Tax

You are solely responsible for determining, reporting and paying any tax owed on tips and other amounts you receive through TipIns, in accordance with the laws of your country and any other jurisdiction that applies to you. TipIns does not withhold tax, does not provide tax advice, and is not responsible for your tax obligations or for any penalty, interest or assessment arising from them.

To help you meet those obligations, the app can email you an earnings report for any period, and your full transaction history is available in the app and in your Stripe account. We recommend you keep your own records and speak to a qualified tax adviser about your situation.

18. No Employment Relationship

TipIns is a tool for receiving payments. Using it does not make you an employee, contractor, agent or partner of TipIns, and does not create any employment relationship between you and TipIns, between you and anyone who tips you, or between members of a group.

19. Service Availability

We work to keep TipIns available and accurate, but we provide the service on an "as is" and "as available" basis. We do not warrant that it will be uninterrupted, error-free, or that it will always be available in your country. We may change, suspend or withdraw features, and may rely on third parties (including Stripe and app stores) whose availability is outside our control.

20. Prohibited Conduct

You may not use TipIns for fraud, money laundering, soliciting tips under false pretences, impersonating another person or business, or any illegal activity. You may not tip yourself, whether directly, through a second account or through another person, and you may not pay with a card that is not yours or that you are not authorised to use. You may not use a tip to pay for goods or services in order to avoid a merchant's own payment arrangements. You may not attempt to interfere with, reverse engineer or gain unauthorised access to the service.

21. Suspension and Termination

We may suspend or terminate your account if you breach these Terms, if required by law or by our payment partner, or if we reasonably suspect fraud or misuse. To protect users and card holders we monitor accounts and payments for signs of fraud, using automated checks that are reviewed by a person before an account is closed. While a concern is being looked into we may pause an account, which stops it receiving tips and holds its payouts, and we may limit features, refuse a payment or refund a tip to the card it came from. Two protections act automatically and for a limited time: payments are refused from a sender whose cards are repeatedly blocked, and a tip page stops taking payments for a period after a run of declined cards. Neither closes an account. Where an account is closed for fraud or serious misuse, we may refuse to open another for the same person, and keep the details needed to do that, as our Privacy Policy explains. Where we can, we will tell you why. You may close your account at any time from Profile → Sign-in & security. Amounts lawfully owed to you remain payable, subject to any investigation and to section 7.

22. Disclaimers and Limitation of Liability

To the maximum extent permitted by law, TipIns is not liable for indirect, incidental, special or consequential loss, or for loss of profit, revenue, goodwill or data, arising from your use of the service. Our total liability to you for any claim connected with the service is limited to the greater of the total platform fees you paid us in the three months before the claim arose, or A$100.

We are not liable for the acts or omissions of group owners, admins or members, of people who send or fail to send tips, of your bank, or of Stripe.

Nothing in these Terms excludes, restricts or modifies any guarantee, right or remedy you have under the Australian Consumer Law or any other law that cannot lawfully be excluded. Where we are permitted to limit liability for a failure to comply with such a guarantee, our liability is limited to resupplying the service or paying the cost of having it resupplied.

23. Indemnity

You agree to indemnify TipIns against any claim, loss or cost arising from your breach of these Terms, your misuse of the service, your tax obligations, or, if you own or administer a group, from how tips were distributed within it.

24. Dispute Resolution and Governing Law

If you have a problem, contact us first at admin@tipins.net. Most issues are resolved quickly, and we ask that you give us 30 days to respond before starting any formal proceeding.

These Terms are governed by the laws of Victoria, Australia, and you and TipIns submit to the non-exclusive jurisdiction of the courts of that State. If you are a consumer resident elsewhere, this does not deprive you of the protection of any mandatory law of your own country, or of your right to bring proceedings there where the law gives you that right.

25. Changes to Terms

These Terms may be updated from time to time. We will notify you of material changes through the app or by email. Continued use after changes constitutes acceptance.

26. Contact

If you have questions about these Terms, contact us at admin@tipins.net.