Configure the Charge Feature

Overview

The Use Charge Feature toggle lets you choose between two fundamentally different operating models for your e-money. The choice shapes both the value you offer your members and the obligations you take on as a business.

Charge feature on — Prepaid e-money

Members top up a balance and use it to pay. This is the classic prepaid model: holding funds in advance encourages repeat use, helps lock in customers, and works well when combined with point rewards.

Because you hold members’ funds in advance, your service may be treated as a prepaid payment instrument under Japan’s Payment Services Act. Depending on your conditions, obligations such as notification, deposits with the regulator, and refund handling may be required. See Details on the Payment Services Act.

Charge feature off — Points-only loyalty card

You stop accepting new charges and run a simple loyalty program centered on points. You grant points to members, and members spend those points at checkout. If a member already has charged balance, they can continue using it for payment and related flows.

This model fits when you want to:

• Digitize a paper stamp card or membership card as-is.
• Focus on visit-based incentives and campaign rewards.
• Keep existing payment methods (cash, credit cards, other QR providers) and digitize only the loyalty layer.
• Avoid holding member funds, so you don’t take on the legal obligations or refund operations of a prepaid issuer.

You can switch between the two models even after launch (a switch requires re-review and a member notification period — see Change E-money Settings After Launch).

Switch the Charge Feature

Open Menu → E-money Settings → Charge, toggle Use Charge Feature, then tap Save. After service launch, confirm the change in the dialog before applying.

⚠️ Switching after launch requires re-review and a member notification period.

What happens to members and operations when you turn it off

• New charges and gift issuance stop.
• Existing charged balance can still be used for payment, remittance, and refunds — members keep what they had.
• Card charge and the charge action in Cashier Mode become unavailable in sync.
• Individual settings such as Card Charge and Gift are kept internally. If you turn the charge feature back on later, those settings come back as you left them.

What members can still do in points-only mode

While the e-money is in points-only mode, you can still grant points (see Grant Points Remotely and in-person point rewards), members can still pay with points, and point expiration rules still apply. Screens and items related to new charges hide automatically across the admin app and the member app so the experience stays centered on points.

Settings that come back when you switch to prepaid

The Charge screen groups together the settings you need for prepaid operation (they are hidden while you are in points-only mode).

• Charge methods
  • In-person transaction: in-person charge at a shop
  • Credit card: Charge from card (Stripe connection and presets are accessed here)
  • Bank transfer: coming soon
• Maximum charged balance per member
• Maximum charge amount
• Charged balance expiration

The maximum payment amount is configured from E-money Settings → Payment → Payment limit.

Notes

• You cannot turn off the charge feature while the point feature is off. The two cannot be off at the same time.
• When the charge feature is off, you cannot turn off the point feature from the Points screen.