Cash · Brand Credit · Bullmark Point

Each brand sets the value of its own points.

Points that a startup issues itself. Think of a coffee shop's prepaid card: the customer loads it once by card, then pays with points. You stop paying a card fee on every small sale.

Why does an app need a points system?

1. Lower running costs

Card companies charge 2.9% + $0.30 on every payment. Sell a $1 item twenty times by card and the fees come to $6.58. If the customer loads $20 once and pays with points after that, the fee is 88¢.

2. Small payments become possible

Sell a $1 item by card and 33¢, a third of the price, goes to fees. At that rate small prices are not worth selling. With points there is no fee on each payment, so you can sell things for $1 or less.

3. Stronger customer loyalty

A customer who still has points comes back. Points help with customer service and with marketing too: you can make up for a problem in points, and thank the people who refer you in points and keep your cash.

33 ¢

Lost on a $1 card sale

2.9% + $0.30 is about a third of the price, gone before you earn anything.

$6.58

Twenty $1 sales, by card

The 30¢ is charged twenty times. The fixed 30¢ costs you more than the percentage does.

88 ¢

One $20 top-up

The same $20 of sales with one card payment: the fee is 4.4% instead of 33%.

Card fee when credit is spent

When credit pays for a voucher, only a record changes. It is not a card payment, so no card company is involved.

What Brand Credit is

Example: $1 = 1, 10 or 100 credits

Your credit carries your name, and you choose how it is counted: 1, 10 or 100 credits to the dollar. If you pick 100, a $12.50 balance shows as 1,250 credits. It is the same money, counted in the unit that suits your prices. Small numbers look awkward if you sell $0.99 add-ons, and big numbers look awkward if you sell $99 seats. You know which your customers are used to. Nobody else sets it for you, and the rate never changes: a credit is always tied to the dollar.

You choose once, before any customer holds your credit, and then it is fixed for good. A balance someone earned last year still shows the same number today. Each brand also picks a short name for its credit, two to four characters. That name belongs to one company on all of Bullmark, like a stock symbol.

Cash, Brand Credit and Bullmark Point

Besides cash, Bullmark has two kinds of points: Brand Credit, which a brand issues, and Bullmark Point, which you receive when you sell a voucher to someone else. Each is recorded separately. Only cash can leave Bullmark; points cannot.

Cash

Real money. It belongs to a business account and is what a brand earned from its customers. It is the only kind of money that can leave Bullmark, and it can go only to that business's own Stripe account.

Brand Credit

A brand's own points. One brand issues them and they can be spent only at that brand. Every voucher is issued from Brand Credit, and it is what a customer holds after topping up at a brand. Its value never changes: the brand picks 1, 10 or 100 credits to the dollar, and that stays fixed.

Bullmark Point

Bullmark's own points. Bullmark issues them and they can be spent on vouchers from any brand. You receive them when you sell a voucher you hold to another person. 1 BP = $1, fixed.

Who issues it

Nobody issues cash. It arrives when a customer pays by card. Brand Credit is issued by the brand whose name it carries. Bullmark Point is issued by Bullmark and nobody else.

Where it spends

Cash cannot be spent inside Bullmark. It can only be withdrawn. Brand Credit is spent at its own brand, on vouchers and referrer rewards and nothing else. Bullmark Point is spent on vouchers from any brand on Bullmark.

Can it leave

Only cash. Brand Credit and Bullmark Point are never refunded or paid out as money, by the brand or by Bullmark, in any situation. Both can only be spent on vouchers until the balance reaches zero.

How money moves

Card → credit → voucher. Money moves only in this direction and never back. A card payment becomes credit, credit becomes a voucher, and the voucher is used at the brand. Each step is recorded and cannot be changed afterwards, so the record shows where every credit came from and what it became.

A brand issues Brand Credit

The brand pays Bullmark's issuing fee by card, and the credit appears in its wallet. When the brand issues vouchers, credit equal to their total face value is set aside. A hundred vouchers are a hundred promises the brand must keep from the moment they are issued.

A customer tops up Brand Credit

A customer who does not have enough credit for a voucher pays the difference by card. That money goes straight to the brand's own Stripe account. Bullmark does not hold it. The customer's credit at that brand goes up by the same amount. No processing fee is added to what the customer pays.

Credit becomes a voucher

A customer buys a voucher with the brand's credit, at the voucher's face value. The credit is spent and the voucher is theirs, with its own number, recorded under their account. There is nothing more to pay when they use it, because it was already paid for in credit.

A voucher becomes Bullmark Point

Anyone who holds a voucher can sell it to another person. The seller is paid in Bullmark Point, never in cash, and can spend it on any brand's vouchers. Person-to-person resale is open at /resale.

Why the seller is not paid in cash

If selling a voucher paid cash, a person could go card → credit → voucher → cash and get their money back. The rule "credit is not refundable" would then have a way around it. Paying the seller in Bullmark Point keeps the value inside Bullmark: it can pass to another person and be spent at any brand, but it cannot be turned into cash.

Brand Credit for brands

A brand's first Brand Credit issue is free — any amount up to 10,000, no card. After that, each issue has a fee paid by card: 1.5% of what you issue when your credit is fully covered, stepping up to at most 4.5% while it is not. Covered means your vouchers still in stock plus your cash, compared with the credit your customers hold. If you issue far more than you can deliver, the next issue costs more. Withdrawing what you earn is free.

1 · 10 · 100

You choose, once

Pick the unit that fits your prices. After that it is fixed, and the rate never changes.

10,000

Free on your first issue

Once per brand. After that it works like any other credit.

Minimum per issue

Any less is not worth filling in a card form for.

10,000

Maximum per issue

Issue again if you need more. The cap keeps a typing mistake from becoming a five-figure charge.

A credit is not a deposit

Brand Credit is a balance for use inside Bullmark. It is spent on issuing vouchers and on paying referrers. Bullmark does not keep its dollar value for you, and it is not a bank account. What it can buy is defined here and nowhere else.

Brand Credit for customers

When you hold a brand's credit, your wallet shows which brand it belongs to, in that brand's unit. You spend it at that brand at face value: a $7 voucher costs exactly $7 of credit, whatever the unit. You can also send any amount of it to another person with a link. If a voucher costs more than the credit you hold, you pay just the difference by card and the voucher is yours as soon as the payment goes through. Nothing extra is charged, and no credit is left over.

It is never refunded as cash. The brand that issued it is the one that must honour it, with vouchers. Bullmark does not step in between a brand and its customers in any situation. A brand that uses credit for anything unlawful or against our policy can have its account frozen without prior notice.

Fees and where the money goes →

Who pays what, in numbers, and what can never be turned back into cash.

What is a voucher →

What credit turns into: vouchers, each with its own number and a record that cannot be changed.

Ready to issue your first vouchers?

List your startup → See all eight steps