Deposits and cards on file

A three-hour colour is booked for Saturday. You'd like some protection against an empty chair, and there are two different things people mean by that.

Taking a deposit collects money now. Holding a card on file collects nothing and simply means you can charge a fee if they let you down. They're independent, they're set up in different places, and the money behaves differently.

What a deposit does

A deposit is authorised on the client's card while they're booking and taken the moment the booking is confirmed — so it's real money in your account before they've walked in, and the appointment records how much is being held.

At checkout it isn't a separate refund dance: the amount already held comes off what's left to collect, and the panel says so in as many words when you're cancelling — deposit already held, this much left to collect.

Turning deposits on and choosing their shape lives with the booking page — see Deposits and no-show protection.

What a card on file does

Nothing, most of the time. It's a card saved against the client on your own Stripe account, waiting. It gets charged in exactly two situations: a late-cancel or no-show fee under your cancellation policy, and a membership's monthly dues.

There are three ways a card gets there:

• Booking online, when your booking page is set to require one.
• The client portal, where a member can add or replace the card their plan bills.
• Request card on file, from the appointment itself.

That third one is the answer to the case the other two miss entirely: somebody rang up and you booked them. They never saw your booking page, so they never saved a card and never ticked your policy. Request card on file sends them a secure link that collects both. If the client has no phone number or email you have consent to use, RewireBox tells you it couldn't send it rather than reporting a success and leaving you thinking the appointment is protected.

What actually charges it

Two conditions, both required, and no exceptions:

1. There's a card on file.
2. The client agreed to your cancellation policy for that booking.

Miss either and the fee is still worked out and still added to the client's bill as an open sale — you just have to collect it at the desk. The appointment panel says which case you're in before you cancel, so the answer is never a surprise afterwards.

When the card is there and the policy was agreed, the fee charges itself. If the bank refuses it, the fee stays as an open sale and a task appears explaining what the card said, so a declined fee becomes something on a list rather than something nobody finds out about.

Checking

Open the client, then Wallet. It shows the card on file, or tells you there isn't one. Worth a look before a long expensive booking rather than after it.