How tips, charges, and refunds work on VoxBot.
You pick how you want to tip the streamer (a TTS message, a clip to play, a shoutout, or on-screen text), set an amount, and pay with a card. Your card is authorized but not charged. The streamer reviews tips in their queue and approves the ones they want to play on stream. When they approve yours, your card is charged and the tip plays. If they don't approve within 30 minutes, the authorization is cancelled and your card is never charged.
Only after the streamer approves your tip. Up until then it's a payment authorization (also called a "hold") on your card. Your bank may show it as pending, but no money has moved. Authorizations expire on their own after 30 minutes if the streamer doesn't act.
You're not charged. Streamers can also reject a tip directly. Same outcome, no charge. Either way you'll see the tip status update in real time on the tip page, and a status email will hit your inbox if you used a receipt email.
Stripe sends you an email receipt as soon as your card is charged. Same format as any other Stripe-powered checkout. After the streamer plays your tip on stream, you'll also get a short follow-up note from VoxBot letting you know it aired.
The streamer can refund any captured tip from their dashboard. Refunds typically post back to your card within 5–10 business days, depending on your bank. If something went wrong with your tip (didn't play, mis-spoke a name, technical hiccup), reach out to the streamer directly first, since they're the ones with the refund button. If they're unresponsive and you believe the charge was incorrect, you can dispute the charge with your bank as a last resort.
The streamer never sees your email, your real name, or your IP address. Anonymous tips stay anonymous. Even your tip page cookie isn't tied to anything personally identifying. Signing in persists your tip history across devices.
Payments are handled by Stripe. VoxBot never sees or stores your card number. Stripe's hosted checkout takes care of that. Stripe also runs fraud screening (Radar) on every charge, which is why some payments require a 3D Secure verification step from your bank.