type: rule
status: active
timestamp: 2026-06-21
tags: [feedback, no-card, distribution, monetisation]
status: active
timestamp: 2026-06-21
tags: [feedback, no-card, distribution, monetisation]
No card on file — one-time prepaid OK
One-time prepaid OK, no recurring cards
User direction 2026-06-21: when asked whether the Play Store $25 one-time fee violates no-card-on-file, user picked “Pay $25 once, prepaid” not “skip the store entirely.” Reaffirmed for Chrome Web Store $5 (“ALREADY a precedent”).
Why: Distribution reach matters more than fee purity. The rule was “no recurring card billing” not “no money ever.” Prepaid PayPal balance preserves the no-recurring-charges spirit.
How to apply:
- One-time prepaid fees are OK when distribution channel reach justifies them (Play Store, Chrome Web Store).
- Recurring fees stay banned (Apple Developer Program $99/yr, Stripe Atlas $500/yr, AWS account-on-file, etc.).
- Free tiers with credit card required for verification: still banned (Vercel, Render, Fly, etc.).
- When proposing a paid service in a question, default-recommend the “skip if recurring, prepaid if one-time” stance, not blanket rejection.
Knowledge: no-card-on-file, and the new pwabuilder-as-primary-converter which uses both Play + Microsoft + CWS.
Related: pwabuilder-primary-converter, ios-pwa-only-no-mac.