What are Locals coins and what are they used for?

Locals coins are used as a type of currency on the Locals app. Members can purchase coins equivalent to a month's worth of support and then give the coins to creators as a form of payment.

Please note that subscriptions are only on-going if members have enough Locals coins in their wallet. If they do not have enough coins, it is essentially 1 month of support.

How does coins translate to money?

10 coins ≈ $1 USD

For supporters, the conversion is a rough estimate as we take into account fees that are applied by external parties and discounts we apply for larger purchases. Please note if you are out of the US, currency conversions will affect the coin to dollar conversion.

Why is it more expensive for members to support creators on the app vs the minimum price I set for my community?

You will notice that on the app, a member will pay a bit more to purchase the coins needed to support a creator vs what they would normally pay when supporting a creator directly on the web. This is to take into account the transaction fees that Apple and Google take, which is 30%, along with any currency conversions that are made in the process.

How does this affect my income and how I get paid?

Because payments are being made through the Apple and Google app stores as opposed to directly to your Stripe account, you will see that payments will be made to you later by Locals. We will endeavor to make the payments to our creators within 10 business days of receiving payments from the app stores (which can take up to 30 days). Therefore, keep in mind that the Gross Revenue shown on dashboards will not match what you see in your Stripe accounts. We will continue to add more information into the dashboards.

Lastly, Locals will charge a processing fee of 2.9% + $0.30 on top of the 10% standard service fee. This fee is usually charged by Stripe to the creator directly but since Locals will be paying creators via Stripe, we will charge the processing fee instead.

Why can't members pay with credit cards instead?

Locals itself is unique in that there are multiple communities all in one app. In order for the application to be approved with in-app purchases where members can support any creator they want through one app while following guidelines made by Apple and Google, this is currently the solution we have. However, members can still support a creator on the web with their credit card directly and access the app with the same subscription afterwards.

We highly suggest that when notifying members of the app that you let your members know they have the option of doing a continuous monthly subscription and avoiding the Apple/Google surcharge fee if they support through the web.