What you should know

• You'll get charged each time you go off track
• The pledge increases each time (until your pledge cap)
• There's a one week delay for adjustments to the goal...
• ...including quitting it

But don't worry!

• We won't charge you if you keep your datapoints on track
• We email you before charging your card, in case anything went wrong (like any kind of technical problem or confusion or illness)
• If you reply to that email, we believe you and cancel the charge
• (Unless your goal is in No-Excuses Mode!)
• Deadman switch! If you stop using Beeminder altogether, we'll (eventually) stop charging you

Don't forget the meta commitment device

• In case you missed it somehow, part of creating a Beeminder account is committing to actually create a Beeminder goal or be charged $5!

We're 1000% serious about signing up for Beeminder being a commitment device in itself. But we work hard to make sure it's an effective one and that we don't take your money unless you agree we should.

First, you can always email us at [email protected] if you have any trouble! And we'll email you 24 hours before we take your money, so you've got time to let us know if something went wrong.

Another safeguard is that you can delete your whole account instantly in the first week if you're really not liking it. (It's easy after the first week as well, it's just no longer instant since that would defeat the point of the commitment device!)

If I were, hypothetically, to get charged that $5, is it game over?

That really should be hypothetical — it's not actually hard to create a Beeminder goal! But just in case, the answer is no, we'll just plaintively ask you, “if not now, when??” and hope that that finally lights the fire under your butt.