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Spending Limits at Checkout

How a customer's Safe Play spending limit is measured at the checkout, what counts towards it, and why a purchase might be blocked.

When a customer sets a spending limit through Safe Play, the platform keeps a running total of what they have spent and checks it every time they try to pay. If a purchase would take them over their limit, it is blocked with a clear on-screen message. This page explains exactly what counts, how the period is measured, and why a customer might occasionally be told they are at their limit when they think they should not be.

How the period is measured

A customer's spend is totalled over a fixed calendar period, not a rolling window counted from the day they set the limit.

  • Per week: counted from the start of the current week. Weeks start on Monday.

  • Per month: counted from the 1st of the current month.

  • Per year: counted from 1 January of the current year.

At the start of each new period the running total resets to zero, so the customer's allowance refreshes on Monday, on the 1st, or on 1 January depending on the frequency they chose.

This is the question customers ask most. A weekly limit set on a Friday still resets the following Monday, not seven days later. A monthly limit set on the 28th still resets on the 1st. The limit follows the calendar, so it can refresh sooner than someone expecting a rolling seven or thirty day window would assume.

What counts towards the limit

A spending limit is about real money leaving the customer's bank, so it counts the moment money actually changes hands.

  • Card and PayPal payments count. Any order paid for with a card or with PayPal adds to the total.

  • Topping up wallet credit counts. When a customer adds money to their wallet, that money is counted straight away, because that is the moment it leaves their bank.

  • Paying with existing wallet credit does NOT count. If a customer pays for an order using credit already sitting in their wallet, it is not counted again. That money was already counted when it was added to the wallet, so counting it a second time would be double counting.

A wallet top-up is only ever counted once. A customer who tops up their wallet and later spends that credit sees the top-up count towards their limit one time, at the point they topped up, and never again when they spend it.

To learn more about how wallet credit works, see Site Credit & Wallets.

What happens at checkout

Before an order or a wallet top-up is taken, the platform compares the running total against the customer's limit.

  • If the order would push them over their limit, the purchase is blocked with a message telling them the limit would be exceeded and asking them to reduce the order size.

  • If the limit has already been reached, the purchase is blocked with a message saying the limit has been reached.

The same checks apply to wallet top-ups as well as to ordering tickets, so a customer cannot get around a limit by topping up instead of buying directly.

Pending orders and the short hold

When working out how much a customer has already spent, the platform counts both completed orders and orders that are still waiting to be paid (pending orders). An order a customer has started but not yet finished paying for still counts against their allowance.

Pending orders keep counting until they are automatically cancelled a short while after the order was started. The on-screen message a customer sees explains that pending orders are included until they clear. Once an abandoned order is cancelled, the allowance it was holding frees back up.

A customer who abandons a checkout and immediately tries again may briefly be told they are at their limit. Their previous unfinished attempt is still being counted until it clears. They have two easy options: wait a few minutes for the abandoned order to be cancelled automatically, or simply complete the original order. The on-screen message tells them pending orders are included until they are automatically cancelled, so customers are not left guessing.

Disabled accounts

Safe Play is also what enforces a self-imposed account block. If a customer has chosen to disable their own account, both checkout and wallet top-ups are blocked with a message saying the account is disabled. This is intentional and is part of giving customers control over their own play. For more on the protections available to customers, see Player Protections.

Relaxing a limit

A customer can lower a limit and it takes effect straight away. Increasing a limit, removing it, or changing how often it applies is subject to a cooling off period that you set as the operator. That waiting period is explained in full on the Safe Play Setting page under Spend Limit Cooldown.

Most blocked purchases are not a fault. They mean Safe Play is doing its job. If a customer is confused about why a purchase was stopped, walk them through the period reset and the short pending hold above, and the picture usually becomes clear.

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