Wallet & Site Credit

Site credit (a.k.a. the customer’s wallet balance) is the single biggest retention lever on a raffle site. Customers who win £5 of credit feel obligated to come back. Customers refunded to wallet rather than card stay in-platform. Customers who play instant-win games at lunch use their wallet for impulse buys. It’s the closest thing a raffle site has to a slot-machine loop.

How customers earn credit

• Winning an instant-win credit prize. Configured on competitions when you seed instant wins. The win amount credits to their wallet immediately on order completion.
• Refunds you process as credit. When a customer requests a refund, you can refund to card (full cash out) or to credit. Credit refunds keep the money in-platform and customers often spend more than they were refunded — economics tip: default to credit unless they specifically ask for card.
• Goodwill credit.From the customer detail page you can credit a customer manually with a reason note. Useful for service recovery (“sorry your prize was delayed”) or VIP gifts.
• Free entry rewards. Some operators give credit for completing onboarding or for referrals. (Affiliate scheme launches in Phase 3 — see Affiliate / Referral Scheme.)

How customers spend credit

At checkout, customers with a wallet balance see a Use my £X credit toggle. They can use all or part of it. Credit is applied to the order before card payment — so an order of £20 with £5 credit used charges the card for £15.

Credit applies to the ticket subtotal, after any discount code is applied (so percentage codes don’t double-count). Free entry tickets don’t use credit — they’re free.

Wallet UI for customers

Each customer has a /account/wallet page on the storefront where they see:

• Current balance
• Transaction history (credits earned, debits spent)
• The win that earned each credit (with link to the competition)
• (Phase 3) Request withdrawalbutton for cashing out, if you’ve enabled withdrawals. See Customer Wallet Withdrawals.

Schema

Every credit movement creates a row in credit_transactions:

• user_id, amount_pence (positive for credit, negative for debit)
• type — instant_win, refund, goodwill, spend, withdrawal
• reference_id — the order, winner, or admin user that triggered the movement
• note — free text for admin-initiated movements

The customer’s balance is the sum of all their credit_transactionsrows — a deliberate design decision (no “balance” column to keep in sync) that makes the audit trail bulletproof.

Operator best practice

• Default refunds to credit. Saves money, retains customers. Offer card-refund only on request.
• Credit small instant wins liberally. 50× £1 credit tier outperforms 5× £10 cash for retention. The customer-success math is unambiguous.
• Don’t use goodwill credit as a complaint silencer. Resolve the actual issue first. Credit is the cherry, not the cake.
• Audit your highest-balance customers.If someone has £500+ in credit, they’re either a VIP or a fraud vector. Sort customers by balance once a month.

Future: Safe Play & Spend Limits — UKGC-style spend caps customers can self-impose. Ships in Phase 2.