Everything given away on Zelbi is free. There is one fee on the whole platform: $2.00 to claim an item, paid by the person claiming it. Nothing else costs anything, and no money ever passes between you and the other person.
The person claiming an item pays the $2.00 claim fee. The person giving the item away pays nothing and receives nothing — Zelbi does not pay givers, and a giver's card is never charged for any reason.
The fee is charged once per claim. Claiming a second item is a second fee.
When you claim an item we place a $2.00 authorization hold on your card. A hold is not a charge. The money has not left your account; your bank sets it aside and usually shows it as a pending line on your statement.
Your card details go directly to Stripe, our payment processor. Zelbi never sees or stores your card number. Your card is saved with Stripe so that the fee can be processed later without asking you to enter it again.
The hold becomes a real charge in five situations:
That last one is worth reading twice, because it is the most common way the fee ends up being taken. If the handoff happens and nobody opens the app afterwards, silence is treated as a completed pickup and you are charged.
The hold is removed and you are not charged when:
A release is not a refund. Nothing was charged, so nothing is given back and no refund appears on your statement — the pending line simply disappears. Your bank decides how quickly that happens, and it can take a few days.
When a credit covers your claim, the $2.00 hold is still placed on your card. In the situations where the fee would be taken, the credit is used up instead and the hold is released, so your card is not charged. In the situations where the hold is released anyway, the credit stays available for another claim.
Cancelling is free until two hours before your scheduled pickup time. The cut-off is measured against that time exactly: cancelling at precisely two hours before is still free. After that point, and at any time after the pickup time itself, the fee is taken — and the claim is recorded as a missed pickup, not a cancellation, which is how it appears on your receipt.
If the other person didn't show, tell us from the handoff. Your $2.00 is still taken as usual. If we confirm they missed it, you get a Zelbi credit that covers the fee on your next pickup.
If the item is meaningfully different from the listing, report it and explain what was wrong. Zelbi will review the issue before deciding whether the $2 claim fee should be refunded. Report it in the app (Report a problem, then The item, then Not there or not as described) or tap Contact support on the item's receipt. Declining an item at pickup does not stop the fee being taken on its own — the review is what decides it.
Once the fee has been processed, there is no button anywhere in the app that returns it, and we do not offer refunds on request. The routes back are the item problem above, where a person looks at what you raise and, if decided in your favour, we refund the $2.00 to the card you paid with, and the giver no-show credit above.
There is no fee to create an account, to list an item, to message anyone, or to give something away. There is no subscription and no commission. If that ever changes, you will be told before any new charge applies to you.
All amounts are in US dollars. Payments are processed by Stripe. Zelbi is operated by Zelbi Inc., a Delaware corporation based in Washington State, and the service is offered only in the United States.
Email support@zelbi.ai Payment history in Settings shows a reference for each claim — including it helps us find your claim quickly.