Kept Terms of Service
Effective date: 2026-09-22 Version: 2026-09-22 (the first version)
These Terms are the agreement between you and Moritz Rechtalski, a sole proprietorship established in Germany ("Kept", "we", "us"), for the Kept mobile app and the services around it (the "Service"). Please read them. They describe a service in which money is charged to your card when you miss a check-in you committed to, and they contain an arbitration agreement and a class-action waiver (section 15) that affect how disputes are resolved.
By creating an account you accept these Terms and the Privacy Policy. You cannot use Kept without accepting them. The app records which version you accepted and when.
1. Who can use Kept
- You must be at least 18 years old. Kept involves a payment card and money at stake, and we do not offer it to minors.
- You must be a resident of the United States and have a card issued by a U.S. bank. Kept is offered only in the United States.
- You may have one account. It is yours alone: you must not share your login or let anyone else use your account, and you must not create an account for someone else.
- You must give us a working email address and keep it current. Account emails go there.
If any of this stops being true, you must stop using Kept and may delete your account (section 11).
2. What Kept does
Kept is a commitment service. You choose a goal, a schedule of check-ins, a way to prove each check-in with a photo or screenshot, and a stake between $5 and $50 for each check-in. Before the goal starts you read a mandate that states these facts, sign it, and save a payment card.
For each check-in:
- A deadline falls at the time and in the time zone you chose. You have until the deadline plus a grace window of 30 minutes to submit your proof.
- A proof is a photo taken live in the app, or a screenshot from your gallery for goals that ask for one, showing what your goal's requirement describes.
- The proof is checked, first by an automated image check and, when that check rejects it, by a person (section 4). An uncertain result counts in your favor.
- If no valid proof arrives by the end of the grace window, or a proof is rejected and the rejection stands, the check-in is missed and the stake for that check-in becomes payable (section 3).
- You can appeal a rejection or a missed check-in within 24 hours in the app. A person reads every appeal (section 6).
You can cancel a goal at any time. Cancelling drops every check-in that is not yet due, and nothing is charged for those. Check-ins that were already missed remain payable, and a check-in whose deadline has already passed is not dropped by cancelling. Goals cannot be edited after they start, so that what you signed stays what applies; you can cancel and create a new one.
Kept charges for missed check-ins. Nothing else in the Service costs money today. If a paid subscription is introduced later, section 8 applies.
3. Your payment authorization
This section, together with the mandate you sign for each goal, is your agreement that Kept may charge your saved card without you being present at the time of the charge. Card networks require this agreement for saved-card payments, and it says:
- What you authorize. You authorize Kept to charge the card you saved for the stake of each check-in of a goal that you miss without a valid proof, up to the total stated in that goal's mandate (the stake multiplied by the number of check-ins).
- How the amount is determined. The stake is the amount you chose when you created the goal, shown in the mandate. Each missed check-in is charged once, for exactly that amount, in U.S. dollars. There are no other fees.
- When charges happen. A charge is not scheduled. It happens after a check-in is missed and a person has confirmed the charge, usually within a few days of the missed deadline. You are told in the app and by notification when a check-in is missed and when a charge is made.
- How to end it. You can cancel a goal at any time, which stops all future check-ins of that goal, and you can remove your card in Settings once no goal has an open check-in and no charge is being settled. Ending the authorization does not undo a check-in that was already missed; its stake stays payable.
- Records. We keep the mandate you signed, your signature, the time and device of your consent, and the record of each charge, and we provide them to your bank if you dispute a charge.
- Changes. If we change the stake range, the grace window, or the way charges work, we will tell you in the app and ask you to accept the new Terms before creating another goal. Goals already running keep the terms of the mandate you signed for them.
We use Stripe to save cards and process charges. Your full card number never reaches us. If a charge fails because the card was declined, we may retry it a limited number of times over the following days, and we may pause your ability to create new goals until the stake is settled. We do not use collection agencies.
4. How proofs are decided
- An automated image check gives each proof a first verdict: pass, fail, or uncertain. It checks whether the required situation or object is visible. It never identifies people and never uses face recognition (see the Privacy Policy, section 2).
- Uncertain counts as a pass. Kept resolves doubt in your favor.
- A confident fail is not final: a person reviews the image and decides. Only a person can confirm a rejection, and only a person can confirm a charge.
- For some check-ins the app shows a short challenge code that must be visible in the photo. This is a spot check against reused images. A photo without the code, when the code was required, is rejected.
- A proof that appears to be a reused or edited image goes to a person for review rather than being rejected automatically.
We work in good faith to decide every proof correctly, and we will always tell you why a proof was rejected. Even so, the decision is ours to make, and section 6 is your remedy if you disagree.
5. Not a game, not a bet
Kept is not gambling, a lottery, a sweepstakes, or a contest. There is no prize, no pool, no winnings, and no element of chance. The only outcomes are that you keep your money by doing what you committed to, or that the stake you chose is charged when you do not. The stake is the agreed price of the accountability service for a check-in you elected not to prove, not a fine, a wager, or compensation for any loss of ours. You may cancel any goal before its next deadline and owe nothing for the check-ins that are dropped.
6. Appeals, refunds, and disputes with your bank
- Appeal first. You can appeal any rejected or missed check-in within 24 hours in the app. A person reads it and decides. If the appeal is accepted, the check-in counts as kept and any charge for it is refunded to your card, usually within 5 to 10 business days depending on your bank.
- Refunds happen only through an accepted appeal or when we made an error. A charge for a check-in that was genuinely missed is not refundable, because it is the service working as agreed.
- Please talk to us before your bank. You keep every right you have under law to dispute a charge with your card issuer. We ask that you use the appeal first, because it is faster, you keep the goal, and our review is done by a person who can see the whole record. A chargeback and an appeal for the same charge cannot both succeed; if you open a chargeback, we will respond to your bank with the records described in section 3.
7. Your responsibilities
You agree to:
- submit only proofs that are genuine: taken by you, for this check-in, and unedited;
- not try to defeat the image check, the challenge code, or the review;
- not use Kept for any unlawful purpose or in a way that harms other users or the Service;
- keep your login secret and tell us at info@keptgoals.com if you think someone else has used your account.
A proof that is not genuine is a rejected proof, and a pattern of them may lead us to close your account (section 11).
8. Subscriptions (when introduced)
Kept has no subscription today. If we introduce one, it will be sold through Google Play Billing, its price, billing period, and renewal terms will be shown before you subscribe, it will renew only with your affirmative agreement, and you will be able to cancel it online from within the app or through Google Play at any time, with the cancellation taking effect at the end of the paid period. The stake charges in section 3 are not a subscription and are not processed through Google Play.
9. Privacy
How we handle your information is described in the Privacy Policy, which is part of these Terms. In short: we collect only what the Service needs, we do not sell it, proof images are checked for objects and situations and never for identity, and the records of your consents and charges are kept for as long as the law requires even after you delete your account.
10. The app and our content
We grant you a personal, non-transferable, revocable license to install and use the Kept app on your own device for your own goals. Everything in the app, other than what you upload, is ours or our licensors' and stays so. What you upload stays yours; you give us the right to store, process, review, and keep it as these Terms and the Privacy Policy describe. You may not copy, modify, reverse-engineer, or resell the app, or use automated tools against the Service.
11. Ending the agreement
- By you. Delete your account in Settings or by email (see keptgoals.com/delete-account). Deletion is possible once no goal has an open check-in and no charge is being settled. Stakes for check-ins already missed remain payable.
- By us. We may suspend or close your account if you break these Terms, submit false proofs, dispute charges you agreed to without using the appeal, or if the law requires it. We will tell you why unless the law forbids it. Closing the account does not cancel a stake already payable, and does not affect a refund you are owed.
- What survives. Sections 3 (for check-ins already missed), 5, 6, 9, 12 to 16, and any payment obligation that arose before the end.
12. Disclaimer of warranties
Kept is provided "as is" and "as available". We do not promise that the Service will be uninterrupted, error-free, or that every proof decision will be perfect; our promise is the process in sections 4 and 6. Kept is a tool for your own goals: we do not promise that you will reach them, and Kept is not medical, fitness, financial, or professional advice. To the extent the law allows, we disclaim all implied warranties, including merchantability and fitness for a particular purpose. Nothing in this section limits rights that the law does not allow to be limited.
13. Limitation of liability
To the extent the law allows, Kept is not liable to you for indirect, incidental, special, consequential, or punitive damages, or for lost profits or data, arising out of the Service. To the extent the law allows, our total liability to you for all claims arising out of the Service in any twelve-month period is limited to the greater of $100 and the total of stakes you paid to Kept in that period.
This limitation does not apply to liability that the law does not allow to be limited, including liability for fraud, for willful misconduct, for death or personal injury caused by our negligence, or for a violation of law. Some states do not allow certain limitations; the paragraph below says how this section applies in those states.
New Jersey residents: sections 12 and 13 do not limit any right you have under the New Jersey Consumer Fraud Act or the Truth-in-Consumer Contract, Warranty and Notice Act; apart from that, sections 12 and 13 apply in New Jersey as written. California residents: the waiver in section 13 does not apply to claims under Cal. Civ. Code § 1668 or to rights under the Consumers Legal Remedies Act, which cannot be waived.
14. Changes to these Terms
We may change these Terms. When we do, the new version gets a new date at the top, and the app asks you to read and accept it before you continue using Kept. We keep every version and the record of which one you accepted. A change that affects money — the stake range, the grace window, the way charges or refunds work, or section 15 — never applies to a goal that is already running; that goal keeps the mandate you signed for it. If you do not accept a new version, you can still delete your account and any refund you are owed is still paid.
15. Dispute resolution: informal resolution, arbitration, class-action waiver
Please read this section carefully. It affects your rights.
Talk to us first. If you have a dispute with Kept, write to info@keptgoals.com with your account email and what happened. We will try to resolve it within 30 days. Most problems with Kept are about a single check-in and are solved by the appeal in the app or by an email.
Arbitration. If we cannot resolve it informally, you and Kept agree that any dispute arising out of or relating to these Terms or the Service will be resolved by binding individual arbitration administered by the American Arbitration Association (AAA) under its Consumer Arbitration Rules, rather than in court, except as stated below. The Federal Arbitration Act governs this section. The arbitration will be held by video or telephone, or in the county where you live, and the arbitrator may award you the same individual relief a court could. Kept will pay the AAA's fees above the consumer filing fee set by the AAA rules, and will not seek its attorneys' fees from you unless the arbitrator finds your claim frivolous.
Small claims. Either of us may bring an individual claim in small-claims court in your county of residence instead, as long as it stays there and stays individual.
Class-action waiver. You and Kept agree to bring claims only in an individual capacity, and not as a plaintiff or class member in any class, consolidated, or representative action. The arbitrator may not consolidate claims of more than one person. If this waiver is found unenforceable for a particular claim, that claim (and only that claim) must be brought in court, and the rest of this section still applies to the others.
Public injunctive relief. Nothing in this section waives your right to seek public injunctive relief where the law of your state does not allow that right to be waived; such a claim will be heard in court after the arbitration of all other claims.
Opt-out. You can reject this arbitration agreement by emailing info@keptgoals.com with the subject "Arbitration opt-out" from your account email within 30 days of first accepting these Terms. Opting out has no other effect on your account.
Severability. If any part of this section other than the class-action waiver is found unenforceable, the rest of it still applies.
16. Governing law
These Terms and any dispute under them are governed by the laws of the State of [state to be chosen with counsel] and the Federal Arbitration Act, without regard to conflict-of-law rules. This choice does not take away any protection you have under the consumer-protection laws of the state where you live that cannot be changed by agreement.
17. Other terms
- Electronic records and signatures. You agree that the mandate, your signature drawn on screen, these Terms, and the notices we send you in the app or by email are electronic records and signatures with the same effect as paper. You can ask us for a paper or PDF copy of any agreement at any time, and you can withdraw your consent to electronic records by deleting your account; the records already made remain valid. To use Kept you need an Android phone that runs the current version of the app, an email account, and an internet connection.
- Entire agreement. These Terms, the Privacy Policy, and each goal's mandate are the whole agreement between you and Kept about the Service.
- Assignment. You may not transfer your account or these Terms. We may transfer them to a successor who takes over the Service, and we will tell you before that happens.
- No waiver. If we do not enforce a term, we can still enforce it later.
- Severability. If a term is unenforceable, the rest still applies.
- Contact and business address. Moritz Rechtalski, Weidenweg 11, 17498 Dargelin, Germany, info@keptgoals.com; see also keptgoals.com/imprint. Our return and refund policy is section 6.