Terms of Service

Eligibility

You must be at least 18 years old and have the legal capacity to enter a binding agreement. You are responsible for ensuring that your use of our services is permitted under the laws that apply to you.

Acceptable use

Nocturne is a privacy-first payment product. Privacy is a right; crime is not. A card is for your own personal, family, or household spending, and payment patterns that do not fit ordinary consumer use may be limited or blocked by us, the card networks, or the issuing institution.

You agree not to use a card, or the funds behind it, for any of the following:

• Money laundering, terrorist financing, or moving the proceeds of crime
• Sanctions evasion, or transacting with sanctioned people, entities, wallets, smart contracts, or regions
• Coin mixers, tumblers, or other privacy services designed to obscure the origin of funds
• Fraud, theft, unauthorised use of payment credentials, misrepresenting your identity or source of funds, or transacting on behalf of undisclosed third parties
• Weapons or ammunition; controlled substances without proper licensing; counterfeit, pirated, or trademark-infringing goods
• Child sexual abuse material or any unlawful content; human trafficking, escort services, or prostitution
• Gambling, betting, lotteries, or games of chance: the issuer closes these merchant categories outright (see the closed categories below)
• Pyramid, Ponzi, or other deceptive financial schemes
• Funding violence, extremism, or terrorism, or promoting hate or discrimination against people for who they are
• Impersonating Nocturne or our partners, or using our names or branding without written permission
• Circumventing network, jurisdiction, or risk controls (lawful connectivity to reach the service is a separate matter, see §3)

Separately from the list above, the card networks and the issuing institution keep a set of closed merchant categories: merchant types, lawful or not, that will not authorise on a card at any balance. As of the last update to this page they are:

• Gambling and betting: casinos, sportsbooks, lotteries, poker and betting sites, online or in person
• Casinos and gaming venues: named casino, casino-hotel and gaming properties carry their own closed codes in addition to the gambling category
• Cash withdrawal: ATM withdrawals and manual bank cash-out desks
• Airlines (legacy carrier codes): a set of legacy airline merchant codes the issuer keeps closed
• Restricted retail: pawn shops, dealers in antique reproductions, and inbound teleservice sellers
• Political and religious organisations
• Automated fuel pumps: pay-at-the-pump dispensers (attended fuel counters are ordinary retail)

Blocking runs on the merchant’s registered category code (MCC): what matters is how the merchant is registered with the networks, not what is in the basket. The operative, always-current list (every category, with every code) is published in your dashboard on the Cards page and shown again before you mint. A charge at a closed category always declines; the first draws a warning, and a repeat within a month locks the card. You can unlock it yourself once per month after confirming you have seen the closed categories, and a closed-category charge after an unlock retires the card permanently: its balance returns to your wallet automatically, and the card fee is not refunded.

Some other lawful activities are restricted rather than closed: they may require additional review, carry lower limits, or authorise inconsistently. These include DAOs, investment clubs, and other pooled-fund vehicles; the licensed sale of regulated substances; and high-risk NFT or tokenised-gaming platforms.

A card is also not a way to move cash. ATM and manual cash withdrawals decline under the closed categories above. Other cash-equivalent uses (money orders, person-to-person transfers, buying gift cards or other stored value, and purchasing crypto assets) are against these terms even where a merchant’s registered category lets a charge authorise: we may decline or reverse them, repeated attempts can lead to suspension, and where a rewards programme applies they never earn it; rewards are for genuine purchases of goods and services only.

These categories track the card networks’ and issuer’s own acceptable-use rules, which can change without notice and which we apply in addition to the prohibitions above; further categories may be closed or restricted at any time, and the dashboard list is always the operative one. We cooperate with lawful, valid legal process and will act on credible evidence of abuse, including suspending or terminating access.

Jurisdiction restrictions

Our services are not available in sanctioned or prohibited jurisdictions and may be unavailable where local law forbids them. You are solely responsible for compliance with the laws of your country, including any tax obligations.

Connectivity, not eligibility, may also limit access: some networks, including parts of Russia and the CIS, apply regional filtering that can block the dashboard or a checkout page. Reaching the service through a VPN or a residential connection in a supported region is permitted and affects only how you connect, never the validity of a card. This does not authorise use in any sanctioned or prohibited jurisdiction, which remains forbidden regardless of how you connect.

Third-party issuers and networks

Cards are issued by third-party financial institutions and run on third-party international card networks. Their terms, rules, and limits also apply, and certain merchants may impose additional verification (for example 3-D Secure) that we do not control.

Acceptance is ultimately the merchant’s decision. A merchant or service may decline a card under its own card-type, country, or risk policies, which are outside our control; such a decline is not a defect in the card, and we are not liable for any individual merchant’s acceptance decision. For the smoothest acceptance we recommend transacting over a residential connection in the card’s billing country and entering card details directly rather than through a stored wallet.

You are responsible for every transaction authorised with your card, including any payment you clear through 3-D Secure or a stored wallet. Nocturne does not mediate disputes between you and a merchant and cannot reverse, refund, or charge back a payment a merchant has captured. If an order is wrong, undelivered, or you want a refund, you must resolve it directly with the merchant under their terms. Keep your card number, security code, and any verification codes confidential; you are liable for transactions completed using them.

Funding and balances

You fund cards using crypto assets. Crypto transactions are generally irreversible. Loaded balances are spendable funds, not bank deposits: they are not insured, may be subject to network volatility and fees, and you should treat them accordingly. Do not load more than you are prepared to spend. A live card that repeatedly attempts payments with no available balance may be flagged and blocked by the card networks, so keep a small balance on any card you intend to use.

Send only the quoted asset, on the quoted network, to the address we display. Transfers of other assets or on other networks cannot be recovered. If less than the quoted amount arrives, we credit what arrived at the quoted terms (pro rata); you may send the remainder to the same address to complete the load. If a transfer is returned to the sender by us or by our payment processor, any corresponding credit is reversed in your statement.

AML screening and sanctioned funds

Nocturne does not accept sanctioned or tainted funds. Incoming payments are subject to automated AML/compliance screening, including screening performed by our payment processing partners. Privacy is the product; laundering is not.

• Screening operates on provenance: it analyses the on-chain history of a transfer on transparent networks. Assets that are private by design carry no readable transaction history, so provenance analysis does not arise for them; every transfer remains subject to sanctions law and valid legal process regardless of network.
• A transfer flagged by screening may be held while the originator is asked to complete verification with the processor. Held funds are not credited until screening clears.
• A held transfer cannot be returned while verification is pending: reversal toward the sending address becomes possible only once the processor’s review concludes. This applies solely to transfers flagged as high-risk or tainted; ordinary payments are never held.
• If verification is declined or fails, the transfer may be returned toward the sending address per the processor’s policy (network fees may be deducted), or otherwise handled as required by law. Where a credit was already issued for such a transfer, we may reverse it.
• We may suspend accounts that repeatedly attract flagged transfers, and we cooperate with lawful, valid legal process.
• Card activity is also subject to transaction monitoring by us, the issuing institutions, and the card networks; unusual spending patterns can lead to a card being paused while the activity is reviewed.
• Where a flagged transfer or flagged activity requires it, we reserve the right to ask you for information about the transfer or activity (handled case by case, retained only as long as the review requires, see the privacy policy). Declining to answer may leave the funds held per the processor’s policy or the account suspended.

Fees and limits

Applicable fees and limits are described on our website and may change; a change that increases a fee takes effect no sooner than 14 daysafter it is published on the pricing page, and never applies retroactively to money already moved. Deposits are credited at par minus a flat network fee of 0.49% per deposit, the same on every asset. Card creation and card-load fees are charged when you mint and load a card; the card-load rate follows the published volume ladder, read off your trailing last-30-days load volume; approved payments themselves carry no fee from us. A declined payment attempt carries the issuing bank's own fixed charge (currently $0.25), which is passed through at cost and itemised on the transaction line. Repeated declines on an empty card can also lead the network to block it, so we recommend keeping a small balance on live cards. When a merchant refunds a purchase, the issuer retains a fixed 1.5% of the refunded amount; the refund is credited to your card net of that retained percentage, itemised on the transaction line. Purchases billed in a currency other than the card's settlement currency carry the card network's own regular conversion fee (typically around 1% of the converted amount), which is itemised on the transaction line in your dashboard; it is passed through at cost and we add no margin to it. Cards are issued for a minimum of two years from mint (the exact validity depends on the card program); the exact expiry is printed on the card and shown at reveal, and we email you before it lapses. A card carries no monthly fee, but to keep a scarce, collateral-backed card slot in use we ask for modest activity of $29 per month: a card left idle for three months is retired after a written warning and a seven-day grace period; any balance is returned to your account, and a fresh card is reissued. Per-transaction and periodic limits depend on your tier, the network, and the merchant. Withdrawals and payouts carry the network fee of the chain you choose, shown before you confirm, and are charged in the asset being withdrawn.

Card replacement is available for genuine provisioning faults, most commonly an Aurora that cannot be added to Google Pay after standard troubleshooting (selecting email rather than SMS for the verification code, and retrying on a residential connection). Apple Pay provisioning is determined by Apple from your Apple account region, device and network and cannot be guaranteed, so it is not itself grounds for replacement; Google Pay is the supported wallet on the Aurora cut and carries the same card. Replacement also does not extend to a functioning card that a particular merchant declines, which is a merchant-acceptance matter rather than a card fault.

Referral programme · fair use

The partner programme pays a commission on cards minted through your link, settled instantly to your balance and withdrawable from the published minimum. It exists to reward genuine referrals, and it is governed by these fair-use rules:

• No self-referrals: minting cards through your own link, or through accounts you control, is not a referral.
• No farming: creating accounts, recycling balances, or coordinating purchases primarily to harvest commission or discounts is abuse.
• No deception: no spam, bought or incentivised traffic presented as organic, forced redirects, brand impersonation, or bidding on our name.
• Lawful audiences only: links promoted to or used for unlawful activity forfeit the programme.

We may withhold, reverse, or decline to pay out commission attributable to abuse, and may close the programme for an account on credible evidence of it. Commission earned in good faith remains payable.

No financial advice

Nothing we publish is financial, legal, or tax advice. You make your own decisions.

Suspension and termination

We may suspend or terminate access to protect users, the networks, or the integrity of the service, including suspected fraud or abuse, violations of these Terms, repeated flagged transfers, or where the law or a lawful order requires it. You may close your account at any time from the dashboard.

On closure or termination, live cards are retired. A remaining card or account balance is returned to you, by withdrawal to a wallet you control, except where funds are subject to a pending compliance review, are required to be withheld by law, or were credited from a transfer that failed verification (handled per the AML section above). Card fees and load fees already charged are not refunded. Idle-card handling (the $29-a-month activity minimum) is described in the fees section.

Disclaimers and limitation of liability

The service is provided “as is” without warranties of any kind. To the maximum extent permitted by law, Nocturne is not liable for indirect, incidental, or consequential damages, or for losses arising from crypto volatility, network outages, or the actions of merchants, acquirers, issuers, or card networks, including a merchant’s or service’s decision to decline, restrict, or refuse a card. Those decisions rest with the relevant third parties and do not constitute a failure of the service.

To the maximum extent permitted by law, our total aggregate liability for any claim arising out of or relating to the service is limited to the fees you paid to us in the twelve months preceding the event giving rise to the claim.

Governing law

These Terms are governed by the laws of the State of Wyoming, United States, without regard to conflict-of-law principles. Disputes that cannot be resolved informally with the desk shall be brought in the state or federal courts located in Wyoming, and both sides consent to their jurisdiction. Nothing in this section deprives you of mandatory consumer protections of the country where you live.

Changes

We may update these Terms. Material changes will be reflected by updating this page and, for changes that materially reduce your rights, notified by email or a dashboard notice before they take effect. Continued use after changes constitutes acceptance.

Contact

Questions about these Terms? Reach us at hello@nocturne.cards. Nocturne · Noctavel LLC, 30 N Gould St, Ste N, Sheridan, WY 82801, United States.