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Frequently Asked Questions
Product
What does TaskRatchet do?
TaskRatchet is a todo list where you stake money on completing tasks by deadlines. Define your task, set your deadline, and choose your stakes. If you miss the deadline, you pay the amount you staked.
How is TaskRatchet different from Beeminder?
First, TaskRatchet and Beeminder go great together, so definitely check out our Beeminder integration.
Beeminder and TaskRatchet are quite similar—they are both tools for committing yourself to future behaviors by putting money on the line. However they differ in several ways:
- TaskRatchet has a very simple todo list interface, whereas Beeminder exposes a much more complex and powerful user interface.
- TaskRatchet only supports binary commitments, whereas Beeminder lets you track anything that can be quantified.
- TaskRatchet is focused on tracking your current commitments, whereas Beeminder also has a great deal of utility as a tool for collecting quantified-self style historical data.
- TaskRatchet supports one-off commitments as a first-class citizen, whereas Beeminder is built strictly for ongoing commitments, making very short-term commitments difficult to manage using the platform.
We like to think that these differences allow Beeminder and TaskRatchet to complement each other by allowing for a broader range of use cases than one alone could support.
Why doesn't TaskRatchet have [feature]?
TaskRatchet is built and maintained by two part-time developers, so we may plan to have certain features that we just haven't had the time to build yet. Or, maybe we haven't thought of the feature yet! Email us at support@taskratchet.com with any ideas, suggestions, or feedback. We love hearing your ideas!
You can also suggest and vote for ideas here, though we would recommend that you also email us, since we keep a separate record of missing features and the users who want them.
Payments
Is TaskRatchet free?
Yes! TaskRatchet is free to use. You only pay when you miss a deadline.
Why does TaskRatchet need my payment details?
TaskRatchet charges you if you miss deadlines. Without payment details, there's no way to enforce the commitments you make.
What payment methods does TaskRatchet accept?
TaskRatchet accepts most major credit and debit cards. We process payments through Stripe, a secure payment processor.
When does TaskRatchet charge me?
Soon after you miss a deadline, TaskRatchet will email you letting you know you're about to be charged, and a charge will appear in your bank account. You can reply to this email to pause the charge and let us know that the charge isn't legit. Once we've canceled the charge, it will disappear from your bank account.
What happens if I'm charged by mistake?
If you completed your task but forgot to mark it complete, or if you believe you were charged in error, reply to the charge notification email. We can cancel charges that haven't been finalized or issue refunds for completed charges.
What happens if my card is declined or a charge fails?
If a charge fails—for example, because of insufficient funds or a declined card—TaskRatchet retries automatically. A charge goes through two stages: first we authorize the amount, then we capture it. Each stage is retried up to 4 times, with attempts spaced roughly 6 hours apart, so a failing charge keeps being attempted for about a day per stage.
If every retry fails, the charge is not silently dropped. We give up and send you a "Payment Failed" email letting you know the charge for that task didn't go through. When the failure was a card decline, that email includes the reason your bank gave so you can fix it on your end (for example, by adding funds or updating your card).
We do not, however, keep the amount owed open indefinitely or re-attempt it later on its own. Once a charge has permanently failed, that task's charge is closed. If you want to make good on a missed task after fixing your payment method, email us at support@taskratchet.com.
Why was my task rejected for exceeding a monthly limit?
Every account has a monthly stakes limit — a cap on the total you can stake across all the tasks you create in a calendar month. It defaults to $200. Once a month's stakes would exceed it, new tasks are refused until the next month begins.
You can raise it, lower it, or remove it entirely: go to your settings page and edit the Monthly Stakes Limit section. See Monthly Stakes Limit for the details of how it's counted.
If you're using the API, note that there's a second, separate cap. The Monthly API Charge Limit (default $100) applies only to charges made through the API's charge endpoint, not to task stakes. The two limits don't draw from each other.
Can I try TaskRatchet out without adding my payment details?
TaskRatchet is not designed to be used without a payment method. Since any charges for late tasks won't succeed without valid payment details, TaskRatchet won't be able to enforce the commitments you've made. For that reason, new users are required to add a payment method during the registration process.
Does TaskRatchet support PayPal?
No, but send an email to support@taskratchet.com anyway to let us know you wish we did! Also include where you're located and if there are any other payment methods that might work for you.
Account Management
How do I unsubscribe from the daily summary emails?
You can turn them off yourself. Go to your settings page, find the Notifications section, and switch off Summaries. That covers the daily pending-tasks email and any other periodic roundup.
The Alerts toggle in that same section is separate — it controls heads-up notices like a connected integration that's stopped working. You can turn one off and keep the other.
Billing and payment emails — charge warnings, receipts, and payment failures — are always sent and can't be switched off. They're how you find out money is about to move, so we don't let them be muted.
If the toggles aren't doing what you expect, email support@taskratchet.com and we'll sort it out.
How can I deactivate or delete my account?
Send an email to support@taskratchet.com letting us know whether you'd like us to delete or just deactivate your account, and we'll get it done as soon as we can.