The Clear card and paying at shops

The Clear card

The card opens once your identity is verified. See Getting started.

Virtual and physical cards

Your first card is virtual and works the moment it exists, online. From the Card page, New card adds another:

• A virtual card — online only, issued straight away, with its own number. Nothing is charged for it. You can freeze it without touching your physical card.
• A physical card — tap, chip and online. It is posted to the home address in Settings → Personal information, and a card can't be posted until that address is filled in. It arrives frozen. To activate it, enter the last four digits printed on it.

Every card you hold spends from the same limit, in the same order.

What the card spends from

You never choose. The card spends your cash first, then your credit, cheapest tier first: Savings-backed, then Asset-backed, then Income-backed, then Clear Boost if you've added it. The Card page lays this out under Spends from, with each tier's rate. How the tiers work is in Credit.

A card purchase that's been approved but hasn't settled counts as used straight away, because you can't spend it twice.

Managing a card

• Freeze stops new purchases on that card. Unfreeze turns it back on, and asks for Face ID when payment protection is on. Anything already spent stays where it was.
• Details shows the card number when you ask, and hides it again when you close it. This also asks for Face ID when payment protection is on.
• Set a PIN. The PIN is entered in the card issuer's own field, not Clear's.

The Card page lists the card's own transactions. Activity shows everything, card and otherwise.

If your card is lost, stolen or damaged

Freeze it first. Freezing stops new purchases on that card straight away, and the card stays frozen until you unfreeze it. Freezing one card doesn't touch your other cards.

Replacing a card. Not available yet.

To keep spending, add another card from New card — see Virtual and physical cards.

Dispute anything you didn't make. See Disputes.

Spending limits and controls

Not available yet.

Paying at a shop

At a Clear shop you don't need the card. The shop asks for an amount and you approve it on your own phone — nothing is taken until you do.

Scan the shop's code

Tap Scan and point your camera at the QR code on the shop's screen. If the camera isn't available, type the eight-character code instead. Scanning a Clear Point's code opens that table's bill.

Show your Clear code

Your Clear code says who you are, not an amount. Hold it up at the counter, the shop enters the figure, and the charge arrives on your phone. It shows as a banner on Send and Activity, and every charge a shop has sent you is listed in Shop charges.

Approving a charge

The charge shows the shop, who raised it, when, the amount and what it includes. Then one question: pay now, or over time.

Pay now takes the whole amount from Ready to allocate, and there's nothing to clear later. Where the shop pays Clear a fee on it, the screen says how much. If you're short, the screen tells you how much, and offers to add money or to pay over time instead. Paying a shop from your card cash (Spendable) is not available yet.

Pay over time opens a plan on your term limit. Choose Next cycle, or In 2, In 4 or In 12 cycles. The sheet shows your first payment and the rate before you approve. Paying over time is for charges of $50 or more, and some shops offer Pay now only. How plans work is in Credit.

Decline is under the pay button. Nothing is charged, and the shop sees it at once.

A charge you don't answer expires after 24 hours.

Paying on a shop's website

A shop that takes Pay with Clear online sends you to an approval sheet in the app. It works the same way — Pay now or Over time where the shop allows it — and the button says what it will do. Once you've approved, you're sent back to the shop's site.

If something went wrong

You can dispute a card payment, or a payment to a Clear shop or partner. See Disputes.

Related

• Credit
• For shops: Merchants