Managing Your Whatnot Experience: Account Controls

You come to Whatnot to find the things you love and connect with people, and we want to ensure every buyer and seller has a positive experience. Account Controls give you simple, intuitive tools to monitor and control how you spend your time and money.

Account controls have three basic functions that operate the same way for watch time and spend.

1. See - your weekly/monthly total time/spend
2. Remind - set a value for time/spend per week/month and receive a reminder when you reach it
3. Limit - set a value for time/spend per week/month and be prevented from continuing to watch/spend after you reach that value until the end of the week/month

Setting up Account Controls

Account Controls are easy to find and manage directly within the Whatnot app.

How to Access Account Controls

1. Navigate to your Account tab (iOS/Android)
2. Select Account Controls.
3. On the Account Controls screen, you can 
   1. View your current Watch Time and enable watch time reminders or limits
   2. View your current Spend Controls and enable spend reminders or limits
   3. Manage your Account Controls PIN, DM, Private Entry and Activity Status settings

Setting Your Account Control PIN

To prevent accidental changes, reminders and limits require an Account Control PIN

• You will be asked to input and repeat a new PIN the first time you set a reminder or limit
• You can reset the PIN by correctly entering the prior PIN and then a new PIN twice

Watch Time Controls

Watch Time Controls allow you to see how much time you've spent watching live shows and set a reminder or limit. 

Viewing Your Watch Time

• You can see your total Watch Time for the Calendar Week and Calendar Month. We calculate these Sunday 00:00 to Saturday 23:59 GMT and 1st of the month 00:00 to last day of the month 23:59 GMT

Watch Time Reminders 

A Watch Time Reminder will notify you when you reach a set threshold but still allow you to continue watching.

Watch Time Limits

A Watch Time Limit, once reached, will prevent you from watching any further shows until the end of the set period.

How watch limits work:

1. Watch limits may be edited at any time before they are reached using your Account Controls Pin.
2. Since watch time happens in a live, any user who “hits” their limit is in a live when it happens.  A notification will pop up. Accepting it will remove you from the show.
3. While a watch limit is active you will still be able to use the app to track purchases already made, DM with friends and purchase from a sellers store via their profile but you will not be able to join any shows. 
4. Once reached, a limit may not be removed except via expiry at the end of the user nominated period. Whatnot support / staff are not able to assist in the removal of a user-imposed limit so please exercise good judgement in setting them.

Spend Controls

Spend Controls allow you to track your money spent and set boundaries for your purchasing behavior. 

Viewing Your Spend

• You can see your total spend for the Calendar Week and Calendar Month. We calculate these Sunday 00:00 to Saturday 23:59 GMT and 1st of the month 00:00 to last day of the month 23:59 GMT

How totals work:

1. Spend totals include all taxes, fees, and shipping.
2. Your total includes bids won and winning but does not include committed spend. E.g. if you pre-bid on an item up to $100 and you’re currently winning the bid at $10, your spend count will include the $10 but not the additional $90 you have committed to. If your winning bid increases your spend will increment in line with the new winning total.
3. If your max bid is no longer the winning bid, your spend total will decrease.

Spend Reminders

A Spend Reminder will notify you when you reach a set threshold but still allow you to continue making purchases.

Spend Limits

A Spend Limit will prevent you from making any further purchases until the end of the set period.

How spend limits work:

1. Spend limits work similarly to a credit card - when above your limit you cannot make further purchases, but a single purchase can result in you exceeding your limit value. e.g. if your weekly limit was $1,000 and your balance was $900, a $150 purchase would be allowed - but no further purchases (as your balance is now $1,050). 
   1. Please note, this means a limit is not the theoretical maximum you can be charged, it is the value after which you will be prevented from spending.  It is built this way because in a live auction environment it is not feasible to check every user's limit against every single bid and calculate eligibility in real time.
2. Pre-bids can have complex interactions with limits
   1. As outlined above in how totals work spend is calculated as won or winning. This means you can theoretically fall below your limit after hitting it if you lose one or multiple pre-bids.
   2. Pre-bids are considered binding bids, even if you are over your limit at the time of winning.
      1. To pre-bid on an item you must not be over your limit
      2. If you are utilizing max-bid your bid may continue to increment up as other people bid on the item. These bids will be honored even if you cross your spend limit threshold 
      3. If you have multiple concurrent pre-bids with high values it is theoretically possible that you end up significantly beyond your limit
3. Please note, a transaction resulting in you exceeding your limit or a binding pre-bid that continues to increment after you’ve hit your limit is not grounds for order cancellation, so please check your spend regularly, bid carefully and utilize the reminder functionality.
4. Once a spend limit is reached, you will still be able to use the app to join shows, track purchases already made and DM with friends. 
5. Once reached, a limit may not be removed except via expiry at the end of the user nominated period.  Whatnot support / staff are not able to assist in the removal of a user-imposed limit so please exercise good judgement in setting them.

FAQs

How watch time is calculated?

• Watch time is all minutes watched of a live stream while logged in during a period

How is spend calculated?

• Spend totals include all taxes, fees, and shipping. It should match the total charges that are charged to your credit card.

Are reminders/ limits recurring?

• No. Reminders and Limits are set for a specific period - this week (Sunday 00:00 to Saturday 23:59 GMT) and this month (1st of the month 00:00 to last day of the month 23:59 GMT). You must set a new reminder or limit after that period ends.

What is GMT?

• GMT is Greenwich Mean Time (in short, the time in London). You can convert that to your local timezone here

Why is my spend total higher than the charges I see on my credit card?

• Your total includes bids won and winning. If you have a winning bid on an auction which is ongoing or you have the highest pre-bid on a product which will soon be auctioned, these bids will count towards your total but not yet be charged to your card (because the auction has not finished).

If I set a limit, can I edit or delete it?

• You can edit or delete a limit at any time before you reach the limit. You will need the Account PIN used to set the limit to edit or delete it.  Once you have reached a limit, you cannot edit or remove it - you will have to wait until the end of the period (week or month) you chose.

I want my limit removed - can Whatnot support help me?

• No. Whatnot support agents are not able to remove limits that you put on your account. You will be notified automatically when the period ends and your limits are removed.

Why has my spend total decreased?

• There are 2 reasons why your spend total can decrease:
  1. An order in the period was cancelled/refunded - we will remove that spend from your total
  2. A previously winning bid is no longer winning 

If I had a spend reminder set and my spend total decreases sufficiently that it is now below that reminder threshold, will that warning notification automatically be re-enabled? 

• No. Once a reminder has been triggered it will not automatically be re-enabled. You must manually set another one.

If I had a spend limit set and my spend total decreases sufficiently that it is now below that limit threshold, will my spend limit be removed?

• Yes. Whenever your spend is below your limit you are free to make purchases or edit your limit.