What happens if you stop paying for a digital business card?
We sell one of these, so here is exactly what happens on ours, and what to ask any other vendor before you pay.
If a digital business card subscription lapses, the hosted profile goes offline and every card you have already handed out stops reaching it - on Beeps, it shows a “not found” page until you renew, and the content is kept for 12 months. You keep the physical card and the chip, which never expire, and anyone who already saved your contact keeps those details. What you lose is the page at the end of the link. Beeps emails you before a plan runs out and again when it lapses, so it never happens by surprise.
₹1,699 card, once · profile from ₹199/year · your logo printed free · usually arrives in 7-10 days
What actually happens when the plan lapses
The sequence is broadly similar wherever the profile is a paid plan. The details differ by vendor, and the details are where you should be asking questions.
You get a warning
Beeps emails the account owner before a plan runs out. Other vendors differ, so ask what yours does, and whether there is any grace period, in writing rather than assumed.
The hosted profile goes offline
This is the part that matters. On Beeps, the profile shows a “not found” page, and we email you again once it has expired.
Every card you handed out opens that page
Not just new ones. Every card already in someone's wallet points at the same link, and there is no way to reach those people to tell them.
The profile comes back as it was
On Beeps, the content is kept for 12 months after a lapse, and renewing within that time restores everything as it was. From any other vendor, ask whether your content and your link are kept during a lapse, and for how long: "you can resubscribe" and "your old link still works" are different promises.
What you keep, and what goes away
People usually assume they lose more than they do, and lose the one thing they had not thought about.
The pricing model decides the risk you are taking
All three are legitimate. They fail in different ways, and the failure mode is what you are really choosing between.
A card sold with "no subscription, ever"
Genuinely appealing, and worth understanding rather than dismissing. The hosting still costs the vendor something, so it has been paid for another way.
Either some years of hosting were bundled into the purchase price, or the destination is a very simple page that is cheap to serve. Both are legitimate. Ask which, and ask what happens in year five.
A card with a yearly plan, like ours
You pay every year, and if you stop, the profile goes offline. That is a real ongoing commitment and a real risk if your circumstances change.
The page stays hosted and maintained, and it carries things a static page cannot - enquiry forms, booking, payments, analytics. Those are the parts that bring work back after the tap.
A chip you buy and point yourself
A blank NFC tag costs very little, and you can write your own URL to it and host whatever you like at the other end.
Someone who already runs a website and is comfortable managing it: it is the cheapest route there is. The page, the uptime and the fixes are then yours to look after.
Both of the other models are on sale in India today. 1Card describes its profile as "no subscription and no expiry" [source], and ProfileTap's one-time card price includes 7 years of its Pro features [source]. Each seller's full terms are in our price index.
We charge yearly for the hosted profile and say so up front. What the plan buys is a page that keeps working for you - taking enquiries, bookings and payments - an email before it runs out, and a lapse that loses nothing for 12 months.
Five things to get in writing
These apply to us as much as to any competitor. A vendor who answers them straight is worth more than one who is slightly cheaper.
- Ask what the grace period is, in days, before you buy. A vendor who cannot answer that in writing is telling you something.
- Ask whether your URL is reserved during a lapse. If it is released and reissued, your printed cards can eventually point at a stranger.
- Ask whether your content is retained, and for how long. Resubscribing to an empty profile means rebuilding it from scratch.
- Export or screenshot your profile content once you are happy with it, so a rebuild is a copy-paste rather than a rewrite.
- If you want a guaranteed fixed lifetime cost, buy a one-time card instead. That is a legitimate choice and this is the honest reason to make it.
Questions about lapsing and renewal
What happens to my Beeps profile if I stop paying?
When the plan expires, the profile - and every card pointing at it - shows a "not found" page. Every card you have already handed out is affected, not just new ones. The content is kept for 12 months, and renewing within that time restores everything as it was. We email you before the plan runs out and again once it has expired, and renewing early costs you nothing: the new year starts when the current one ends.
Do I lose the physical card as well?
No. The card is bought outright and the chip inside it is passive - it stores a URL, has no battery, and NXP rates its NTAG chips for 10 years of data retention. What lapses is the page at the other end of the link, not the object in your pocket.
Sources: NXP Semiconductors
Do the contacts people already saved disappear?
No. If someone tapped your card and saved your contact to their phone, that data is in their phone and has nothing further to do with us. A lapsed profile does not reach into anyone's address book. What stops is new people being able to reach your page.
Can I get my profile back if I resubscribe later?
Yes, within 12 months. On Beeps the content is kept for 12 months after a lapse, and renewing within that time restores everything as it was. From any other vendor, get the same promise in writing rather than infer it: ask whether your link is reserved and your content kept during a lapse, and for how long.
Is a one-time card safer than a subscription, then?
For the specific risk of a page going offline because you stopped paying, yes. The trade is usually capability: check whether the page a one-time card opens can take an enquiry, a booking or a payment. On Beeps it can, you are emailed before a plan runs out, and a lapse keeps everything for 12 months - renew in that time and it all comes back as it was.
What does the yearly fee actually pay for?
Hosting the profile and keeping the tools on it running - enquiry forms, booking, catalogue, UPI collection on Pro, and analytics. The chip is a small part of what any card costs, ours included; the recurring cost is the page, not the plastic. Basic is ₹199/year and Pro is ₹299/year.
Beeps' renewal terms are from the renewal section of the product documentation.
Sources
Chip ratings come from NXP, which makes the NTAG chips, and other sellers' terms from their own pages. Each was read on the date shown.
- NXP Semiconductors, NTAG 213/215/216: NFC Forum Type 2 Tag compliant IC with 144/504/888 bytes user memory. Checked .
- 1Card, source page. Checked .
- ProfileTap, source page. Checked .