"City card" sounds like something for a town with a hundred shops. The technology behind it doesn't need a whole town, though. A bookshop, a coffee bar, a cheese shop, a florist, a bike repair shop and two restaurants on the same street can issue one card together, using the Local vouchers & city cards module. A shared gift card, spendable only at those seven places.
Who is this for?
Three situations where we see it work:
- A shopping street or small town centre that wants its own card, instead of joining a national gift card where most of the spending ends up at chain stores.
- A group of business owners who know each other and want to build something together: shops and hospitality mixed, from breakfast to bookshop.
- An employer looking for something other than the usual Christmas hamper. Take an installation company with forty staff: everyone gets a €50 card that only works at the businesses in their own village. Staff choose for themselves, and the money stays local.
In each case one party issues the card: the business association, one of the businesses on behalf of the group, or the employer together with the businesses. That party sets up the programme and keeps the overview.
Your name on the card
The programme carries the name you choose: "The Green Card", "Market Lane Gift Card", or simply your company name. Each card gets its own header photo and logo, and the card pages and the widget take on your organisation's colours and font. Below the header, every participating business is listed with its logo. The recipient sees your card and where they can spend it. Setting up the page is covered in Your own branding and sponsors on the city card page.
Want the card on your own domain, fully white label? That is available as a custom setup: see the white-label city card.
A card only you hand out
A city card is normally something residents buy and top up online. For a shared gift card you often don't want that: the employer hands out the cards, and that's it. So per programme you can switch off two things:
- Top-ups off. Nobody can add credit. The top-up button disappears from the card page, the emails and the print sheet, and the system refuses any attempt through a back door.
- Online sales off. There is no purchase page. The card page is only there to check the balance and link the card.
That makes it a one-off card: it comes from you, gets spent at the businesses, and is done when the balance runs out.
Issuing: in print or by email
For each round of issuing you choose how the card reaches its recipient.
In print. In the admin panel you generate a batch of card IDs and download a print sheet and a CSV for your own printer. Order the batch pre-loaded with credit and you pay €0.50 issuing cost per card up front. A physical card works well in a Christmas box or at an anniversary. The details are in Printing and reusing physical city cards.
Digitally by email. From the admin panel you send cards straight to an email address. One at a time, or in bulk with a CSV list of four columns: email, name, amount and a personal message. Think of the employer's staff list, each person with their own amount and a word of thanks. You pay the issuing cost up front (€0.50 per card with credit), after which each recipient gets the card email with the card code, the QR code and buttons for Apple Wallet and Google Wallet.
From printed card to phone
Someone who receives a printed card can make it digital on their own:
- Scan the QR code on the card, or type the card ID on the balance page.
- Enter an email address and confirm it with the 6-digit code sent to it.
- The email that follows contains the Apple Wallet and Google Wallet buttons.
The wallet card shows the balance and updates it after every purchase. Each deduction also triggers an email with the remaining balance. If the card is already linked to someone else, that person has to approve before the card moves to the new address, so a found or passed-on card can't quietly change hands. More on the wallet pass in Your city card in Apple and Google Wallet.
Paying at the businesses
The businesses don't need extra hardware. Each one signs in to the shop environment in the browser, on their own phone or tablet: scan the QR code or type the code, see the balance and deduct the amount, in parts if needed. How that works at the counter is in Redeeming a city voucher as a shop. If a business wants the sale to land straight in its own till system, read The city voucher straight into your till.
The money: one issuer, MijnEvent stays out of it
When a card can't be bought online, its value doesn't pass through MijnEvent. The issuer settles it directly with whoever takes the cards, for example by invoicing the employer. MijnEvent is not part of the money flow.
The admin panel shows what each business has redeemed. Payouts run in batches: you select the businesses, and MijnEvent prepares a SEPA file to import at your own bank, plus a statement for each business. Ideally the person who creates a batch is not the one who submits it: the four-eyes principle. The full route is in Paying out shops on your city voucher.
Validity and cost
A gift card ought to stay valid for at least two years. In MijnEvent you choose 24, 36 or 60 months per programme.
The costs at a glance:
| What | Price |
|---|---|
| Module (setup, per year) | €499 for a limited time (regularly €1,250) |
| Card issued with credit, printed or by email | €0.50 per card, up front |
| Redemption at a business | €0.05, settled against the payout to that business |
Generating card IDs and exporting print files is free; you arrange the printing with your own printer. If you later switch online sales or top-ups back on, the regular €0.35 per card applies to those.
Start small
A shared card is a manageable project: a handful of businesses, one issuer, one moment of issuing. See the Local vouchers & city cards module for every feature, or read how it works at full scale in Issuing a city voucher for your town.
