Effective date: July 1, 2026
1. What Penpals is
Penpals lets you send a greeting card with a short video inside. You choose a card, write a message, record a video on your phone, and we deliver the card — by mail (we print and post it), by email, or as a card you print and mail yourself. The person who gets the card scans a code or taps a link to watch your video.
By using Penpals you agree to these terms. If you don't agree, please don't use the service.
2. Your account
- You must be 18 or older to create an account and buy a card.
- Keep your password private. You're responsible for what happens under your account.
- You can close your account at any time by emailing support@penpals.com. See the Privacy Policy for what happens to your videos.
3. Buying a card
- Prices are shown before you pay. Cards we mail are $14.99; email cards are $4.99; keeping a video for good ("Keeper") is $4.99. Prices may change; the price you see at checkout is the one you pay.
- Payment is handled by Stripe. We never see or store your full card number.
- Each purchase is for one card to one recipient. Subscriptions, if we offer them, will have their own terms.
4. Your video and your message
- You own what you record and write. You give us permission to store it, convert it to formats that play on phones, show it to the person you sent it to, and print your message on the card. That's all we use it for.
- Record only people who agree to be recorded. If a child appears in your video, you must be their parent or guardian, or have the parent's permission.
- Don't send anything that is illegal, threatening, harassing, sexual, hateful, or that you don't have the right to share. We review every video (automatically, and by a person when needed) before it is delivered. We can refuse or remove any video that breaks these rules, and we'll tell you if we do.
- Approve before it goes. You watch your video and approve it before we send the card. Once a card has been printed or an email card has been sent, the video is locked to that card and can't be swapped.
5. Delivery
- Cards we mail are printed and posted by our printing partner. Allow 3–5 business days in the US. We check addresses when we can; if an address looks undeliverable we'll say so before you pay. Once a card is at the printer it can't be changed or cancelled.
- Email cards are sent on the day you choose (at 9 AM Mountain time) or as soon as your video is approved. If the email bounces we'll tell you and let you fix the address.
- Cards you mail yourself are your responsibility once we've delivered the card to you.
- We aren't responsible for postal delays, a wrong address you gave us, or a recipient who doesn't open the card.
6. How long your video lasts
- A video stays available for about two years from the day the card is sent. After about 30 days it moves to slower storage; the recipient can bring it back with one tap.
- Keeper ($4.99) keeps a video for as long as Penpals exists.
- After about two years without Keeper, the video is deleted. We'll email you before that happens.
- You can download your own video at any time while it's available.
7. Refunds
- If we haven't printed or sent your card yet, email support@penpals.com and we'll refund you.
- Once a card is printed or an email card is sent, we can't refund the card. If something went wrong on our side — a card that never arrived, a video that wouldn't play — tell us and we'll make it right, usually by resending or refunding.
- Keeper is a one-time purchase and isn't refundable.
8. Video replies
The person who receives a card can send one short video back for free, without an account. The same rules in section 4 apply to them. One reply per card.
9. Letters to your penpal
- Penpals can match you with another member to exchange letters. You choose whom to write to; we never share your email, address, or last name with a penpal.
- Your letters are yours. You give us permission to store them, show them to the penpal you sent them to, translate them when you or they ask, and print them if you pay to mail one. We don't read letters unless one is reported or the law requires it.
- Section 4's rules apply to letters: nothing illegal, threatening, harassing, sexual, or hateful, and no asking for money. Breaking these rules will result in your account being suspended or removed, with no refund. You can report any letter or penpal.
- Mailing a letter on paper costs extra, shown before you pay, and goes to the address your penpal gave us; once printed it can't be cancelled or refunded. If your penpal turns off letters by post before printing, you're refunded.
- Your intro video ("hello") and photo are shown only to members who can see your profile. We compare the face in your video to your photo and transcribe what you say, so a person can confirm you're real; we don't keep a face template. By recording, you consent to that comparison.
- If you close a match, you both keep the letters exchanged. If you delete your account, letters you've sent stay with the people you sent them to, shown as from "a former member".
- Invite codes and free months are a gift and can end with notice; a paid plan renews monthly until you cancel.
10. The family list and reminders
If you add family members and their dates, we'll email you before each occasion so you can send a card. You can remove a person or a date at any time, and every reminder email has a link to stop them.
11. What you can't do
Use Penpals to spam, to send cards to people who've asked not to hear from you, to impersonate someone, to scrape or copy the site, or to interfere with how it runs. We can suspend an account that does.
12. Our responsibility
Penpals is provided as it is. We'll do our best to deliver every card and play every video, but we can't promise the service will never have a problem. To the extent the law allows, our liability for any claim is limited to what you paid us for the card involved. Nothing here limits rights you have under Idaho or federal law that can't be limited.
13. Changes
We may update these terms. If the change matters, we'll email you or show a notice on the site before it takes effect.
14. Law
These terms are governed by the laws of the State of Idaho. Any dispute will be handled in the courts of Idaho.