Nothing excites laundry’s loyalty card crowd on social media more than a stockpile of unredeemed funds. 

“I think float is the best thing invented since sliced bread!”

“Free money!”

The gloat over float is a sure-fire way to reach an audience of coin-operated laundromat owners who worry reader and kiosk networks are cost prohibitive. Card loyalists just smile and say the systems pay for themselves.

Translation: Customers foot the bill with the money they leave behind.

Float — or more accurately, breakage — is similar to a gift card balance. But unlike Christmas present recipients, laundry patrons do both the buying and holding.

At first blush float seems out of place in a business best known for changing bills into their coin equivalent. Yet you’ll find it wherever customers perform loads or exchanges to facilitate machine activation through three cashless alternatives: proprietary stored value cards, stored value smartphone apps and tokens.

Inevitably, a portion of what’s loaded or exchanged ends up being lost, tossed or given away.

And there’s the rub. Low income households sinking cash into someone’s float.

Here’s how one laundromat owner who runs hybrid coin/credit summed it up on Facebook: “I couldn’t sleep at night knowing I did that to people… Took their money and gave them nothing in return.”

While those cards, apps and tokens all have float in common, there are notable differences.

Locking and loading loyalty

Float is most closely associated with proprietary card operations, where funds are loaded to in-house plastic for use at an individual laundry or branded chain. 

Rechargeable cards were first touted in the 1990s as a coin-free alternative. The pitch was largely ignored by traditional operators.

So card suppliers introduced a new buzzword: Loyalty. But even that needed a spark as wash customers remained faithful to clean, well-maintained coin-ops.

Why not offer bonuses — you know, something extra for feeding in mo’ money at the pay station?

It worked. Card carved out a niche and today, decades later, is undergoing a renaissance.

Cheered on by the industry’s supply chain, card store owners continue to be laser-focused on building balances — and float. 

Some are bumping up the original 10% “big bill bonus” to 20-25% and extending it to virtually any size load transaction.

And even those reward levels are being eclipsed by eye-popping, 100% “double your money” top-up campaigns.

Card float is inevitable. Suppliers promote penny increment pricing, where whole dollar loads get funneled into vends ending in nine so customers can’t possibly come out even.

It’s much the same for card-ops on quarter increments. Vending $6.25 washes and $1.50 dries mean patrons are bound to retain balances — amounts which aren’t displayed on the plastic they carry.

You gotta feel for a struggling mom who needs money in hand to buy her kids dinner on laundry day. If the store offers no refunds she’ll likely hawk her card and face a new surcharge on the next visit. 

Phones can float

Stored value smartphone pay banks on customers loading funds to a digital app. 

One of the industry’s most popular apps offers load redemption at laundromat machines as well as thousands of pay terminals throughout the developer’s network.

Many owners are left wondering where’s the float? They find stored value smartphone pay technology intriguing, but less so when the platform is non-exclusive and somebody else holds the prized breakage.

It’s really much ado about nothing. Turns out app pay isn’t buried away like a card in a wallet. An estimated 98% of consumers paying through mobile platforms reportedly spend their loads on average within six days. 

Brass walks and floats 

Single and multi-store token-op laundries exchange cash and credit for coin surrogates redeemable at machines fitted with token- or token/coin-specific acceptance devices.

Brass tokens float when they walk. A vended dollar-valued token costs an operator approximately 25-30¢, netting a handsome profit. Quarter tokens run about half that.

Most tokens have their face value engraved so patrons can quickly eyeball what remains. In mixed coin/token operations, customers instinctively spend brass first and retain coins for drying or outside spending.

If there are leftover tokens with a no-buy-back policy in place, patrons can simply opt to perform exchanges with one another for cash without penalty. Unlike loyalty card-ops, token-ops don’t impose a surcharge for the privilege of using an owner’s payment system.

Do token operators offer bonuses? Sure. 

Are there double your money promos to entice people to load up on brass? Possibly, but none that I’m aware of.

Do customers leave with tokens? Yes. Most are held for next week’s wash while others never return. Many get handed out to youngsters as cool souvenirs — something you don’t find with laundry cards.

Token laundry owners acknowledge all this with a nod of the head. 

It’s float without the gloat.

I fondly remember the time my father called me aside less than a year after we converted our family’s flagship coin-op. He needed our token supplier’s phone number to replenish his depleting stock.

It was the first of many checks dad was happy to write.