10 Questions to Ask Any Phone Charging Station Company Before You Buy (Including Us)

Every phone charging station business opportunity sounds about the same on the first call: you buy power bank rental stations, place them in bars, hotels and other busy venues, and keep a share of each rental. The differences are in the contract, and they decide how much of each rental you keep and whether a quiet month costs you money. List prices start around $1,200 for one countertop station, or about $4,500 for a 5-pack, at the time of writing.

Ask every company the same 10 questions, get the answers in writing and compare them side by side. Here are the questions, the answers that should make you dig in or walk away, and our own answers, so you can hold us to the same standard.

The 10 questions, with our answers

Copy the first three columns into a note and add a column for each company you talk to.

You keep 100% of any screen-ad revenue you sell on top of your 80%. You find the advertisers, and no ad sale is promised.

Same $100, three contracts

Questions 2 to 4 sound like fine print, so here's what they're worth. Take the same $100 that renters pay at one station under three sets of terms. Terms A are ours. B and C are made up to show what each extra contract line does. Say the venue takes 10% of what renters pay, out of your share, and Terms B's card fees take 5% before the split.

• Percentages move with your rentals. Fixed fees don't. Under B, about the first $30 of each month's rentals only covers the fee. Under C it's about the first $31, and roughly the first $460 of rentals goes to earning back the locator fee.
• A month with no rentals costs you nothing in fees under A. Under B and C it costs $20, or $240 over a year, including months a station sits in its box if fees start at purchase.

A fee can be worth paying if it buys something real, like a signed, installed venue. Terms A leave venue-finding to you. The point is to price every line, not to avoid every fee.

None of this says what a station will earn. The venue, and how you run it, decide that. How much a phone charging kiosk can make shows how to estimate a specific venue before you buy for it. Revenue isn't guaranteed, and you may earn less than your costs or lose your investment.

Follow-ups that separate a straight answer from a pitch

1. Who owns the hardware? Owning the box is half the answer: ask what it needs to keep renting (payments, software, data) and who pays for each. If you're weighing hardware bought straight from a factory, read buying a station off Alibaba vs joining a network for what the low sticker price leaves out.

2. What's the split, of what, and does it change? "80%" means little until you know what it's 80% of. A split can be figured on what renters pay, or on what's left after deductions such as card fees. Ask for one rental worked through to your share. Then ask whether it ever changes: after the hardware is paid off, after year one, or at renewal. A split that drops once you've covered your cost changes every number you run. Ours is 80% of what renters pay, before venue share, equipment, travel, maintenance and taxes. Where the money goes on a power bank rental follows one rental from the renter's tap to your payout.

3. What does it cost all-in? Get one number for station, banks, shipping, and any stands or mounts. Then ask about each recurring fee by name (platform or software, SIM or data, per station, per account, any minimum) and whether any starts before a station is placed. Fixed fees are owed even in a month with no rentals, as the table above shows.

4. Who pays card processing and data? Small tickets feel card fees most. If a processor charges 2.9% plus 30 cents, a $3 rental loses about 39 cents, 13% of the sale, before anyone splits anything. If the fees are yours, get the rate in writing and put it in your math. Ask too whether the station depends on the venue's Wi-Fi.

5. When and how do I get paid? Ask what has to be set up first. With us, that means adding your payment details in the Distributor Portal. Skip it and the 1st comes and goes without a deposit. Venues that take a share are paid monthly by direct deposit too.

6. Who finds the venues? This question decides the business. Placement moves results more than the machine, the split or the price, and a station still in its box earns nothing. If a company says it will find locations for you, get the details in writing: how many, what kind, by when, and what happens if a venue drops out. A promise of locations also matters legally, as the FTC section below explains.

Before you pay anyone, list five venues you could walk into this week and who decides at each. If you can't, you're not ready to buy from anyone, us included. Venues will also ask whether you're insured, so price in your own general liability policy (what venues ask for).

7. Is there a territory or exclusivity? Exclusivity sounds like protection, so read what it costs. A territory tied to a purchase minimum can push you to buy more stations than you can place. Ask what's protected (a city, a county or only the venues you sign), how big the minimum is, and what happens if you miss it. Get all three in writing before you pay.

8. What's the warranty, and what do banks cost? Get the length, the start date and the exclusions. Ours runs 3 years from delivery and covers manufacturing defects, hardware malfunctions under normal use, units that arrive dead, and shipping damage reported within 7 days. It excludes misuse, accidents, modifications, normal wear, operating outside recommended conditions, and power-bank batteries after 500+ cycles.

Two habits follow. Budget about $20 a bank for replacements, since banks past 500+ cycles aren't covered. And open and test every box the week it lands, even stations you won't place for a month, because shipping damage counts only within those 7 days. When a renter keeps a bank, by default they pay a $40 non-return fee after 24 hours; you can change both per station. Ask who pays for the bank you replace. With us, check the replacement coverage in the distributor agreement.

9. What happens if I want out? Ask when your order is expected to ship. With us, an order cancelled before it ships is fully refunded, so that window is your last free exit. After shipment, used, installed or deployed products and shipping fees aren't refundable. Because you'd own the stations, also ask whether you could sell them to another operator and how the account would move over. We don't publish a resale policy, so ask us on the call too and get the answer in writing.

10. Can I read the agreement before I pay? Read six things first: what the split is a percentage of, every fee, the payout date, the warranty and its exclusions, how either side can end it, and what happens to your stations and venue contracts if it ends. Our refund and warranty policy is linked from the "3-Year Warranty Included" note on each station on our products page.

Red flags that should end the call

• Promised income. This includes any monthly figure you're told you "will" make. The FTC's consumer advice on business offers puts it plainly: "no one can guarantee that you'll make money in business" (FTC).
• "Passive." Someone has to find venues, restock banks and keep stations online. If the pitch skips that work, ask who does it and what it costs.
• Locator fees. These are fees for finding your locations. Ask whether the fee buys a signed, installed venue or a list of leads, and what you get back if the venue says no or drops out in month 2.
• Pressure to buy more than you can place. "The price goes up Friday" and "the territory needs 20 stations" are both pressure. Buy for the venues you can name. Should you start with 1, 5 or 20 stations? covers sizing a first order.
• No agreement up front. Don't pay until you've read the contract you'll be held to.
• Earnings claims without data. Watch for an average with no median, a best station presented as normal, a monthly figure with no dates, or gross rentals labeled "income." Say a rep shows you a screenshot of one station's best month. Ask which month, how many stations they've sold in your area, and how many of those did half as well. If they can't say, you've learned what the screenshot is worth. A seller covered by the FTC rule below must put the claim's dates and the share of buyers who reached it in writing.

Our answer on earnings: we won't quote you a figure, and the math in this post is illustrative, not data from our network.

When the FTC's rule applies to a charging station business opportunity

The Federal Trade Commission's Business Opportunity Rule (16 CFR Part 437) covers an offer when you pay to start a new business and the seller says that it, or someone it names, will do at least one of three things:

• provide locations for your equipment, displays, vending machines or similar devices
• provide outlets, accounts or customers for what you sell
• buy back what you make or provide

"Provide locations" is broader than placing machines for you. The rule also counts giving you a list of existing or potential locations, recommending a locator or collecting its fee, or otherwise helping you get locations. Advertising and general business advice and training don't count (16 CFR 437.1).

A covered seller has to give you a one-page disclosure document, on the FTC's standard form, at least 7 days before you sign a contract or pay any money (FTC guidance for sellers). It covers five things:

1. Who's selling. The company's name, address and phone number, the salesperson's name, and the date.
2. Legal actions. Any in the past 10 years involving misrepresentation, fraud, securities violations, or unfair or deceptive practices.
3. Refunds. Whether there's a cancellation or refund policy, with the terms attached.
4. Earnings. Whether the seller makes earnings claims. If it does, a separate Earnings Claim Statement has to give the claim, the dates it covers, and how many buyers, and what percentage, reached at least that result. The seller must have written backup on hand and show it on request.
5. References. Names, states and phone numbers of people who bought in the past 3 years: at least the 10 nearest you, or every buyer if there are fewer than 10.

If a seller offers to find your locations, or to hand you a list of them, and has no disclosure document, ask why. This is a plain-English summary, not legal advice. Read the rule, or have a lawyer read the agreement, before you sign.

Next step

If a company answers all 10 in writing and none of the red flags come up, the question left is yours: which venues will you put the stations in?

Bring this list to a call with our team, ask us all 10, and ask for the distributor agreement to read before you pay. Prefer to read first? Email team@jbcharging.com and ask for it. To try your own rental counts and prices, use our revenue calculator. It shows gross rentals, so take 80% of its answer, then subtract the venue share and your costs.

Examples are illustrative only, not a forecast or a typical result. What a station earns depends on the venue, placement, pricing, local demand, and how actively you run it.