Activating a card

How a blank card becomes your card — and why you never have to do it yourself.

Most NFC card sellers make you install an app and write your own link to the chip. TapX doesn’t. Cards arrive linked to your account and working.

What we do before it ships

A code is generated. Eight characters, from an alphabet with no lookalike letters, drawn at random. There are enough combinations that codes can’t be guessed by trying.
The chip is written and locked. The card link goes onto the chip and the chip is then locked read-only, so nobody can overwrite it later — not us, not a stranger with an NFC app.
The matching QR code is printed on the card or its packaging, pointing at the same link.
The card is linked to your account by scanning its QR code or tapping it against a phone in our staff tool. This is the only step that connects a card to a person.
It ships, and it works from the first tap.

If you bought the card before you had an account

The card arrives in the not set up yet state. Tapping it opens a short page saying it isn’t set up, with no details on it. As soon as we link it to your account it starts working — you don’t need a new card.

If you were given a blank card to join early access

Tap it. The page says the card isn’t set up yet and has one button: Join TapX early access with this card. It opens the early-access form with the card’s code already on it. Send the form. When your early access is approved, we link the card to your new account and email you. Until then, tapping the card shows the same page. You don’t need to type the code or email it to us.

Already on TapX? Email hello@tapx.sg from the address you sign in with, with the code printed on the card, and we’ll add it to your account.

Reassigning a card

A card can be pointed at a different account later: someone joins the company, or a card is handed over. We do it from the staff tool, and the card link stays exactly the same.

Why we don’t let you write cards yourself. It’s the one step where a mistake is permanent — a mistyped link on a locked chip makes the card rubbish. Doing it on our side means every card in the wild follows the same pattern and can be switched off, redirected or reassigned later.

Still stuck? Email hello@tapx.sg and a person will answer.