---
title: "Points balance"
url: https://getstell.com/glossary/points-balance
description: "The member's current points, carried as a live field on the pass and updated the moment points are earned or spent."
---

# Points balance

A points balance is the running score of a loyalty program: points earned on purchases, spent on rewards, and held by the member in between. On a wallet pass it is a live field, often the most prominent one, updated by [push update](/glossary/push-update) as soon as the balance changes, so the pass always shows the truth without the member asking anyone.

The update is also a moment. A balance change can carry a lock screen message, "you just earned 120 points", which lands seconds after the purchase, while the visit is still happening. That immediacy is most of what separates a balance on a pass from a balance in an account portal the member checks twice a year.

Balances feed the program's targeting. A [segment](/glossary/segment) can select members above or below a threshold, close to a reward, or sitting on points about to expire, and an automation can fire when points are earned. In messages, [placeholders](/glossary/placeholders) drop the live balance into the text, so "you're 80 points from a free wash" is computed per member, not written by hand.

Points measure value where a [stamp card](/glossary/stamp-card) measures visits, and the choice between them is a business question: points fit variable basket sizes, stamps fit one-coffee-at-a-time rhythms. Either way the balance belongs on the pass, because a score nobody sees changes nobody's behavior.