Banter

Terms

Terms of Use

Effective date: October 14, 2026. Updated October 22, 2026 for version 1.4 of the app (five kinds of machine, one membership with two levels, the history report per kind, videos and public data).

These terms are an agreement between you and Banter for Car Enthusiasts LLC, Stony Brook, New York ("Banter", "we", "us"), for the use of the Banter app and the website carbanter.com (together, "Banter"). By using Banter you accept these terms, the Privacy Policy and the Community Rules. If you do not accept them, do not use Banter.

1. What Banter is

Banter is an app for enthusiasts of cars, motorcycles, RVs, boats and aircraft. It lets you add what you own, read the forums and communities you belong to in one feed, take part in Banter's own community, message other members, find club events and the big gatherings of the year, keep the history of each thing you own and ask Banter for summaries and facts. Some features are free; others are part of a paid level (see section 9). Which kinds of item the app offers may vary over time; the app shows the kinds it offers. We may change, add or remove features over time.

Banter is independent. It is not affiliated with, endorsed by or sponsored by the forums, clubs, publications, vehicle makers or other sites it connects to, unless we say so.

Banter is an interactive computer service that hosts content provided by its members. Posts, replies, photos, comments, messages, profiles and event listings on Banter are written by members, not by us, and the member who writes something is responsible for it.

2. Who may use Banter

You must be at least 13 years old to use Banter, or 16 where the law where you live requires an older age. If you are under the age of majority where you live, you may use Banter only with the agreement of a parent or guardian, who accepts these terms for you. Banter is not directed at children under 13.

You may not use Banter if we have previously ended your access, or if the law forbids you from using it.

3. Your Banter account

You can read without an account. To post in Banter's own community, send messages or receive alerts, you need a Banter account, which uses your email address and a six-digit code we email you. When you sign in or create your profile, the app shows that by continuing you agree to these terms and the Community Rules, and we record the time and the version you agreed to. You are responsible for keeping access to your email account secure, for the accuracy of what you put in your profile, and for what happens under your account. Choose a handle that does not impersonate anyone or mislead others. Tell us at support@carbanter.com if you think someone else has used your account.

You can delete your account at any time inside the app (Garage, then Settings, then Account, then "Delete my account").

4. Forums and other sites

Banter shows pages and content from third-party sites, such as forums, clubs, event calendars, publications and video channels, and public data from government agencies (recalls, tides, weather reports, weather alerts). Those sites and agencies are run by other people, not by us.

  • Their terms apply. When you use a third-party site, including when its pages are shown inside Banter, you do so under that site's own terms, rules and privacy policy. You are responsible for following them.
  • You sign in on their page. You sign in to each site on the site's own page, inside the app. Banter never asks for, reads or stores your password for any other site. Your accounts on those sites are between you and them, and Banter cannot create, change or delete them for you.
  • Their content belongs to them. Threads, posts, pictures and other content from third-party sites belong to their authors or the sites. Banter shows them for your own personal reading, keeps them on your phone and links each thread back to the original. Do not copy or republish that content except as the site allows.
  • Availability can change. A site may limit or refuse access, change its pages, or ask Banter not to connect to it. When that happens, Banter shows you the site's own page or stops reading it; it never tries to get around a block. We do not promise that any particular site will be available in Banter.
  • We are not responsible for them. We do not control and are not responsible for third-party sites, their content, their moderation, or their availability.

5. Posting through Banter

Nothing posts without your confirmation. Banter never posts automatically, on a schedule or in the background. Before anything is posted, Banter shows you exactly what will be posted and where, and you confirm it, for that reply and for each community you choose. Where a site's own page is shown for posting, you post it there yourself.

You are responsible for your posts. Anything you post on a third-party site through Banter is your post, made under your own account on that site and under that site's rules, including its rules on cross-posting, self-promotion and posts written with help from software. Banter checks some of these rules and may stop a post that would break them, but you remain responsible for following each site's rules. Banter does not post on your behalf to sites that forbid it.

6. Your content on Banter

"Your content" means what you post in Banter's own community (threads, replies, photos, comments), your messages, your profile, the events you list (section 7) and what you add to your garage and car history.

  • You are solely responsible for your content. You alone are responsible for what you post, list, send or upload, for its accuracy and lawfulness, and for the consequences of sharing it. We do not write, endorse or verify members' content, and we are not responsible for it.
  • You keep ownership of your content.
  • You give us a worldwide, non-exclusive, royalty-free licence to store, copy, display and transmit your content only as needed to run Banter and show it to the people you intend: for example, showing your posts in Banter's own community to other members. This licence ends when your content is deleted, except for copies in backups until they are overwritten.
  • You confirm that you have the right to post your content, that it does not infringe anyone's copyright, trademark, privacy or other rights, and that it follows these terms and the Community Rules.
  • We may remove content and suspend accounts. We may remove or hide content, decline to list an event, limit who can see something, warn a member, or suspend or close an account, at our discretion, if we believe it breaks these terms, the Community Rules or the law, or puts other people or Banter at risk. We may do this with or without notice, and we are not obliged to review content before it is posted or listed. An automated check and, where needed, a person look at reported content and at every event listing; neither is a guarantee that content on Banter is accurate, lawful or safe. The Community Rules describe how this works.
  • We do not use your content, or content from third-party sites, to train any AI model.

7. Events listed by members

Members can list events on Banter's calendar: their own meets, their club's events, and events run by others that they know about. Banter also shows events gathered from clubs' public calendars.

  • Banter does not organize, host, endorse or verify events. An event listed by a member is that member's listing, shown as "Listed by @handle, not organized by Banter". An event gathered from a club's calendar belongs to that club. We are not a party to any event, and we have no control over whether it takes place, who attends, where it is held or how it is run.
  • You attend at your own risk. Confirm the date, place, cost and rules with the organizer before you go. You are responsible for your own safety, your vehicle and your conduct at any event, and for following the law and the organizer's rules, including at track days and other driving events.
  • If you list an event, you are responsible for it. You confirm that the details are accurate to your knowledge, that the event is lawful, and that you have the right to list it. Do not list street racing, takeovers or any activity that is unlawful or unsafe on public roads (Community Rules, rule 6). We may decline, remove or hide a listing at any time, and the reason we give is for your information only.
  • Event listings are checked automatically before they appear and, where the check cannot settle it, by a person. A check is not a verification: we do not confirm that an event is real, that its organizer is who the listing says, or that it is safe.

8. What Banter writes for you

Summaries, answers, facts, reply drafts and analyses marked "by Banter" are written by an AI service (Anthropic) after you have agreed to it in the app. They are offered only when you ask for them. They may be incomplete or wrong. Facts show their source where one exists, and a figure without a source is marked as such. Check anything important, especially figures about safety, maintenance, legality or value, against the original source or a qualified professional before you rely on it. A reply draft is only a suggestion: you edit and confirm it, and it becomes your post only if you post it.

The automated review of event listings and reported content ("Review by Banter", Community Rules) uses the same service to read the words of the listing or the reported content and answer whether it keeps to the rules. Nothing else about you is sent, the service keeps nothing, and a person decides whatever the review is not sure about.

An analysis of an oil report or other document does not replace the laboratory's own comments or the advice of a qualified mechanic.

Banter is not a navigation, seamanship or flight-planning tool. Tides, weather reports, weather alerts, recalls and any figure about a boat or an aircraft are shown for interest and as a prompt to look further; they may be late, incomplete or wrong, and Banter does not check them. Never navigate, plan or fly by them. The owner's manual or pilot's operating handbook, a qualified technician, the official data of the agency concerned and your own judgement have the final word.

9. Subscriptions

Levels and prices

  • Free: no charge.
  • A plan for one kind (Daily Driver for cars; Daily Rider for motorcycles; Weekend Warrior for RVs; Weekend Skipper for boats; Cross Country for aircraft): US$5.99 a month, or US$49.99 a year.
  • Full Garage, for every kind: US$14.99 a month, or US$99.99 a year.

The membership is one subscription with two levels: you hold one plan at a time. Moving up to Full Garage takes effect at once, and the store credits the unused part of the plan you held; moving to another plan, or from Full Garage to a plan for one kind, takes effect when the current period ends. The app shows what each level includes, and the price in your currency, before you buy. Prices may include or exclude tax depending on where you live, as the store shows.

The history report and hand-over

  • The history report and the hand-over file for one machine are included in Full Garage. On Free or a plan for one kind they can be bought once per machine: US$29.99 for a car or a motorcycle, US$39.99 for an RV or a boat, US$79.99 for an aircraft. The purchase is for that one machine, does not renew, and stays with it for good.
  • The report is made from the history you kept in the app. It is the owner's documented history, not a verified record: entries that carry a receipt or a photo are marked as such, and nothing in it is a statement by Banter about the machine's condition, airworthiness or value. An aircraft's logbooks remain its official maintenance record.

Billing and automatic renewal

  • Subscriptions are bought and billed through Apple's App Store or Google Play, using the account you have with that store. The store's own terms apply to the purchase.
  • Payment is charged to your store account when you confirm the purchase.
  • A subscription renews automatically at the end of each period, a month or a year, at the then-current price, and your store account is charged within 24 hours before the end of each period, unless you cancel at least 24 hours before the end of the current period.
  • If we change a price, the store will tell you in advance as its rules require, and the new price applies from your next renewal. Where the store requires it, you will be asked to agree to the new price.

Cancelling

  • Cancel at any time in your App Store or Google Play account settings (see how to cancel). Deleting the app or your Banter account does not cancel a subscription.
  • When you cancel, you keep your level until the end of the period you have paid for, and then return to Free. Your garage and history stay on your phone.
  • Payments are handled by Apple or Google, so refunds are decided by them under their policies. We cannot issue refunds for store purchases ourselves.

Founding Members

  • Anyone who starts a paid subscription by November 30, 2026 keeps a "Founding Member" mark in the app for good, even if the subscription later ends. The mark has no cash value.
  • Your price never rises while you stay subscribed. If we raise a price later, the increase applies to new subscribers only; a subscription that started during the launch offer and has renewed without a break keeps the price it started at. A lapse of more than the store's grace period ends this promise.
  • There is no free period on any plan. The store shows the full price before you confirm.

Restoring purchases

On a new phone, sign in to the same App Store or Google Play account and use "Restore purchases" in the app.

10. Acceptable use

Use Banter only for lawful, personal purposes. You agree not to:

  • break the Community Rules, or the terms and rules of any site you use through Banter;
  • harass, threaten, impersonate or deceive anyone, or post anything unlawful;
  • send spam, or advertise or sell without permission;
  • collect content or information from Banter or from third-party sites in bulk, by scraping, crawling or any automated means, or use Banter to do so;
  • use Banter to get around a site's sign-in, security check, block or limits;
  • use Banter to post automatically, repeatedly or at a pace no person would;
  • copy, change, reverse engineer or resell Banter, except as the law allows;
  • interfere with Banter's servers or security, test them for weaknesses without our written permission, or overload them;
  • misuse what Banter writes for you, for example to mislead others into believing it was written by a person where a site's rules require disclosure.

11. Banter's property

Banter, its name, design, software and content (other than your content and third-party content) belong to us or our licensors and are protected by law. We give you a personal, non-exclusive, non-transferable, revocable licence to use the app on devices you own or control, under these terms and the rules of the store you got it from. If you send us ideas or feedback, we may use them without any obligation to you.

Copyright notices

We respond to notices of claimed copyright infringement under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (17 U.S.C. § 512). If you believe that content on Banter infringes your copyright, send a written notice to privacy@carbanter.com (subject line "Copyright notice") containing the elements required by 17 U.S.C. § 512(c)(3):

  1. a physical or electronic signature of the copyright owner or of a person authorized to act on the owner's behalf;
  2. identification of the copyrighted work you claim has been infringed, or, if several works are covered by one notice, a representative list of them;
  3. identification of the material you claim is infringing and that you want removed or disabled, with enough information for us to find it (for example, the member's handle and the title or a screenshot of the post, photo or event);
  4. your name, mailing address, telephone number and email address;
  5. a statement that you have a good-faith belief that use of the material in the manner complained of is not authorized by the copyright owner, its agent or the law;
  6. a statement, made under penalty of perjury, that the information in the notice is accurate and that you are the copyright owner or are authorized to act on the owner's behalf.

On receiving a complete notice we will remove or disable access to the material and tell the member who posted it, who may send a counter-notice under 17 U.S.C. § 512(g). We may end the accounts of members who repeatedly infringe. Our designated agent is registered with the U.S. Copyright Office's DMCA Designated Agent Directory (dmca.copyright.gov): Patrick Baginski, Banter for Car Enthusiasts LLC, c/o ZenBusiness Inc., 41 State Street, Suite 112, Albany, NY 12207, USA, email privacy@carbanter.com. Notices by post go to that address; notices by email to the address above reach the same agent. For content on a third-party site, contact that site.

12. Suspension and termination

You may stop using Banter at any time and delete your account inside the app.

We may suspend or end your access to Banter, or to parts of it such as posting or messaging, if you break these terms or the Community Rules, if the law requires it, or if your use puts other people, third-party sites or Banter at risk. Where it is reasonable, we will tell you why. We may also stop offering Banter, or a feature, with reasonable notice.

If we end your access, a subscription you bought continues to be governed by the store; cancel it in the store's settings. Sections 6 (responsibility for your content and the licence for backups), 7, 8, 11, 13, 14, 15 and 16 survive the end of these terms.

13. Disclaimers

Banter is provided "as is" and "as available". To the fullest extent the law allows, we disclaim all warranties, express or implied, including warranties of merchantability, fitness for a particular purpose, title and non-infringement. We do not promise that Banter will be uninterrupted, error-free or secure, that any third-party site will be available in it, or that content shown in it, whether from members, third-party sites, public records or written by Banter, is accurate or complete.

Vehicle information, recalls and figures come from public sources and third parties and may be out of date; events are listed by members or gathered from clubs and are not verified by us (section 7). Always confirm recalls with the vehicle maker or a dealer, and confirm event details with the organizer. Nothing in Banter is professional, mechanical, legal, financial or safety advice. Drive safely and lawfully: never use Banter while driving.

14. Limitation of liability

To the fullest extent the law allows:

  • we are not liable for any indirect, incidental, special, consequential or punitive damages, or for any loss of profits, data, goodwill or use, arising from or related to Banter, even if we were told they were possible;
  • we are not liable for the content, actions or availability of third-party sites, other members, or the services Banter connects to, for posts you make, for content or event listings provided by members, or for anything that happens at an event listed on or gathered into Banter;
  • our total liability for all claims arising from or related to Banter is limited to the greater of the amount you paid for Banter in the 12 months before the claim and US$50.

Some places do not allow some of these limits. Where that is the case, the limits apply only as far as the law allows, and nothing in these terms limits liability that cannot be limited by law.

15. Your responsibility to us

To the extent the law allows, you agree to indemnify and hold harmless Banter for Car Enthusiasts LLC, its owners, officers, employees and agents from and against any claim, demand, loss, liability, cost and expense (including reasonable legal fees) brought by someone else that arises from your content, an event you list or run, your attendance at an event, your posts on third-party sites, or your breach of these terms, the Community Rules, a third-party site's rules or the law.

16. Governing law and disputes

These terms are governed by the laws of the State of New York, United States, without regard to its conflict-of-law rules. Before bringing a claim, please write to support@carbanter.com so that we can try to resolve it informally within 30 days. Any claim that is not resolved informally will be brought only in the state or federal courts located in the State of New York, and you and we agree to the jurisdiction of those courts. Either of us may bring an eligible claim in small claims court. If you live in a place whose law gives you the right to bring a claim in your own courts, or to rely on the protection of its consumer law, nothing in this section takes that right away.

17. Apple and Google

If you got Banter from Apple's App Store: these terms are between you and us, not Apple. Apple is not responsible for Banter or its content, has no obligation to provide maintenance or support for it, and is not responsible for any claims relating to it, including product liability claims, claims that it fails to meet a legal or regulatory requirement, consumer protection claims, or claims that it infringes someone's intellectual property; we are responsible for those as these terms set out. If Banter fails to meet a warranty that applies by law, you may tell Apple, and Apple will refund the purchase price, if any; Apple has no other warranty obligation. You confirm that you are not in a country under a U.S. government embargo and are not on a U.S. government list of prohibited or restricted parties. Apple and its subsidiaries are third-party beneficiaries of these terms and may enforce them against you. Your use must also follow Apple's Usage Rules.

If you got Banter from Google Play, Google Play's terms also apply to your download and purchases, and Google is not a party to these terms.

18. Changes to these terms

We may update these terms. The effective date at the top shows the latest version. If a change is significant, we will tell you in the app or by email before it takes effect. If you keep using Banter after a change takes effect, you accept the new terms; if you do not accept them, stop using Banter and delete your account.

19. General

These terms, with the Privacy Policy and the Community Rules, are the whole agreement between you and us about Banter. If any part is found unenforceable, the rest stays in effect. If we do not enforce a right, we do not give it up. You may not transfer these terms; we may transfer them to a successor of the business. Neither of us is liable for delays caused by events beyond reasonable control.

20. Contact

Banter for Car Enthusiasts LLC
Stony Brook, New York
Email: support@carbanter.com

Registered agent for service of process: ZenBusiness Inc., 41 State Street, Suite 112, Albany, NY 12207, USA.