When and how money comes back to you. These rules are applied automatically by the platform.
Version 1.8 · in force from 1 November 2026
Every lesson or class-session payment you make is held in safekeeping by our payment provider, Stripe. It is released to the tutor only after the lesson or session takes place and is confirmed — by the tutor marking it completed, after which you have 48 hours to raise an issue, or by you pressing “It happened”.
If you and your tutor have already agreed a new time, nothing needs to be cancelled: either of you can use “Move one lesson” up to 48 hours before it, and the other accepts it on the platform.
More than 48 hours before the lesson: cancel from your console and the lesson is MOVED rather than refunded. Your tutor offers three alternative times within 24 hours and you choose one within 24 hours. Your payment stays in safekeeping throughout. If none of the three suit you, you can ask for another set. If your tutor offers no times within 24 hours, the lesson fee is refunded to your credits. If no time can be agreed after three sets, the matter comes to us and our team decides. We do it this way because a family giving proper notice usually wants the lesson, not their money back.
Within 48 hours of the lesson, for an ordinary reason: the tutor is asked and has 24 hours to accept or decline, because they may have turned other work down for that hour. If they accept, the lesson is MOVED rather than refunded — they offer three alternative times and you choose one, and your payment stays in safekeeping. If they decline, the lesson stands and the two of you are asked to settle it between yourselves; if you cannot, either of you can ask us to mediate.
An emergency — illness, or a death in the family — can be raised at any time before the lesson starts, whatever the notice. Attach the MC, letter or other document; the tutor sees it. An emergency moves the lesson rather than refunding it: the tutor offers three alternative times within 24 hours and you choose one within 24 hours. If none suits, they offer three more. Your payment stays in safekeeping throughout.
Cancelling a trial outright. A trial is different, because nothing beyond it has been agreed. If you no longer want the trial, you may cancel it outright rather than move it. Forty-eight hours or more before it: the trial fee comes back to your credits at once. Inside 48 hours: the tutor is asked and has 24 hours to agree, in which case the fee comes back to your credits, or to decline, in which case the trial stands and either of you can ask us to mediate. If the tutor cancels a trial outright, the fee comes back to your credits at once, whatever the notice, and it is recorded on their cancellation record. While a trial is being moved, either of you may cancel it outright at any point and the fee comes back to your credits at once. Your request stays open, so you can still trial other tutors.
Your tutor always offers the three alternative times, whoever cancelled and for whatever reason — they hold the teaching calendar, so they are the one who can see what is genuinely free. If the side that owes three alternative times does not offer them within 24 hours, the lesson fee is refunded automatically. The payment-processing line is never refunded — see “How refunds arrive”.
A tutor may also cancel, and the same reschedule applies: they offer three times, you choose. A tutor cancelling never results in you simply losing the lesson.
A group session that has not yet been marked completed can be cancelled by you at any time from your console, for a refund of the session fee.
Once a lesson or session is marked completed by the tutor, the cancellation option closes. If you believe a lesson did not in fact take place, use “Raise an issue” — from the lesson’s scheduled end until it is paid out — and the money stays frozen while it is settled.
Ending the arrangement. If you or your tutor ends an ongoing arrangement, any lesson you have paid for that has not yet been taught comes back to your Learn Now Credits straight away. A lesson that has been taught but not yet marked follows the ordinary 48-hour rule; a lesson with an issue raised on it is settled first.
When you reserve a seat in a forming group class, your trial-session payment is a commitment to the other families — it cannot be cancelled while the class is forming. In exchange: if the class does not reach its minimum number of seats by its formation deadline, the class does not start and every family is refunded in full — the payment-processing line included — to their Learn Now Credits, automatically. You do not need to ask.
Money that has been released to a tutor after the 48-hour window is final and is never clawed back. This protects tutors and is why the window exists — raise any issue inside it.
Money never releases for a lesson that did not happen. A lesson is paid out only once it is confirmed: by you pressing “It happened”, or by the tutor marking it completed, after which you have 48 hours to raise an issue. If a tutor does not show up you do not have to wait for them: from the lesson’s scheduled end you can raise an issue, and your money stays in safekeeping.
When you raise an issue the money freezes at once and the tutor has 48 hours to answer. If they do not answer, you are refunded in full automatically. If they do, either of you can ask us to mediate, and our team decides. We ask tutors to give at least 24 hours’ notice for any cancellation; repeated no-shows and short-notice cancellations are tracked and acted on.
Purchases of learning materials (notes, worksheets, question sets, video lessons) are digital goods: payment is not held in safekeeping — access is immediate and the sale is final. If a purchased file is faulty or not as described, contact us and a person will put it right.
Every refund is made in Learn Now Credits, whatever you paid with. It appears on your credits statement at once and can pay for your next lesson; credits do not expire. We do not pay money back: credits are not exchanged for cash or returned to a card or bank account, and credits left on an account when it is closed are given up (see the Terms of Service). Top up what you expect to use.
The payment-processing line on a card, WeChat Pay or Alipay payment is Learn Now’s payment fee — a transaction cost — and is not refunded, except when a group class does not start or its tutor cancels it. PayNow payments carry no such line. What comes back is the lesson fee and, on a short-notice booking, the surcharge.
Every version of this document is kept with the dates it was in force. Anything you raise is decided under the version that applied at the time. Write to us for a copy of an earlier version.
