Payments & Refunds Policy

_Last updated: 3 August 2026_

This Payments & Refunds Policy explains how you can pay for TrustRating's paid services, how invoicing and taxes work, what TWallet credit is, when refunds are given and how they are processed, and what happens in the event of chargebacks, fraud or errors. It forms part of the Business Terms of Service and works together with the Subscription, Billing & Cancellation Terms, which govern plans, renewals, grace periods and cancellation.

1. Payment methods

We support four payment rails, and you choose at checkout — the choice affects renewal mechanics (automatic versus invoice-based, per the Subscription Terms) but never the price or the features of the plan. Card via Stripe — credit and debit cards, processed by Stripe as our payment processor; recurring subscriptions renew automatically on the stored payment method, which you can update or replace in the billing panel at any time. Card data is entered on Stripe's PCI-DSS-compliant infrastructure and never touches our servers; we store only tokens and the metadata needed to show you which card is on file. Cryptocurrency via NOWPayments — payments in supported cryptocurrencies processed by NOWPayments; the checkout shows the accepted coins, the exact amount and the payment window. Crypto payments are non-recurring: each period is paid with a fresh payment against a renewal invoice, with email reminders as described in the Subscription Terms. Manual cryptocurrency — by arrangement, payment to a wallet address we communicate for a specific invoice; pay exactly the stated amount with the stated reference so the payment can be matched, and note that network transaction fees are borne by the payer. Bank transfer — payment of an invoice to our bank account using the invoice reference; processing time depends on your bank, and your subscription period is activated when the funds are received and matched. The reference matters more than it looks: an unreferenced transfer is an anonymous amount in a bank statement, and matching it means detective work while your renewal waits — put the reference in the payment, and activation is same-day the money lands. If a preferred method is unavailable to you for accessibility or other reasons, contact us — we can usually issue a manual invoice payable by transfer.

2. TWallet credit

TWallet is a prepaid balance inside your business account that can be topped up and then spent on our paid services. It exists for convenience: companies that prefer one accounting event to many small charges can top up once and let renewals draw from the balance; refunds and goodwill credits have a natural place to land; and payment methods that do not support recurring charges pair naturally with a balance that does. Plainly stated: TWallet credit is a prepayment for TrustRating services only. It is not electronic money, not a deposit, not an investment, bears no interest, cannot be transferred to other accounts or third parties, and cannot be used to pay anyone but us. Credit is redeemed against invoices and subscription charges at face value — one unit of credit always pays one unit of invoice, with no redemption fees and no depreciation of purchased credit. Promotional or goodwill credit we grant for free (as distinct from credit you purchased) may carry an expiry and is consumed first; it has no cash value. Unused purchased credit is refundable on account closure or on request, at its unused face value, via the original payment route where feasible (Section 6 applies); promotional credit is not — you cannot convert a goodwill gesture into cash, only into services, which is the entire difference between the two kinds of credit. Using TWallet for anything unlawful — including attempts to launder funds through top-up-and-refund cycles — leads to account termination and reporting where required by law.

3. Invoices and billing documents

Every charge produces an invoice, available in your billing panel and sent to your billing email; billing documents can be re-sent from the panel or by support on request. Invoices state the service, period, amounts, taxes and the payment reference. Keep your billing details (legal name, address, VAT number) accurate — corrections after issuance are handled through credit notes and re-issued invoices, which we are happy to do for legitimate corrections. Invoices payable by transfer or crypto state a due date; the dunning and grace process for late payment is described in the Subscription Terms.

On VAT specifically: where you provide a valid VAT number and the reverse-charge mechanism applies to a cross-border B2B supply, the invoice is issued without VAT and marked accordingly, and accounting for the VAT becomes your side's obligation; where no valid number is provided, VAT is charged at the applicable rate. Retroactive VAT-number additions are handled through the credit-note-and-reissue route, within the limits tax law puts on us. Nothing here is tax advice — your accountant outranks this page on your obligations.

4. Currency and exchange

Prices are charged in the currency shown at checkout. If you pay in another currency (a foreign card, a crypto coin), the conversion is performed by your card issuer, network or the payment processor at their rates; exchange-rate movements and conversion fees are outside our control and not refundable by us. For crypto payments the amount fixed at checkout for the payment window is authoritative; underpayments below the tolerance cannot activate the service and are resolved by support.

5. Statutory withdrawal rights

Where you purchase as a business, statutory consumer-withdrawal rights typically do not apply. Where mandatory law nevertheless grants you a withdrawal right (for example certain mixed-use purchases in the EU within 14 days), we honour it in full: you may withdraw within the statutory window without giving reasons, and if you asked us to start the service immediately, we may deduct a proportionate amount for the service already provided, exactly as the law prescribes. Nothing in this Policy limits any right you have under mandatory law.

6. Our refund policy

Beyond statutory rights, we apply these rules — and one meta-rule above them: refund decisions are made by people authorised to say yes, against written criteria, not by a wall of "policy" designed to exhaust you. Cancellation is not a refund event — when you cancel, your plan runs to the end of the paid period and simply does not renew; we do not refund the remainder of a started period as a matter of course (see the Subscription Terms). Our errors are always refunded — double charges, charges after a processed cancellation, incorrect amounts, or a paid service we failed to activate are corrected in full, promptly, without argument. Renewal grace — if a subscription renewed and you tell us within a short window that the renewal was unintended and the period's paid features were not meaningfully used, we will in good faith refund or credit the renewal; we would rather lose a period's fee than keep an unwilling customer's money. Goodwill — outside these categories, refunds are discretionary and, where granted, may be given as TWallet credit or to the original payment method. How refunds are paid: every refund confirms by email with its reference, so you always have something to show your bookkeeper and something to quote to support; card refunds go back to the card via Stripe (arrival depends on your bank, typically 5–10 business days); crypto refunds are returned in the paid currency at the paid amount (network fees deducted, wallet address confirmed with you — exchange-rate movements between payment and refund are not compensated in either direction); bank refunds go to the account the payment came from. Refunds are made to the origin of the funds, never to third parties.

7. Chargebacks and payment disputes

If you dispute a charge with your bank or card issuer without contacting us first, the processor freezes the amount and a formal dispute process begins that neither of us controls. Please contact us first — genuine errors are refunded faster than any chargeback resolves: a chargeback takes weeks and involves three institutions; a support ticket with the invoice reference takes a day and involves one person who can actually see your account. Where a chargeback is filed against a legitimate charge: the services paid by the disputed amount are suspended pending resolution; we submit the evidence (order, usage, communications) to the processor; and repeated unfounded chargebacks may lead to termination and the recovery of dispute fees where the law allows. A chargeback upheld in your favour is, of course, honoured — the mechanism exists to protect cardholders and we respect it; what these rules address is its use as a refund-policy bypass, which processors penalise on both sides. The same principles apply to reversed bank transfers and to crypto payments recalled through the processor.

8. Fraud prevention and sanctions compliance

Payments are screened for fraud by our processors and by us (velocity checks, mismatch signals, high-risk patterns). We may decline, hold or reverse transactions that fail screening, request additional verification for unusual payments, and refuse payment routes for accounts under integrity investigation (see the Acceptable Use Policy). A held payment is not an accusation — most holds clear after a quick verification exchange, and we would rather ask one honest customer a question than process one stolen card. We comply with applicable sanctions and anti-money-laundering law: we do not accept payments from sanctioned persons or territories, and TWallet may not be used to move value rather than to pay for services (Section 2). Suspected money-laundering patterns — including top-up-refund cycling and third-party payment attempts — are reported where the law requires.

9. Affiliate payouts

Money can also flow from us: approved affiliate commissions are paid out under the API, Webhooks & Affiliate Program Terms. In brief: payouts are request-based and admin-approved, use the payout details you maintain in your affiliate dashboard (bank/IBAN or crypto wallet), are subject to commission maturation, refund reversals and clawbacks as those terms describe, and are your income to declare — taxes on commissions are the affiliate's responsibility. Payout requests are matched against the same fraud screening as payments in.

10. Crypto payments in detail

Cryptocurrency deserves its own fine print because the rails behave differently from cards. Amount and window: checkout fixes the exact crypto amount for a limited payment window; pay within it and the volatility risk inside the window is handled by the processor's quote. Confirmations: a payment counts when the network confirms it to the processor's threshold — during network congestion this can take longer than usual, and your service activates on confirmation, not on broadcast. Underpayment and overpayment: sending less than the quoted amount (often caused by wallet-side fee deduction — check whether your wallet deducts the network fee from the amount entered) cannot activate the service; support resolves under- and overpayments manually, so contact us with the transaction reference rather than sending "topping-up" dust. Wrong network or coin: send exactly the coin on exactly the network the checkout specifies; funds sent as the right coin on the wrong network may be unrecoverable, and where recovery is technically possible it may involve costs that the sender bears. Finality: crypto transactions cannot be recalled by us or by you, which is why Section 6's refund rules for crypto are executed as new outbound transactions to an address you confirm. None of this is a warning against crypto — it is a well-supported first-class payment method here — it is simply how the rails work, stated honestly.

11. Errors, questions and contact

If any charge, invoice or refund looks wrong, contact billing support via the contact page with the invoice reference; we investigate every billing question and correct verified errors retroactively. A useful report names the invoice or transaction reference, the amount, and what you expected instead — with those three facts most cases close in a single reply. Where an investigation takes longer (bank-side tracing, processor disputes), we tell you what we are waiting for rather than going silent. This Policy changes only through the process described in the Terms of Service, and the version identified by the date above is the one in force.