Refund Policy

This policy explains how billing, cancellation, and refunds work for The First Click's paid subscriptions. It forms part of our Terms of Service.

1. Which tiers this applies to

• Free — no charge, so no refunds apply.
• Ad-Free — earned through active referrals, not purchased. It has no cash value and is not refundable, exchangeable, or transferable.
• Premium — a paid subscription. This policy governs those payments.
• Black — a paid subscription, governed by this policy. Where Black was granted by editor invitation no payment is taken, so there is nothing to refund; like earned Ad-Free status it has no cash value and is not exchangeable or transferable.

2. Billing basics

Paid subscriptions are billed in advance, on a monthly or annual cycle, and renew automatically until cancelled. Prices are shown at checkout, inclusive or exclusive of applicable taxes as indicated for your country. Your payment is processed by our payment provider; we never store your full card number.

We will notify you by email before any price increase takes effect, and increases apply only from your next billing period — never retroactively.

3. Cancelling

You can cancel at any time from your account settings — no phone calls, no forms. Cancellation stops the next renewal; you keep full access until the end of the period you have already paid for. We do not charge cancellation fees.

4. Refunds

14-day money-back guarantee. If you are subscribing to a paid tier for the first time, you may request a full refund within 14 days of your first payment, for any reason.

Annual plans. Beyond the first 14 days, annual members who cancel may request a pro-rated refund of the unused full months remaining on the plan.

Monthly plans. Beyond the first 14 days, monthly payments are non-refundable once a billing period has started; cancelling stops future charges.

Always refunded in full, at any time:

• duplicate charges and billing errors;
• charges after a cancellation we failed to process;
• payments taken for a service outage on our side lasting more than 72 consecutive hours in a billing period, on request.

Not refundable: earned Ad-Free status (it isn't a purchase), partial months already consumed, and accounts terminated for violating our Terms of Service (for example, referral fraud or content scraping).

Nothing in this policy limits any non-waivable rights you have under applicable consumer protection law in your place of residence.

5. How to request a refund

Email support@the-first-click.com from the address on your account with your account email and the approximate date of the charge. (Editorial matters — corrections, story feedback, advertising enquiries — go to editor@the-first-click.com instead.)

We acknowledge refund requests within 2 business days and process approved refunds within 5 business days. Refunds go back to the original payment method; depending on your bank, the credit may take a further 5–10 business days to appear.

6. Chargebacks

If you believe a charge is wrong, please contact us first — we resolve billing errors quickly and without friction. Initiating a chargeback for a charge you authorised may result in suspension of the account while the dispute is investigated.

7. Changes to this policy

We may update this policy from time to time. Changes are posted here and apply to payments made after the change takes effect; the policy in force at the time of your payment governs that payment.