How to write a refund policy for goods, downloads or services
A refund policy tells buyers what happens if they change their mind or something goes wrong: how long they have, how to ask, what they get back and when. It can't take away rights the law gives consumers, so write it from those rights outwards, then add whatever extra you choose to offer. This is practical guidance, not legal advice.
Start from the rules that apply to you
Refund rules come from consumer law where your customers live, not from your policy. This guide uses the UK as the worked example, because its rules are clearly published; EU countries have a similar 14-day right of withdrawal for online sales, and other countries differ. If you sell only to businesses, most of these consumer rules don't apply, but you still need clear terms.
Under the UK's Consumer Contracts Regulations, set out on GOV.UK's distance selling guidance, consumers who buy online can usually cancel within 14 days of delivery without giving a reason. If you don't tell them about that right, the period can stretch to 12 months. When they cancel, regulation 34 says you refund without undue delay and within 14 days of getting the goods back (or proof they've been sent), using the same payment method, including standard delivery cost.
What to cover, by what you sell
| You sell | Cover in the policy |
|---|---|
| Physical goods | The 14-day cancellation window, who pays return postage, the condition goods should come back in, how to start a return, how long refunds take, and faulty goods (a separate right from changing your mind). |
| Digital downloads or access | Whether the buyer gives up the right to cancel once access starts. Under regulation 37 that needs their express consent and acknowledgement before supply begins. Say what happens if a file doesn't work. |
| Services | The cancellation window, and that if they ask you to start within it and then cancel, they pay for what you've already done (regulation 36). Notice periods for appointments, and any no-show charge. |
| Subscriptions | How to cancel, when the cancellation takes effect, and whether a partly used period is refunded. |
Writing it, step by step
- List what you sell and put each item into one of the rows above. Many small businesses have two kinds: a product and a service, or a download and a course.
- Write the legal minimum for each kind in plain sentences. "You can cancel any order within 14 days of receiving it. You don't need to give a reason."
- Add what you choose to offer on top, if anything: 30-day returns, free return postage, exchanges. Make clear which parts are extra.
- Explain how to ask. An email address or a form, what to include (order number, item), and whether they need to wait for a reply before posting anything.
- State timings: when you'll confirm, when the money goes back, and that it goes back to the original payment method.
- List exceptions honestly: made-to-order or personalised items, sealed hygiene products once opened, perishable goods, digital content once accessed with consent. Check each against the rules before relying on it.
- Date it, and keep earlier versions, so you know which policy applied to which order.
Match your payment provider
If a buyer asks their card issuer to reverse a payment, the issuer looks at what you told them before they paid. Stripe's dispute prevention advice recommends putting refund and cancellation policies in your terms, making them easy to find, and showing customers the full policy before purchase, not just a link. It also suggests replying to problems and refunding quickly, since a customer who gets a quick answer is less likely to dispute the charge.
Check your provider's own rules too. Marketplaces and platforms that sell on your behalf often set a refund policy of their own that overrides yours for orders placed through them.
Mistakes to avoid
- "All sales final" for UK or EU consumer orders. It doesn't remove the statutory right, and it can mislead buyers about it.
- Treating faulty goods like change-of-mind returns. A fault is a separate right; don't make the buyer pay postage to return something broken.
- Refund only as credit. Store credit can be an extra option, but a cancelled consumer order is refunded to the original payment method.
- A policy nobody can find. Link it from the footer of every page, from the product or pricing page, and from the order confirmation.
- Copying another shop's policy. Their exceptions may not fit what you sell, and a policy that doesn't match your practice causes more disputes than it settles.
Check it before you publish
Read it as a customer who wants their money back. Can you tell, from the policy alone, how long you have, who to contact, what to send and when the money arrives? Then compare it with your checkout: does the checkout page link to it, and do the two say the same thing? If a dispute or a complaint later shows a gap, update the policy and its date.
Refund policies on Anticode sites
Anticode sites take payment through payment links from your own provider (Stripe Payment Links, PayPal, Gumroad, Lemon Squeezy, Shopify or Whop), so the checkout, the receipt and the refund itself happen with that provider. Each published site gets a Privacy Policy and Terms written from what the site actually does; they're a starting point, not legal advice, and they don't replace a refund policy written for what you sell. Put yours on the site, for example as a section or a CMS collection entry, link it near the buy buttons, and copy the same text into your provider's checkout settings where it allows. See how to accept payments on a website for the payment side.
Questions people ask
Can I refuse refunds on digital downloads?
In the UK you can, once access has started, if the buyer expressly agreed to immediate access and acknowledged losing the right to cancel before supply began. Without that, the normal 14-day right applies.
Do I have to refund return postage?
For a change-of-mind cancellation, the buyer can be asked to pay return costs if you told them so in advance. You refund the original standard delivery charge. For faulty goods, you shouldn't charge the buyer to return them.
Where should the policy appear?
In the footer of every page, next to buy and pricing buttons, at checkout and in the order confirmation email.
Sources
- GOV.UK: Online and distance selling for businesses, checked
- Consumer Contracts Regulations 2013, regulation 34: reimbursement, checked
- Consumer Contracts Regulations 2013, regulation 36: services begun in the cancellation period, checked
- Consumer Contracts Regulations 2013, regulation 37: digital content in the cancellation period, checked
- Stripe: Best practices for preventing fraud and disputes, checked