Refund policy
Effective July 17, 2026 · updated August 21, 2026 (unused balances are refundable on request)
The Plain Exchange keeps money simple: subscribing and browsing are free, and posting ads comes off your prepaid ad-credit balance, in dollars. This page says exactly when your money comes back to you and when it is spent for good. It goes hand in hand with the terms and conditions.
The short version
- You are not charged until your ad actually goes out. Posting quotes you a price and sets that money aside; the text that carries your ad to subscribers is what collects it.
- Your ad never ran? You were never charged, so there is nothing to refund.
- Your ad went out? The money is spent — that was the product.
- Ads declined for breaking the rules are not refunded.
- Money still sitting on your account, unspent? Ask and we send it back, minus the card processing fee of about 5%.
- Free credit we gave you isn’t money, so it can’t come back as money.
When you are not charged, or your money comes back
- Declined for an ordinary reason. Every ad is read by a person before it runs. If we decline yours for an ordinary reason — too long, unclear, not a good fit — nothing is charged, and the money set aside for it is yours again straight away.
- Removed before approval. If your ad is deleted while it is still waiting for review, nothing is charged.
- Approved but never broadcast. If your ad was approved but is deleted before it has ever gone out to the list, nothing is charged.
- Ads posted before this changed. Ads placed while the service charged at posting time were charged then, and those charges are returned to your balance in the cases above, exactly as they always were.
When the money is spent for good
- The ad ran. Once your ad has been sent out to the list, the money is used — the broadcast to the list is what it buys. Deleting the ad afterward does not return it.
- The ad broke the rules. If an ad is declined or removed for violating the posting rules, the charge is kept and the ad counts as a strike.
Adding money and card payments
You add money to your account on this website; with a saved card, your balance can also top up automatically at posting time (the confirmation text always states the charge, and the toggle is under your account). Payments are processed by Stripe; a refund goes back to the card it was paid with. Ad credit doesn’t expire and can’t be transferred to someone else.
Getting your unused balance back
Money you have added and not yet spent is yours, and you can ask for it back at any time. Call or text (330) 275-1603 and we return what is left of the money you paid to the card you paid with, minus the card processing fee of about 5%. There is no deadline to ask and no charge for asking beyond that fee.
The fee is not a penalty — it is a cost we have already paid. Our card processor takes its fee when your payment comes in and keeps it whether or not the payment is later refunded, so returning $100 costs us the fee twice over unless we hold it back. There is no fee at all when the fault is ours — a double charge, an ad we pulled, an outage, or anything else we got wrong comes back in full.
Free ad credit is not money and is never refundable. Welcome credit, credit that comes with an invitation, and any credit we add to make something right are ours to give, not cash you paid us. If your balance is part money and part free credit, only the part you actually paid can come back — and when you post an ad we spend your free credit first, so your own money stays yours for as long as it honestly can. Ask us any time and we will tell you exactly how much of your balance is money you paid.
What has no charge to refund
Subscribing (by text or email), browsing the website, and pulling ad pictures with PIC are free, so there is nothing to refund. Message and data rates from your phone company are between you and them.
Questions or an unusual case
If something odd happened — a double charge, an ad that ran wrong, anything that doesn’t fit the rules above — tell us and we will make it right where it is right to do so. Call or text (330) 275-1603.