Refund policy

1. Scope and general position

This policy applies to every fee paid to the Council — examination fees, cohort fees, revalidation fees, and membership fees. Fees paid to any third party for preparation are governed by that party's own terms; the Council is not a party to that contract and has no liability under it.

Section 2 states where your own law overrides this policy. Sections 3 to 6 concern examination and cohort fees. Membership fees are dealt with separately, in section 8.

Fees are non-refundable once paid, except where this policy expressly provides otherwise. Refunds and transfers granted outside these terms are at the Council's sole discretion, are made without admission of liability, and do not create a precedent or entitlement in any other case.

2. Where your own law gives you more

If the consumer protection law of the country you live in gives you better cancellation or transfer rights than this policy does, that law applies and this policy gives way to it. Candidates in the United Kingdom and the European Economic Area, among others, have a statutory period in which a distance purchase may be cancelled; where it applies, it applies whatever the schedule below says.

The Council does not ask candidates to declare a jurisdiction and does not run two versions of this policy. A right you hold by law is one you hold whether or not you told us where you live, and asking would change nothing except the number of questions between you and a booking.

3. Changing your sitting date

15 or more days before your sitting, you may move it to another date at no charge. The new date must fall inside the booking window your registration already carries. Moving a sitting is the Council's preferred outcome and the cheapest one for you: the fee follows you to the new date in full.

Fewer than 15 days before the sitting, a date cannot be moved. A request made inside that period is treated as a cancellation under section 4.

A sitting may be moved once. A registration is personal and cannot be moved to another person at any point — see §5 of the terms of use.

4. Cancelling

• 15 or more days before the sitting: 75% of the fee is refunded. The Council retains 25% as an administration fee.
• Fewer than 15 days before the sitting: no refund.
• Once you have sat, or once examination materials have been made available to you: no refund. A result, including a fail, is the service purchased.
• Not attending, without notice and without a claim under section 5: no refund. The sitting was held open.

Before cancelling, consider section 3: at 15 days or more, moving the date keeps the whole fee where cancelling returns 75% of it.

What 75% is calculated on. The amount you actually paid, not the published fee — if a Founding Referral Credit reduced what you were charged, the refund is 75% of the reduced amount, and the credit itself is restored to your account unspent. A referral credit is only ever earned once the referred candidate has sat their examination, and a sitting that has been taken cannot be refunded, so an earned credit is never withdrawn by a refund to anyone.

5. Exceptional circumstances

Where something outside your control prevents you from sitting, the Council may set the schedule above aside and allow you to move the sitting at no charge, or refund the fee in full. The Council treats the following as exceptional circumstances:

• serious illness or a medical condition that prevents you attending, or prevents you performing normally on the day;
• bereavement;
• a domestic crisis, or another form of significant personal hardship;
• a traumatic experience;
• an unavoidable legal or military obligation;
• civil unrest, extreme weather, or a comparable event where you live.

When to claim. A claim may be made at any time before the sitting, and for up to 2 calendar days after the date of a sitting you did not attend. No claim is accepted once a result has been issued. That cut-off is not administrative tidiness: a claim made after seeing a mark is a claim about the mark, and the route for that is the appeals procedure, not this one.

How to claim. Write to hello@aiassurancecouncil.org with your registration reference, what happened, and independent documentary evidence of it. The Council answers within 7 working days of a complete application. Claims are handled confidentially and the evidence is seen only by those deciding the claim. A decision under this section is final and is not a ground of appeal.

6. Where the Council cancels

The Council may have to cancel or postpone a sitting for reasons outside its control — a failure of the examination or proctoring platform, the withdrawal of a supplier, civil unrest, extreme weather, or comparable events. It will give you as much notice as it can and then the choice is yours: move to another sitting at no charge, or take a full refund of the fee paid. You do not have to wait for a replacement date to be offered before choosing.

That choice is your sole and exclusive remedy. The Council is not liable for travel, accommodation, preparation or other third-party costs, for lost time, or for any other loss arising from a cancellation or a postponement.

7. Failure, resits, and withdrawal

A resit is charged at the full standard examination fee, or at 50% of the fee paid where the candidate holds a current membership at the date of the resit. There is no refund, partial refund, or credit for an unsuccessful attempt: the assessment was delivered and marked. Candidates who believe an examination was incorrectly marked or improperly administered must use the appeals procedure rather than seeking a refund.

No refund of any kind arises where a credential is suspended or withdrawn for breach of the code of conduct, misuse of the certification marks, or misrepresentation, or where a candidate is excluded from an examination for misconduct.

8. Membership fees

Membership fees are non-refundable and are not transferable to another person. Membership runs for a fixed term from the date it is granted, and no pro-rata refund arises where it ends early — on lapse, on resignation, or on termination by the Council for non-payment or for breach of the code of conduct.

Membership does not renew automatically. The Council stores no card and charges no renewal without an instruction, so there is no unwanted renewal to refund: a membership that is not renewed simply lapses on its expiry date. The Council writes before a term ends.

Where the first year of membership came included with a paid examination, it carries no separate fee and no separate refund; a refund of the examination fee under sections 3 to 6 ends the membership granted with it.

Where a credential is maintained by membership, allowing the membership to lapse expires the credential. That is not a refundable event: nothing has been withdrawn, the register shows the entry as expired, and revalidating restores it.

9. Eligibility is the candidate's responsibility

It is the candidate's responsibility to confirm before paying that they meet the published eligibility requirements and that the certification is appropriate for their purpose. No refund arises because a candidate later concludes that the certification does not suit their needs, is not recognised by a particular employer or authority, or does not produce an expected outcome.

10. Chargebacks

Raise any billing dispute with the Council first. Initiating a chargeback without doing so may result in suspension of the candidate's registration and any credential held pending resolution, and the Council reserves the right to recover the chargeback amount and any associated fees.

11. How to request a refund

Write to hello@aiassurancecouncil.org with the candidate name and examination reference, within 14 days of the event relied on. Requests outside that period will not be considered. Decisions are issued in writing within 20 business days. Approved refunds are made to the original payment method within 30 days, in the currency paid; the Council is not responsible for exchange-rate movement or payment provider charges.

Contact

Questions about this policy should be addressed to hello@aiassurancecouncil.org.