Cancellations and refunds

When you get your money back, how much of it, where it goes, and how long it takes. Two parts — one for learners, one for instructors and driving schools — because the same lesson looks different from each side of it. These are the rules the site actually applies, with the live figures, not a summary of them.

Last updated 3 August 2026

1. What this covers

This policy covers lessons and lesson blocks booked through MotorInstructor and paid for through the site. It sits alongside your instructor or driving school’s own terms: they are independent businesses, and they set their own cancellation notice period and late-cancellation fee within limits we enforce.

The terms you saw when you booked are the terms that apply. Your instructor’s notice period and late fee are recorded on the booking at the moment you confirm it. If they change their policy afterwards, your existing bookings keep the terms shown on the booking card when you made them.

Nothing here affects your statutory rights. Section 6 describes our 14-day cooling-off policy for blocks.

A cancellation that is not your doing is never your cost: whether we cancel, your instructor cancels, or a driving school removes the instructor from its team, your lesson money comes back in full under section 3.

2. The three things you pay

A card booking is made up of up to three separate amounts, and they are treated differently on a refund.

Amount	What it is	Refundable?
Lesson price	Set by your instructor — their fee for the lesson itself.	Yes, unless you cancel late — see section 3.
Service fee	5% of the lesson price. What we charge for running the booking — taking and holding the payment, the cancellation and refund process, and support if something goes wrong. It is a fee, not insurance: there is nothing to claim on and no separate cover.	Returned with the lesson price if you cancel in time, or if we or your instructor cancel. Kept if you cancel late.
Booking fee	3% of the lesson price, and never less than £1. It covers the cost of taking the payment, which is part fixed and part proportional — that is why there is a minimum as well as a percentage.	Never. Once your booking is confirmed the booking fee is not returned on any path, including when we cancel.

Both fees are calculated on the lesson’s full price, so a discounted or free first lesson still carries them. Wallet credit can pay for a lesson and its service fee, but the booking fee is always paid by card. Lessons paid in cash carry no platform fees at all.

Part one — for learners

3. Cancelling a lesson you paid for by card

Every booking has a free-cancellation window — a number of hours before the lesson starts, set by your instructor and shown on the booking. Cancel before that point and it is in time; after it, it is late.

Our default is 6 hours’ notice, with a late-cancellation fee of 15% of the lesson price. Instructors set their own within limits we enforce, so the terms shown on your booking are the ones that apply to it — they are recorded when you confirm and do not change afterwards. Check the booking, not this page, for what your own lesson costs to cancel.

When you cancel	You get back	We or your instructor keep
In time	The lesson price and the service fee.	The booking fee.
Late	The lesson price minus your instructor's late-cancellation fee.	The late fee, the service fee, and the booking fee.
We cancel, your instructor cancels, or their school removes them	The lesson price and the service fee, however close to the lesson.	The booking fee.

The late-cancellation fee is a percentage of the lesson price only — it is never charged on the fees. A cancellation by us or by your instructor is always treated as in time, no matter how close to the lesson it happens, so no late fee is ever charged for something that was not your decision.

If you paid partly with wallet credit

We can only return money to a card if it came from that card. Where part of a booking was paid from wallet credit, the card is refunded first and the rest goes back to your wallet.

4. Where your refund goes

When money is coming back to you, you choose where it goes: to the card you paid with, or as wallet credit you can spend with any instructor on the site.

Wallet credit cannot be converted back to money later. It is spendable on the site with any instructor, and it does not expire, but once you accept it the choice is final. If you are not sure, choose the card.

If a refund is waiting on your choice, you have 14 days to make it. If you do not, we send it to the card you paid with. We default to the card deliberately: wallet credit is a restriction on what you can do with your own money, and not replying to a prompt is not agreement to that.

How long it takes to arrive

We release a card refund as soon as the cancellation is processed. How long it then takes to appear on your statement is up to your bank — usually a few working days, sometimes up to ten. Wallet credit is immediate.

5. Lessons paid in cash

A cash lesson is paid directly to your instructor. We never hold the money, and there are no platform fees. That also means we cannot refund one, and cancelling in the app moves no money either way — any refund is between you and your instructor. For the same reason, the issue process in section 9 does not cover cash lessons.

6. Prepaid blocks and courses

A block is a number of lessons bought up front at a lower price per lesson, and it is tied to the instructor you bought it from. A card purchase carries the same two fees as a card lesson — the service fee on the block’s price, and one booking fee for the purchase (one payment, one fee — never one per lesson). Both are shown before you confirm. Blocks paid in cash carry no platform fees.

Changing your mind — cooling off

If you bought a block within the last 14 days and have not taken a lesson from it, you can cancel it from My lessons. The lesson money and the service fee come back to your card. The booking fee is not returned — as everywhere in this policy, it pays for taking your payment and setting up the purchase, a service that is complete the moment you buy, and it is the same whether you keep the block or not. Booking a lesson from the block pauses the right while that booking stands (the service has been called on); cancel the booking in time and the credit — and with it this right — comes back. Taking a lesson ends it.

Cancelling a lesson booked from a block

The money moved when you bought the block, so cancelling a lesson from it moves no money. Cancel in time and the lesson credit goes back to your block. Cancel late and the credit is forfeited — the prepaid equivalent of a late-cancellation fee.

How long a block lasts

A block stays usable for 2 years from purchase. We write to you 90 days before it expires so unused lessons are not a surprise.

7. If your instructor becomes unavailable while you hold a block

A block can only be spent with the instructor you bought it from, so if that instructor leaves the platform — whatever the reason — your remaining lessons would otherwise be stranded. When that happens we contact you with a choice, open for 14 days: take the remaining value as wallet credit, spendable with any instructor, or back to your card. If you do not reply, it becomes wallet credit — the opposite of the default in section 4, because this money was never on a card to send back to. Either way the booking fee is not returned, and the choice is final.

8. If you are recorded as a no-show

If you do not turn up to a lesson, your instructor can record it as a no-show — from the lesson’s start time until 7 days after it ends. Money-wise it is treated exactly like a late cancellation: a card charge stands, a block credit is used, and nothing is refunded. You are notified when it happens.

We do not ask the instructor for evidence before the mark is recorded. If you believe a no-show was recorded wrongly, contact us and we will look into it with both of you — and note that raising an issue under section 9 stays open to you on a card lesson within its deadline.

9. If something goes wrong with a lesson

If your instructor did not turn up, the lesson did not happen, or you were charged something you do not think is right, raise an issue on the lesson and we will look at it.

There is a deadline. You have 24 hours from the end of a lesson to raise an issue about it. We hold your instructor’s money for at least that long so there is something to put right — once it has been paid out and the window has closed, we cannot reverse the lesson. After the deadline, message your instructor, or contact us and we will help where we can.

Every case is decided by a person, normally within five working days. Safety and conduct concerns are always handled by a person, whatever the amount, and are never settled automatically.

An issue you raise puts a hold on your instructor’s payment for that lesson until it is resolved. If it is decided in your favour after they have already been paid, we recover the money from them rather than from you.

Raising an issue with us does not take away your right to complain to your bank or card provider, or to take the matter further elsewhere.

10. When your instructor gets paid

We hold the money for a completed lesson for at least 3 days, and never release it before the issue deadline in section 9 has passed. This is the mechanism that makes a refund possible at all: it is why a cancellation or an upheld issue can return your money rather than leaving you to recover it from someone else.

This section is here so the timing is not a mystery. It gives you no additional rights, and takes none away.

Part two — for instructors and driving schools

11. What we take

The rules above describe what happens to the learner’s money; this part describes what happens to yours. Commission is 0% of the lesson price for accounts without a paid plan. Paid plans set their own rate, shown on the plan before you subscribe. Commission is charged on the lesson price only — never on the learner-side fees in section 2, which are not your money and never reach your balance. Lessons paid in cash carry no commission, because we never handle the payment. On a prepaid block, commission is taken once when the block is bought; the lessons drawn from it carry none.

The learner’s fees are not a deduction from your fee. The service fee and the booking fee are added on top of your price at checkout, so the learner pays more — you are not paid less. Your price is what you set.

12. When you get paid

We hold a completed lesson’s money for 3 days, and never release it before the learner’s 24 hours window to raise an issue has closed. Both clocks start when the lesson is marked complete, and payouts run automatically — you do not need to request one. Receiving payouts requires completed payment onboarding; until then your earnings accrue and the payout run passes over them.

13. If a learner cancels or raises an issue

Cancelled in time — the lesson is not delivered and earns nothing. Nothing is taken from you; the money simply never becomes yours.
Cancelled late — you keep the late-cancellation fee under your own terms, less commission, on the same schedule as a delivered lesson.
An issue is raised — that lesson’s payout is held until it is resolved, and released to you in full if it is decided in your favour. If it is upheld after you have already been paid, we recover that amount from your balance.

If you disagree with an outcome, reply to the decision and a person will look at it again. We do not settle safety or conduct matters automatically in either direction.

14. Recording a learner no-show

If a learner does not turn up, you can record the lesson as a no-show from its start time until 7 days after it ends. The money follows your late-cancellation terms: a card charge stands and is paid out on the normal schedule, a block credit is used, and commission is unchanged. The learner is told when the mark is recorded.

We do not ask you for evidence at the point of recording — the mark relies on your honesty. If a learner contests one and asks us to look, a person does, and misuse of the mark can lead to action under section 15.

15. If we suspend your account

If we suspend your account, your future confirmed lessons are cancelled and those learners are refunded in full, with the late fee waived — a suspension is never the learner’s cost. Learners holding a prepaid block with you are offered the section 7 choice between wallet credit and a card refund. Learners are told we suspended the account; we do not publish the reason. Money for lessons already delivered remains subject to the normal payout rules in section 12.

16. Getting in touch

For anything in this policy, contact us at privacy@motorinstructor.com. We are MotorInstructor Ltd (company number 17356315), registered at 66 Paul Street, London EC2A 4NA.

To cancel a lesson or raise an issue, use My lessons — that is the fastest route and it applies these rules automatically.
If you think a rule was applied wrongly, tell us what you expected and what happened, and we will check it against the booking.