Refund policy: what applies when there is nothing to charge

Nothing. A VIN check on this site is free, and there is no point in the flow where money is discussed or a card is requested. That is not a promotion that expires — it is a consequence of what the free check returns. The factory build and specifications come from the manufacturer’s own filings through NHTSA’s vPIC database, and open safety recalls come from NHTSA directly. Both are public records, published so anyone can read them, so there is nothing to sell you at this layer.

Because no money changes hands, a refund has nothing to act on. You cannot be charged for a free record, enrolled in a trial that converts, or billed monthly for a lookup, since every one of those needs payment details the site never collects. The licensed history layer — title brands, accident and odometer records — is shown as pending rather than sold, so it does not create a charge either.

The licensed history layer costs real money per lookup, so if and when it is offered it would carry a price. Stating the commitments now, while there is nothing to sell, is worth more than stating them later when there is. Any paid report introduced here would follow these rules, and the specific price and refund window would be published on this page before the first sale, not after it:

• One-time purchases, priced per report — no subscription, no membership, no auto-renewal
• The full price and the refund window shown before any payment field appears
• A refund honored where the licensed record could not be delivered for the VIN you paid for
• No card details collected for a free check, ever, for any reason including verification
• This page updated the same day anything changes, with the exact terms in full

Most people who look up a refund policy for a vehicle history service do so after a charge they did not expect — a “free” VIN search that turned into a card form, then a monthly line on the statement. That charge is not from CheckerVIN, but the route to reversing it is the same wherever it came from, and it works best in this order.

1. 1Ask the seller to cancel and refund, in writingEmail rather than phone, so you keep a dated record of the request and any reply. Reference the specific charge and the date it posted.
2. 2Dispute the charge with your card issuerYour bank or card network can reverse an unauthorised or misrepresented charge and block further recurring attempts from the same merchant.
3. 3Report it to the Federal Trade CommissionFile at ReportFraud.ftc.gov. The FTC enforces the Restore Online Shoppers’ Confidence Act, and these reports are what build the cases against deceptive billing.
4. 4Keep every dateA recurring charge that continued after a documented cancellation request is a materially stronger complaint than general dissatisfaction.

Our billing transparency pagesets out what federal law requires of any site that bills you online, and a thirty-second test you can run on any vehicle history service — this one included — before you type anything.