Short answer:
You can cancel or edit your trip for free within 1 hour of booking it or up to 48 hours before the time affected by the change. If you cancel or edit your trip outside these times, you may receive a partial refund.
Cancellation policy
| Time of cancellation or edit | Refund |
|---|---|
| Within 1 hour of booking the trip | Full refund |
| Over 48 hours in advance* | Full refund |
| 24 to 48 hours in advance* | Partial refund: you'll pay 50% of time booked, up to 4 hours |
| Less than 24 hours in advance* | Partial refund: you'll pay 100% of time booked, up to 12 hours |
*of the trip start time, or the earliest part of the trip affected by the change
You'll be refunded to your Uber Carshare account. You can use the funds towards another trip or withdraw them back to your card.
If any of the time you cancelled is later booked by another member, you'll be refunded for that time.
If you're receiving a partial refund, the time rate for the first 4 hours (for cancellations 24-48 hours in advance) or 12 hours (for cancellations less than 24 hours in advance) will be used to calculate the refund. The amount you paid for these first hours will be deducted from the total trip cost and any balance will be refunded.
If you edit your trip or return the car early, you may see a charge for 'unused time' on your invoice or trip cost summary. This isn't an additional charge. It's the part of the original booked time that you didn't use.
What happens if I need to cancel and it's not my fault?
We understand that sometimes the unexpected happens, and in rare situations an owner might ask you to cancel or you might not be able to find the car or keys. In these situations, we may be able to offer you a full refund.
When you cancel your trip in the app or website, you'll be asked to select the reason you're cancelling. If the reason for your cancellation isn't there, select Other and contact us for help.
Cancellations due to COVID
If you cancel a trip due to COVID, the cancellation policy still applies as outlined in the table above.
Example scenarios
Michelle books a trip in a car that costs $8/hr, and $40/day. The booking starts at 9am Friday, and ends at 9am Saturday, so the upfront time cost is $40.
She later decides she doesn’t need a car after all, and cancels the trip.
- If she cancels before 9am on Wednesday, there are no cancellation fees because it is more than 48 hours in advance.
- If she cancels on Wednesday afternoon, it is less than 48 hours, but more than 24 hours in advance. She will pay 50% of up to 4 hours, which in this case is $16.
- If she cancels after 9am on Thursday, she will pay 100% of up to 12 hours, because it is less than 24 hours before the start time. The cost of 12 hours in this car would be the daily rate, or $40.
Lloyd books a trip for Monday, 9am to 5pm. The car he books is $7/hr and $45/day, so the upfront time cost he pays is $45. Then he decides to postpone the whole booking to Tuesday.
- If he makes the change within 1 hour of making the booking, or before 9am Saturday, no unused time fees will apply. The total time cost will be $45, for Tuesday only.
- If he makes the change between 9am Saturday and 9am Sunday, the unused time fee is 50% of time reserved, up to 4 hours. This would be a $28 charge for the unused time on Monday, in addition to the $45 for Tuesday.
- If he makes the change after 9am on Sunday, the unused time fee is 100% of time reserved, up to 12 hours. This would be the maximum amount of $45, in addition to the $45 for Tuesday.
Monica books a trip for Saturday, 9am to 11am, but wakes up late that morning and postpones the trip to 10:30am. The time from 9am to 10:30am is now considered ‘unused time’, and because the change was made with less than 24 hours notice, she will pay 100% of the unused time, in addition to the 2 hours she uses the car for.
When returning a car early, you will never be charged more than the full time cost of the booking.
Kieran books a car from 1pm to 4pm at $8/hr, and pays the $24 time cost upfront. He gets his errands done quicker than expected and returns the car at 3pm. His trip cost breakdown will show that he paid $16 for 2 hours, and $8 for unused time.
Rebecca does the same as Kieran, but after she returns the car, another borrower books it for 3:30pm. This means she only has to pay for 30 mins (or $4) of unused time.
Darren books a car from 9am to 9pm, but gets home early and returns the car just before 7:30pm. The time he used (9am to 7:30pm) is already charged at the car’s daily rate, so there is no unused time fee listed on his trip cost breakdown.
Annike books a trip for tomorrow, from 2pm to 7pm. The car she books is $10/hr or $49/day, so the upfront time cost she paid was $49. She later changes the end time to 6pm.
- If she makes the change within 1 hour of making the booking, there are no unused time fees. The total time cost is $40.
- If she makes the change more than an hour later, but before 2pm today, the unused time fee is 50% of up to 4 hours. The unused time was only 1 hour, and 50% of this car’s hourly fee is $5. The total unused cost is $45: $5 unused time and $40 for the time she did use.
- If she makes the change after 2pm today, the unused time fee is 100% of time reserved, up to 12 hours. In this case it would be 1 hour at 100%, or $10. However, the total cost is still $49, because the car’s daily rate is the maximum she can be charged.
Adam books a week-long trip, from Wednesday morning to the following Tuesday evening. On the second day, he finds out he’ll have to cut his trip short, and changes the end time to Sunday evening instead. As all of the unused time (Sunday evening to Tuesday evening) was more than 48 hours away at the time the change was made, no unused time fees apply.
Comments
Please let me know what if I block the car for the unused time, whether it's early return or trip cancellation (within 24 hours or 24-48 hours). Thanks
Hi Giri, if you block out the unused time then it's considered a 'new' booking so you won't get paid for the original time booked by the borrower. Hope that makes sense.
I think you should allow users a refund within the first five minutes if they extend trip time. I accidentally extended my trip another day and immediately wanted to cancel but apparently there is not much point
Example: I rent a car for a week while mine is being repaired, and my own car is returned after only 3 days, so I want to return the CND early.
Does that mean I pay for the 3 days used, and then a 12hr fee for the early return? (The trip has already started, and it's a maximum 12hr fee for the extra?).
Also - if a car is $15 an hour or $50 a day, what does "12 hr fee" mean? Does it mean:
$15*12hrs = $160, or does it mean
$50*less than one day = $50 ?
Hi, I would like to return the car I borrowed one day earlier (24h). If the car cost $4/h and 20$/day, how much will be the cancellation fee applied to me? Thank you. Regards, Daniel
Hi Daniele,
If you return the car early, any unused time will be charged - up to a maximum of 12 hours. This is to compensate the car's owner for the fact that your booking may have prevented others from booking the car. If another member books the car during the unused time, then the owner has not lost any income and you will not be charged for that time. Cheers.
Hi guys, you didn't actually say *how* to cancel a trip, just what the penalties are. Do we do it by sending an email? Calling?
Hi Kylin, you can do it through the app or the website. Just go to the Trips page and select the trip you want to cancel, and there will be a Cancel button.
Cancelling a trip due to COVID travel restrictions is different to a normal cancellation. I will lodge a formal complaint with the Fair Trading if i dont get a full refund.
Hi
I had a booking for 25 of December but I canceled my trip on 20 of December.
I didn’t receive my refund yet .
Can you please help me to sort out the issue
What happens if a booking is made for a few days, the trip is cancelled by the borrower less than 24hrs before it was due to begin, but someone else later makes a booking that starts 20hrs after the original booking was due to start. Is there a charge for the borrower due to the fact that the lender lost income, or no charge since another booking was made for within that initial booking period?
Hi Andrew, the borrower who cancels is charged for any part of their original booking that goes unused. In your example, the unused time is the first 20 hours of the booking. As they cancelled with less than 24 hours notice, they'd pay 100% of 12 hours (in most cases this would be the car's daily rate).
I was charged more than $70 dollars for a cancellation fee. For a trip that I have all reason not to commit at all because the description of the van that I was trying to rent di not explicitly specify that it's a delivery van and could not accommodate 7 people.
Plus i was forced to download the apps even if I would just like to confirm and find the details of the vehicle and the pick up point of the vehicle. At that time I was having a hard time downloading the apps in my device, took me hours to finally learn the details of the van I actually booked in enough for me to be liable for cancellation charge which is too much in the first place
Hi Ariel, the van's description states that it has 2 seats. When searching for a car you can use the search filters to select how many seats you need to make sure the car you book meets your requirements. We need to charge the cancellation fee to compensate the Owner for the fact that someone else may have booked the van for the time you had booked it. I'm sorry you had trouble downloading the app. We try to make it clear in all our confirmation emails and during the booking process that you need the app to take a trip. If there is anywhere we could make this clearer please let us know.
Hello, may I ask if the premium insurance per trip ($22) will be refunded? Since that is outside of the Lender's purview (insurance is handled by CND as I understand). Especially since now the $15 monthly Premium Membership has been discontinued. The cancellation part is fine by me as that money would go to the Lender directly (the car I chose is generally excellent). Thank you. EDIT: It appears all insurances were refunded, thanks.
What recourse do we have if we send an email to an owner for information that could avoid the cancellation of the trip but the owner does not reply until the cancellation fee is 100%?
Hi Sunil, when you cancel a trip before it starts, we'll refund all costs except the cancelled time.
Hi Christina, you can call the owner. That may be faster. You can call them by viewing your trip details in the app or on the website. We also include their phone number in the booking confirmation email. If the owner doesn't answer, you can call or chat with our team. We may have the information you require.
Hi there,
I’ve just had to cancel my booking due to Melbourne’s new COVID-19 snap lockdown. My trip was due to start in 25 hours. I know in normal circumstances the refund I’m due is 50% of the fee, but given the lockdown and given I’m not allowed to leave home to move furniture, am I entitled to a full refund?
Had to cancel due to snap COVID lockdown. I still had to pay a cancellation fee! What lost booking opportunity is the cancellation fee is going to cover?!!!!
Tooraj has a point - but the CND system is highly technological and a snap Covid lockdown is probably not included in the program. To code in a waiver because of an excuse/reason of lockdown is difficult. The system would have to be updated with new restrictions at a moment's notice and then the canceller would have to prove s/he was in a lockdown zone and had no permit to travel -- or had even been put on a ventilator in an ICU and couldn't travel. Very tricky, when a new booking could come from a region that wasn't in lockdown. It will all depend on the goodness of CND's heart, and Tooraj' s understanding of the limitations of technology.
Hi Tooraj and Christina, we've just updated the policy above for cancellations due to COVD-19 related lockdowns. If you've had to cancel a trip due to a COVID lockdown or restrictions announced by the government, you will still pay any applicable cancellation fees. You can contact us to request a refund, and we'll discuss it with you and the car's owner.
Can you please answer Ruth's question from Oct 2019? When cancelling early in multiple-day bookings, what does "up to 12 hours" mean? I cancelled the last day of a 3 day booking, but I cancelled it more than 12 hours before the 3rd day, however I was still charged for the 3rd day. Why even say "up to 12 hours" if that cap doesn't even exist?
Hi Michael, 12 hours is the maximum you'll pay for cancelled or unused time, and the daily rate caps what you'll pay. If the cancelled time starts over 48 hours after the end time change, you won't pay for cancelled time. If the cancelled time starts within 24-48 hours of the end time change, you'll pay 50% of the cancelled time for up to 4 hours (capped by the daily rate). If the cancelled time starts less than 24 hours after the end time change, you'll pay 100% of the cancelled time for up to 12 hours (capped by the daily rate).
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