Hotspot Shield money-back guarantee: getting a refund within 45 days

Hotspot Shield returns the full subscription fee if you request a refund within 45 days of enrollment and you bought the plan directly from the company by card or PayPal. The request is not automatic: you have to write to support yourself, and pressing Cancel in the account dashboard returns nothing.

The 45-day window and when the clock starts

The countdown starts on the day you enrolled, before you ever connect. Buy Premium on the 3rd and only install the app on the 20th, and 17 days are already gone. Note the deadline as soon as the receipt lands.

Which purchases qualify for a refund

Bought on the Hotspot Shield website

A direct website checkout paid with a credit or debit card or through PayPal falls under the guarantee, which covers the full fee. Cryptocurrency is not accepted.

Bought through Apple's App Store

Apple holds the money, so Apple decides. Support staff cannot even cancel an Apple subscription, let alone reverse the charge: the cancelling article says this directly, and the Hotspot Shield help center lists an entry pointing Apple buyers to the "Request an iTunes refund" process.

Google Play and resellers

Google Play purchases have no published refund rule from Hotspot Shield, and cancellation happens inside the Play Store. Uninstalling the app cancels nothing. If the app disappears from Google Play, future billing stops, but past payments are not refunded. Reseller plans and codes are governed by the Terms of Service, which leave billing and refunds to that seller.

Asking for the money: chat or email

For the chat route, sign in to the account page, open Support in the left menu, and start a live chat, which runs around the clock for paying users. Email goes through the Contact Us page in the support center. State clearly that you are claiming a refund under the guarantee and reference the account email.

Cancelling is not refunding

The Cancel button under Membership switches off auto-renewal and nothing else. Premium runs to the end of the paid term, the account then drops to free Basic, and the wallet stays empty. One wrong assumption here costs real money: people press Cancel, wait for money, and get silence. The cancellation guide walks through the menus; the refund still needs a separate support request.

When Hotspot Shield keeps the money

Outside the guarantee, the terms treat payments made directly as non-refundable except where the Terms or applicable law say otherwise, and any refund beyond that is at the company's discretion. An account terminated for breaching the Terms gets no refund at all. Monthly plans, pro-rata refunds for unused time and refunds of renewal charges are simply not addressed in anything the company publishes, so treat them as questions for support rather than rights. The renewal is the trap: the first year costs $29 and renews at $95.99, roughly 3.3 times more, and the monthly plan goes from $1.99 to $12.99. Turn auto-renewal off right after purchase if you only wanted the intro term.

Testing on free Basic before paying

There is no free trial. Instead you get the free Basic plan: 500 MB daily, capped at 2 Mbps, one virtual US location, one device, ads in the mobile apps. Enough to check that the app connects on your network before committing money.

How the refund terms feed the score

The 45-day window earns full credit in VPNRadarLab's price-and-terms sub-index, since the scoring scale tops out at 30 days. The rest drags the other way: no free trial, no published monthly-plan or pro-rata refunds, and the 3.3x renewal jump, the single largest deduction. Hence the sub-index at 3.7/10 and the overall 3.94/10, place 44 of 377.

Hotspot Shield refund questions

Does the guarantee cover the monthly plan?

Not stated. Ask support within the window.

Can a renewal charge be refunded?

Nothing is published about refunding renewals. The window counts from enrollment.

Is there a phone line or a web form?

Hotspot Shield names live chat and email for refund inquiries.

Is there a free trial?

No. Free Basic plus the 45-day guarantee is the alternative.

Short version of the refund rules

Paid on the website: contact support by chat or email within 45 days of enrollment and the full fee comes back. Paid through Apple: ask Apple. Paid through a reseller: ask the reseller. Turn off auto-renewal as well, because cancelling alone never returns a cent.