Cancellation & Refund Policy

Last updated: October 16, 2026

RIDEMATE helps students share the cost of trips they were already going to take. When you book a seat, you pay your share of the trip cost. This policy explains what happens to that money if plans change. It is part of the RIDEMATE Terms of Use.

RIDEMATE keeps nothing from a cancellation. Anything you don't get back goes to your driver as your share of the trip cost.

1. If you're the rider and you cancel

7 days or more before departure: 100% back. Your driver gets nothing.
Less than 7 days, but 24 hours or more before: 50% back. The other 50% goes to your driver.
Less than 24 hours before, or after departure: 0% back. Your full contribution goes to your driver.
You don't show up: 0% back. Your full contribution goes to your driver.

Booked by mistake? If you cancel within 15 minutes of booking and the trip leaves more than 2 hours later, you get 100% back, whatever the list above says. You can use this once per trip: if you cancel with it and then book the same trip again, the normal rules apply to the new booking.

Seats for companions. If you booked several seats (for example, for friends travelling with you), the rules above apply to every seat in your booking, and refunds go back to the payment method you used.

Before you confirm a cancellation, the app shows you exactly how much you'll get back. You can always cancel.

2. If your driver cancels, removes you, or doesn't show up

You get 100% back, every time (unless you accept your driver's offer, section 11), including the RIDEMATE fee if one is ever charged. If you had already cancelled late and part of your payment was set aside for the driver, that part comes back to you too. A driver only gets paid for a trip that actually happened.

3. Example: a $25.00 seat

You cancel 10 days before: $25.00 back to you; $0.00 to your driver.
You cancel 3 days before: $12.50 back to you; $12.50 to your driver (the driver receives $11.47 after card fees*).
You cancel 10 hours before: $0.00 back to you; $25.00 to your driver (the driver receives $23.97 after card fees*).
You cancel 10 hours before, 5 minutes after booking: $25.00 back to you; $0.00 to your driver.
You don't show up: $0.00 back to you; $25.00 to your driver (the driver receives $23.97 after card fees*).
Your driver cancels: $25.00 back to you; $0.00 to your driver.

* Card payments cost a processing fee (about 2.9% + 30¢ of the original payment). It is charged by our payment processor, not by RIDEMATE, and it isn't returned to anyone when a payment is refunded. It is taken out of the driver's share, the same way it is for every completed trip, so RIDEMATE neither earns nor loses money on your share of the trip.

4. How the timing works

Departure time is the scheduled date and time shown for the trip in the app.
When you cancel is the moment our servers receive your cancellation, not when you opened the cancel screen. Close to a cut-off (7 days, 24 hours), cancel a little earlier to be safe.
"Within 15 minutes of booking" is measured from when your payment went through. If you asked to join a ride, your payment goes through when the driver accepts; the 15 minutes start then.
If a booking fails because of a technical problem (for example, the trip filled up while you were paying), you're refunded in full automatically.
If a trip has no departure time on record, it can't be cancelled in the app; contact support and we'll sort it out by hand.

5. Why a late cancellation isn't fully refunded

Your driver plans the trip around the seats that are booked. The closer to departure you cancel, the less time they have to find someone else for your seat, and they're still making the trip and paying for it. Keeping part or all of a late cancellation with the driver makes sure your share of the trip cost is still covered. It isn't a penalty, and RIDEMATE doesn't receive any of it.

6. What happens to the money you don't get back

It's held in RIDEMATE's account with our payment processor (Stripe) until the trip has happened. It's then paid to your driver on the same schedule as a normal trip (usually about 24 hours after departure), minus the card fee above.
If your driver later cancels the trip, the driver isn't making the trip, so we refund the rest of your payment. You end up refunded in full.
If your driver never finishes setting up payouts within 30 days after the trip, we refund that money to you.
If you cancel and then book the same trip again, the new booking is a new payment and this policy applies to it separately.

7. Safety cancellations

If you cancel because of a genuine safety concern about a trip or its driver (for example, messages that made you feel unsafe, or after you reported or blocked the driver), tell us: report the driver in the app or email contact@ridemate.ai. After review, our support team may refund you in full, even if section 1 would give you less. This is a case-by-case decision made by a person on our team.

8. Semesters

Some rules count per semester. RIDEMATE's semesters follow the University of Florida academic calendar. Each semester starts at 12:00 a.m. US Eastern time on the first day of classes of a UF term (Fall, Spring, or Summer; for Summer, the first day of Summer A and Summer C classes) and lasts until the next semester starts. For 2026–27 that means:

Fall 2026: August 20, 2026 – January 10, 2027
Spring 2027: January 11, 2027 – May 9, 2027
Summer 2027: May 10, 2027 – the day before UF's Fall 2027 classes begin

Counts start again from zero on the first day of each semester. We'll add the next year's dates here when UF publishes them.

9. Late cancellations (riders)

A late cancellation is a cancellation that isn't fully refunded (less than 7 days before departure and outside the 15-minute window), or a confirmed no-show.

Drivers can see how many late cancellations a rider has this semester (for example, "2 late cancellations this semester").
After your first late cancellation, the app reminds you before you book.
After 2 late cancellations in a semester, every trip you book for the rest of that semester is non-refundable if you cancel it yourself. The app tells you before you pay. Trips you booked before that point keep the normal rules, and a driver cancelling still refunds you in full.

10. No-shows

If you don't cancel and don't show up, your booking stays in place and your payment goes to your driver.

Your driver must wait at least 10 minutes after the departure time at the pickup point and try to reach you in the chat. After that, your driver can mark you as "didn't show up." You'll get a notification and an email.
If you were there, open the trip in the app and tap Dispute within 48 hours after you were marked. Tell us where and when you waited.
The payment stays on hold while a dispute is open. If you don't dispute within 48 hours, the no-show stands and counts as a late cancellation.

11. If your driver doesn't show up

Open the trip in the app within 48 hours of the departure time and tap Report a problem. The payment is held while we look into it. Before we decide, your driver has 48 hours to offer you a full refund, a half refund or no refund, with a reason. You then have 48 hours to accept the offer or ask us to decide. If you accept, we refund that amount right away and the case is closed. A full or half refund still counts as a driver no-show strike. If you ask us to decide, or nobody answers in time, a person on the RIDEMATE team reviews it as described below. If we confirm the driver didn't come, you get 100% back and the driver gets a strike.

12. How disputes are decided

A person on the RIDEMATE team reviews every dispute, and every report that isn't closed by a driver's offer the rider accepted (section 11), using what both of you tell us and what's in the app (messages, trip status, timing). We then either:

refund the rider in full (the driver was at fault, and the driver gets a strike), or
uphold the report (the rider was a no-show, or the driver did show up, and the payment goes to the driver).

We email you the outcome. If we refund a rider after the driver has already been paid for that trip, the amount is deducted from the driver's future payouts.

13. Driver strikes

Riders plan and pay in advance around the trips drivers publish. Strikes are there to protect them. A driver gets a strike for:

cancelling a trip that a rider had paid for;
removing a rider who had paid; or
a confirmed driver no-show.

One trip counts as one strike at most. A seat nobody paid for never leads to a strike, and a cancellation made by RIDEMATE never counts as the driver's strike.

With 2 strikes in the same semester, a driver can't publish new trips for 30 days from the second strike. Trips they already published aren't affected. Strikes reset at the start of each semester. If a strike was a mistake (for example, an emergency or a genuine safety concern), the driver can email contact@ridemate.ai, and the RIDEMATE team can remove the strike or lift the pause.

14. Once a seat is booked, the trip is locked

Once anyone has booked a seat, the driver can't change the trip's date, time, pickup and drop-off points, or price per seat. To change them, the driver has to cancel and post a new trip, and the driver-cancellation rules (full refunds for riders, and a strike) apply.

15. Refund timing

Refunds go back to the card or payment method you paid with. They usually appear within 5–10 business days, depending on your bank. RIDEMATE can't speed this up once the refund has been issued.

16. The RIDEMATE fee

RIDEMATE plans a $4.99 booking fee, which is currently waived (you'll see it shown as free when you book). We'll give at least 30 days' notice by email and in the app before we start charging it. If we do:

it will be shown to you separately before you pay, and it never goes to the driver;
it will be refunded only if you cancel within the 15-minute window after booking, or if your driver cancels, removes you, or doesn't show up (or a booking failed because of a problem on our side);
in every other case, including a cancellation that gets your contribution back in full, the fee is kept.

17. Problems and questions

If something doesn't look right (you were charged twice, a refund didn't arrive, or you think the wrong amount was refunded), contact contact@ridemate.ai before disputing the charge with your bank. We'll correct any mistake on our side.

18. Bookings made before this policy

Seats paid for before September 25, 2026 keep the previous rules: a full refund when you cancel more than 2 hours before departure, and no refund within 2 hours (the contribution goes to your driver). Which rules apply depends only on when you paid, not on which version of the app you use. Please keep your app up to date so it shows you the right amount before you confirm.

19. Changes to this policy

We may update this policy. The version in effect when you paid for your seat applies to that booking. We'll tell you about important changes in the app or by email, at least 30 days in advance for material changes, as described in the Terms of Use.

Nothing in this policy limits any rights you have under applicable law.

RIDE MATE LLC · 661 NE 68th Street, Miami, Florida 33138, USA · contact@ridemate.ai