Payments, balance and refunds policy

1. Prepaid balance

The Service is paid in advance. The Balance is expressed in euros with up to four decimals and shown in the console in real time. The Balance is not electronic money or a deposit, bears no interest, cannot be transferred to another account and can only be used to pay for the Ankarex Service.

The Balance can never be negative. If there is not enough Balance for a send, test or lookup, it is refused and the console asks you to top up. Existing API keys still allow read requests with a zero Balance, but not paid operations.

Only top up the amount you will consume. The Balance does not expire while the Account is open, but it is never refunded nor returned (clause 7).

2. How it is calculated and when it is charged

• Each Message is charged per Segment and per Recipient at the rate of the country and route applicable to your Account, shown in the console (Destinations).
• With GSM-7 encoding, a message of up to 160 characters is one Segment; if longer, each Segment holds 153 characters. If the text contains characters that require Unicode (UCS-2), the limits are 70 and 67. The console shows the encoding and Segments before sending.
• Before you confirm a send, the cost estimate is shown. The estimated amount is the amount charged; if you change the text, variables or recipients, the estimate is recalculated.
• The charge is taken from the Balance when the platform accepts the Message for sending and is recorded in the movements history with the balance before and after.
• Test Tool tests, route tests and HLR lookups have their own price, shown before you launch them.

3. Top-ups

• Top-ups are made in cryptocurrencies through our payment provider, in the currencies and networks shown in the console. Minimum amounts per currency or network may apply.
• The amount in euros credited is the result of the exchange rate and fees applied by the provider at the time of payment, shown before you pay.
• The top-up is credited automatically when the network confirms the transaction with the required number of confirmations. Payments below the requested amount, sent to a wrong network or address or in a different currency may not be credited, or be credited for the amount actually received.
• On-chain transactions are irreversible: they cannot be cancelled and there are no chargebacks. Check the currency, network and address carefully before paying.
• We may refuse or hold a top-up where there are signs of fraud, money laundering or links to sanctioned persons or territories, and ask for information about the origin of the funds.

4. Invoicing and taxes

We issue the invoices or receipts for top-ups with the tax details you provide. You are responsible for their accuracy. Prices do not include applicable indirect taxes; in intra-EU business-to-business transactions the reverse charge may apply if you provide a valid VAT number.

5. Sent messages: no refund

A Message accepted and transmitted is not refunded, whatever its delivery result (delivered, undelivered, rejected by the carrier, expired, without DLR or with a wrong DLR), because the transmission cost arises when it is sent and delivery depends on third parties, as explained in the Terms and conditions of service.

Messages rejected or blocked for breaching the User responsibility and acceptable use policy, and those sent to wrong, inactive or opted-out numbers through the Customer's fault, are not refunded either.

6. Exceptions that apply automatically

• Disabled provider: if a Message already charged stays held for more than two hours because the provider of its route is disabled, it is rejected with the reason “provider disabled” and its exact amount is credited to the Balance.
• Withdrawal by the administration: if the administration withdraws a Message that has not been sent yet, its amount is credited to the Balance once.
• Test Tool and HLR lookups: when a test or lookup cannot be completed for a technical reason of the platform or the provider, its amount is credited to the Balance in the cases the product itself indicates.

These are automatic credits made by the platform itself, always to the Balance. They are not refunds: money or cryptocurrencies are never returned, and they cannot be requested in any other case.

7. The Balance is never refunded nor returned

• Added Balance is final. It is not refunded nor returned, in whole or in part, in money, cryptocurrencies or in any other form, under any circumstances: closure of the Account by the Customer, non-use, changes to rates, routes or conditions, suspension or closure for breach, or any other cause.
• If Ankarex terminates the contract without cause, it will give thirty days’ notice so that you can consume the Balance during that period; after it, the remaining Balance is not returned.
• If the Account is suspended or closed for breach of the Terms and conditions of service or the User responsibility and acceptable use policy, the Balance is applied to the penalties, surcharges, fines and damage caused by the Account’s traffic, and the rest is forfeited.
• Where the law or an authority requires it, we may hold the Balance or make it available to the authority. This clause applies to the maximum extent permitted by mandatory law.

8. Top-ups and charges are final

Every top-up and every charge is final and irrevocable. No chargebacks, disputes or claims about charged amounts are accepted: before each send the console shows the number of segments and the exact cost, and by confirming it you accept that charge.

The platform’s records (estimate, charge, balance before and after each movement) are the single reference of the operations. Review the estimate and your recipient list before confirming. You can see the detail of every movement in the console; for technical questions about how it works write to [email protected], which does not open any claim about amounts.