Credits and Refunds

Draft prepared with AI assistance; not legal advice. To be reviewed by a lawyer.

Last updated: draft of 3 November 2026.

This policy is part of our Terms of Service. It explains the credits you get for bad records and for low-volume months on an exclusive territory, how the free sample works, and when we refund money. In short: every paid plan can be refunded in full within 30 days of its first payment, monthly and annual plans cancel in one click, and every bad record is credited.

Credits for bad records

A subscription is only worth paying for if the records are good. When a record we delivered turns out to be bad, you get a credit for it, without having to argue for it.

What counts as a bad record

Closed or non-existent company: on the day we delivered the record, the company it is about was dissolved or inactive, or could not be found, in the official state company register.
Duplicate: we delivered the same record (the same official record number, for the same event) to you more than once on the same plan. A genuinely new event about the same filing or permit, such as an amendment or a lapse alert, is labelled as such and is not a duplicate.
Wrong category: the official record shows that the record does not belong in the trade or equipment category we delivered it under. A category marked "(based on the lender)" is an inference from the lender's name, and we say so; it counts as wrong when the official record itself shows a different category.
Undeliverable official link: the link to the official record does not work, or leads to a different record, and we have not fixed it within two business days of finding out.
Bad contact details (only on plans that include contact details): an email address we supplied hard-bounces, or a phone number we supplied is disconnected.

Not covered: records that are correct but that you decide not to pursue; prospects who do not reply or buy; records that stopped matching because you changed your filters; and mistakes in the official record itself. For those, we will still tell you which office can correct the record.

How a credit is worked out

Each bad record earns a credit equal to its share of that month's fee: your monthly plan price divided by the number of records delivered to you that month. For a plan billed for a longer period, we use the monthly equivalent (the price divided by the number of months it covers). Credits for bad records in a month never exceed that month's fee.

Example: on a $299 monthly plan with 230 records delivered in March, each record is worth $1.30. If 6 of them are bad, your credit is $7.80.

How credits are applied

When we find them. If we discover that a record we delivered was bad, we credit it without you asking.
When you tell us. Reply to a digest or email hello@fileherald.com with the record ID (the record_id column in the CSV) or the official record number, within 30 days of delivery. If the record meets the definition above, we credit it. If it does not, we tell you why.
On your bill. Credits are added up at the end of each calendar month and taken off your next invoice. On annual and other prepaid plans, credits are refunded to your original payment method every three months, or taken off your next renewal if you prefer.
When you leave. Any unused credit is refunded when your subscription ends. Credits have no other cash value.
Good faith. We may stop crediting reports that are clearly not made in good faith, and we will tell you if we do.

Volume-floor credits (exclusive territories)

An exclusive-territory order form states a monthly volume floor: the number of records we expect the territory to produce in a month, worked out from its history. If the records delivered in a calendar month are fewer than 60% of the floor, you get a credit that matches the shortfall:

Credit = monthly fee × (floor − records delivered) ÷ floor

Example: with a floor of 100 records and a monthly fee of $799, a month with 50 records delivered earns a credit of $399.50. A month with 60 or more records earns no volume-floor credit.

Records credited as bad do not count as delivered.
The credit applies whatever caused the low month, including a source outage.
It is never more than that month's fee, and it is paid or applied in the same way as other credits.

The free sample

Ask for a sample on our website: choose the feed and your filters, and give your email address and your company's name.
Which email address. For the Florida construction (building permit) feed, a Gmail or other free email address is fine, as long as you tell us your company's name. For the equipment-finance (UCC) feed, please use your company email address: we send UCC samples only to company addresses.
A person reviews every request before anything is sent. Nothing is sent automatically.
The sample holds up to 10 recent real records for your filters. It is free, needs no card, carries no obligation, and does not start a subscription or a trial.
One free sample per company. We may decline requests from businesses we do not serve, or when we cannot produce a fair sample for the filters chosen.
Sample records follow the same use rules as paid records (sections 4 to 7 of the Terms of Service).

Cancelling and refunds

Full refund in your first 30 days

If you cancel a paid plan within 30 days of your first payment for it, we refund everything you paid for that plan, in full: not pro-rated, and whatever the billing period (monthly, annual, or an exclusive territory's quarterly or annual commitment). Any credit already refunded to you in cash for that period is taken off, so nothing is paid twice. To use it, cancel with the billing link in any digest or email hello@fileherald.com; no reason is needed.

Example: you start a $299 monthly plan, or a $2,990 annual plan, and cancel 20 days later. We refund the full $299, or the full $2,990.

The first 30 days are counted from the first payment for a new subscription. A renewal, a plan change or a restart after cancelling does not start a new 30 days.

Monthly plans, after the first 30 days

Cancel any time with one click from the billing link in any digest, or by email. Your plan runs to the end of the month you have paid for and then stops. We do not refund part of a month unless the law requires it.

Annual plans, after the first 30 days

If you cancel within 30 days after an annual plan renews, we refund the unused part of the annual fee, pro-rated by day, less any credits already refunded for that year. Example: cancelling a $2,990 annual plan 10 days after it renews refunds $2,908.08 (355 of 365 days).

Otherwise, cancelling stops the next renewal. The plan runs to the end of the year you have paid for, and the rest of that year is not refunded unless the law requires it. We email a reminder at least 30 days before each annual renewal.

Exclusive territories, after the first 30 days

A quarterly commitment is not refunded once the quarter has started. An annual commitment follows the annual-plan rule above. Bad-record and volume-floor credits still apply either way.

When we end or change the service

If we end your subscription without cause, or a change at a source removes a material part of your plan and you cancel because of it, we refund any prepaid fees for the time left, pro-rated by day. If we end your access for misuse under the Terms of Service, no refund is due.

How refunds are paid

Refunds go back to your original payment method through Stripe. They usually reach your account within 5 to 10 business days after we issue them.

Questions

If something about a charge looks wrong, email us first and we will put it right: hello@fileherald.com.

Fileherald
500 Brickell Ave, Unit 2907, Miami, FL 33131