How Do You Get a Refund From Tinder?

Ask the company that took your money. Tinder says most in-app purchases are nonrefundable, with some exceptions, and it can help with purchases made in the last 14 days. If your order number starts with TNDR or COSU, you contact Tinder from the email you bought with and include that number. Anything bought through Apple or Google goes to them instead.

Before you write to anyone, find the receipt for the purchase and read the order number. Its first letters tell you where the request goes.

TNDR or COSU. These are Tinder's own orders. Tinder says TNDR marks a subscription and COSU marks a consumable, such as a Boost or a Super Like. Tinder handles these requests itself.

GPA. Google Play processed the payment. The request goes to Google.

An in-app purchase on an iPhone. Apple processed the payment. The request goes to Apple.

Getting this step wrong is an easy way to lose a week. A perfectly good request sent to the wrong company gets you nowhere, because only the company holding the payment can give it back.

Tinder handles the request when the order starts with TNDR or COSU and you paid by credit or debit card, PayPal, or the option Tinder lists as Google CC.

Two details matter, and Tinder names both. Contact Tinder from the same email address you used to make the purchase. Put the order number in your request. Leave either one out and Tinder has to work out which purchase you mean before it can look at the request.

Timing matters too. Tinder says it can help with purchases made in the last 14 days. A charge from before that falls outside what Tinder says it can help with, so if you are going to ask, ask as soon as you notice.

Tinder is clear that a purchase made through Apple or Google has to go to that platform directly. For those, Tinder is not the one deciding.

Apple handles all refunds and cancellations for Tinder purchases made through the App Store, and you start the request at Apple Support. Google handles the same for purchases made through Google Play, and its support page gives the steps for your region. Each platform reviews refunds at its own discretion, under its own refund policy.

Keep it short and specific. Say what you bought, when you bought it, and what went wrong. Maybe you were charged after you meant to cancel. Maybe you bought the wrong thing, or were charged twice. Then say what you want, which is a refund of that one charge.

Leave out the story about the app not working for you. It does not change the policy, and it makes the real request harder to find.

Two more things are worth doing. If the charge was a subscription, cancel it as well, because Tinder plans renew automatically until they are cancelled. A refund on this period does nothing about the next one. And do not dispute the charge with your bank as a shortcut. Tinder's Terms of Use say a chargeback can get your account terminated immediately.

Refunds are a poor way to find out whether a paid feature works. A better way is to buy the smallest version first and judge it on your own numbers.

a dating coach treats online dating as a chain of ratios. How many women you match with for the time you put in. How many of them reply. How many give you a number, and how many say yes to a date. Before you buy anything, work out where your chain breaks.

If you get plenty of matches and few replies, a feature that brings more matches aims at the wrong link. The fix is in your first message. If you get almost no matches, the first photo is the link to fix, and changing it costs nothing.

When you do decide to try a paid tier, buy the shortest plan on offer and cancel it the same day. Tinder's Terms say a cancelled plan keeps its benefits until the end of the period you paid for, so you lose nothing by cancelling early. You simply remove the renewal you might forget about.

Then use the plan properly for its full length and count the same numbers you wrote down before. If they moved, you know it is worth paying for, and you can buy it again with a clear head. If they did not, you have spent the least you could to find out, and you never need to ask anyone for your money back.