Why this exists

Our mission is to get you the IELTS score you need.

If something isn’t working, we would much rather fix it than lose you, and in almost every case we can. This page explains what we’ll do to help, what our four guarantees cover, and exactly how to ask if you’d still like to use our refund policy.

If anything here isn’t clear, email us and ask: chris@ieltsadvantage.com

How we’re set up, and why it matters

We only open a limited number of VIP places each month, because every place has real teacher hours attached to it: writing feedback, 1-to-1 sessions, and time from our team. Those hours are set aside for you the day you join. They can’t be given or sold to another student.

That’s why our first answer is almost always more support rather than money back. It’s usually what helps you get the score you need.

The four guarantees, in one line each

Guarantee	What it gives you
30-Day Risk-Free Trial	Your course fee back within 30 days if we can’t make VIP work for you
Extended Support Until Success	More time and support, free, if you haven’t got your score yet
Exam-Ready Assurance	We pay your next IELTS test fee if we certify you as ready and you miss your score
Complete Success Reward	Your full course fee back if you achieve Band 8+ in all four modules

So there’s no confusion about what each one pays: the 30-day trial refunds your course fee. The Exam-Ready Assurance covers your next test fee, not your course fee. The Complete Success Reward is a reward for succeeding at the highest level.

Before anything else: what we can do to help

Every one of these is free for you as a VIP, and most of them we can do the same day:

• Extend your access, up to a further 12 months
• Pause your course and hold your place, with no deadline on coming back
• Rebuild your roadmap around the time you have
• Add extra writing feedback
• Add extra 1-to-1 sessions
• Add a mock speaking test
• Open up our English, Grammar, Vocabulary and Pronunciation courses to you
• Walk you through anything you’re stuck on, by email, by video, or on a 1-1 Zoom call with a real person
• Transfer your place to a friend or colleague who needs IELTS

Most of what students bring us is solved by one of these straight away. If you’re finding something hard, please ask before you decide to leave. It’s very likely we can fix it, and it costs you nothing to find out. This dramatically increases your chances of getting the score you need.

The 30-Day Risk-Free Trial

What it covers

Full access to everything for 30 days. If it isn’t working, tell us, and we’ll fix it. If we can’t, you get your money back.

The two things we ask

1. That you’ve made a start on your plan

When you join, we build you a personal roadmap with dates and times on it, so you know exactly what to do and when. We ask that you’re broadly following it, within about a week of where it says you should be.

If you’ve slipped behind, that’s usually fine, and it’s often our fault for setting the pace too high. Tell us, and we’ll rebuild the plan around your real life. Slipping behind won’t be held against you.

But if you haven’t started at all, we’d much rather get you going than refund you, because you haven’t yet truly benefited from our programme.

2. That you give us one chance to put it right

Tell us what isn’t working. We’ll come back within two working days (normally much faster than this) with a specific plan to fix it. Give that plan seven days.

If it’s still not right after those seven days, you get your money back in full.

If we don’t come back to you within two working days, we’ll refund you straight away, no questions.

How to ask

Fill in the Refund and Support Request form. It takes two minutes.

Your 30 days stop counting the moment you submit that form. You are never penalised for the time we take to answer, so there’s no need to rush a decision to beat the deadline.

Your choice after the seven days

At the end of the seven days, it’s entirely your call:

• Keep the support package we’ve put together for you. The money-back option then closes, because we’ve committed that teacher time to you.
• Take the refund, in full, less the value of any 1-to-1 or feedback time already delivered (see below).

You don’t have to decide anything up front. Try the fix for a week with nothing at risk, and then choose.

What you get back

A full refund of what you paid, provided you’ve used no more than 2 coaching sessions in total.

If you’ve used more than 2, we refund what you paid minus the sessions already delivered:

• Writing feedback: $30 per session
• 1-to-1 lessons: $50 per lesson

Your first two sessions never count against you, so using the course properly can’t cost you your guarantee.

Refunded immediately, with no process at all

Some things we just fix, straight away:

• A duplicate or double payment, refunded as soon as we see it, any time
• A payment you didn’t authorise
• Being charged a different amount than the price advertised because of currency differences. We refund the difference immediately

You don’t need to fill in a form for any of these. Just email us.

Where we help with support rather than cash

These are the situations that come up most often. In each one, our first answer is a specific offer rather than a refund, and inside your first 30 days, if we’ve tried that and it’s still not working, you get your money back. The one exception is where you no longer need IELTS at all, which is explained below.

Your circumstances have changed

Work, family, money, a postponed test, a move, or life getting in the way.

What we do: pause your course and hold your place with no deadline, or extend your access, or rebuild your roadmap around the time you have. You come back when you’re ready and everything is still there. All of it free.

We’d rather hold your place open than close your account. Most students who pause and come back get their score.

You no longer need IELTS at all

Your visa came through, your job changed, the requirement was dropped, you got the score elsewhere, or your plans have simply taken a different direction.

What we do: we’ll pause your course and hold your place indefinitely in case the requirement ever comes back (a lot of people find it does), or transfer your place to a friend or colleague who needs IELTS, at no cost to either of you.

We don’t give cash refunds in this situation, inside or outside the 30 days, because your place and the teacher time attached to it were committed the day you joined. The pause and the transfer are both worth having, they’re both free, and one of them is almost always a better outcome than a refund.

The course isn’t what you pictured

The format, the structure, the balance of theory and practice, the fact that classes aren’t scheduled live, or that it doesn’t suit the way you like to work.

What we do: restructure your plan, add the services that would make it work for you (more feedback, more 1-to-1 time, more mock speaking tests) and extend your access so you’re not rushed. If what you want is more contact with a person, say so. That’s usually the easiest thing on this list for us to arrange.

You need more help than you expected

Your English feels too low for the material, you’re overwhelmed, you’re not comfortable finding your way around an online course, or the roadmap doesn’t make sense to you.

What we do: open our English, Grammar, Vocabulary and Pronunciation courses to you free, simplify your plan, walk you through the platform personally by video or on a 1-1 Zoom call, and extend your access so you have the time you need. None of this costs you anything.

Please don’t struggle in silence with this one. Students who tell us they’re stuck almost always end up fine. It’s the ones who quietly give up that we lose, and that’s what we most want to avoid.

Outside your first 30 days

After 30 days the Risk-Free Trial has ended and we don’t give cash refunds. We will still help you, and everything in the list above is still available to you free: extensions, a pause, extra feedback, extra sessions, a rebuilt plan, a transfer of your place.

Extended Support Until Success

If you haven’t achieved your required score by the end of your access period, we’ll give you more time, free.

How to claim: email us before your access runs out and tell us where you’ve got to. That’s it.

What you get: continued access to all course materials, and any unused feedback or 1-to-1 sessions carried over.

We are also happy to redo your study plan to get you back on track.

Limits: up to 3 extensions in any 12 months, and no more than 12 months of extensions in total.

Exam-Ready Assurance

If we tell you you’re ready and you don’t get your score, we’ll pay for your next IELTS test.

How you become eligible

Inside the VIP course, there’s a process called Test Ready Certification. You complete it, our team reviews your work, and we give you one of three verdicts:

• 🟢 Green Light. We think you’re ready. Book your test. You’re covered by this guarantee.
• 🟡 Amber. You’re close, but not there yet. Keep working. You’re not covered yet.
• 🔴 Red. You’re not ready yet. You are unlikely to get the score you need, and you require a lot of extra time to improve. You are not covered yet.

You must complete Test Ready Certification and receive a Green Light before you book your test. The whole guarantee rests on this, because it only works if we’ve assessed you first.

If you can’t find the Test Ready Certification, or you’re not sure how it works, email us, and we’ll send you a direct link and talk you through it. Please do this early rather than the week before your exam.

If you get an Amber or Red verdict

You aren’t eligible for this guarantee yet, but you haven’t lost anything either. We’ll extend your access free, tell you exactly what’s standing between you and a Green Light, and keep working with you until you get there. An Amber or Red verdict is us being honest with you before you spend money on a test you aren’t ready for.

To claim

• Your Green Light certification
• Your official IELTS score report
• Proof you paid for the test, in your name
• Proof of your test booking date

Claim within 30 days of getting your results, and within 12 months of joining the course. We’ll reimburse one test fee to your original payment method.

Complete Success Reward

Get Band 8 or above in all four IELTS modules after joining VIP, and we’ll refund your entire course fee.

All we ask is that you tell your story on camera, so future students can see what’s possible.

What we need

• Your official IELTS score report showing Band 8+ in all four modules
• A recorded Zoom meeting with Chris Pell, on camera, in a quiet room, with an internet connection good enough to record cleanly
• An honest conversation about how you prepared
• Your permission to use the video on our channels

How it works

Send us your score report. Once we’ve verified it, we’ll send you a booking link within 7 days, and we’ll pay your refund within 14 days of recording.

Bookings depend on Chris’s availability.

Videos must be acceptable to use on our channels.

Working together

Honesty

We’ll be straight with you, and we ask the same in return.

We can see how the course is being used: module progress, feedback and 1-1 sessions booked, and how much work you submitted. We look at it so we know where to help, not to catch anyone out. But if what you tell us in support of a refund or guarantee claim doesn’t match our records, we may decline that claim.

Where dishonesty is serious, including sharing or reselling course materials, we may also end any guarantees and close your account.

Respect

We’ll always treat you with respect, whatever the situation, and we expect the same from you. Abusive or threatening behaviour may mean we end any guarantees, and in serious cases close your account.

Course materials

Your course access is for you alone. Sharing, reselling or distributing our materials is prohibited and unlawful in most countries. Our system tracks sharing, and downloading course videos isn’t permitted. If we find materials have been shared, we may close your account and end any guarantees.

If you’ve opened a dispute with your bank

If you’ve already raised a chargeback or PayPal dispute for a payment, we can’t process a refund for it. The money is frozen while your bank investigates, and nobody can release it until that finishes. These are your financial institution’s rules and are beyond our control.

If you’d rather have it resolved quickly, withdraw the dispute and let us know. We’ll process whatever refund you’re entitled to under this policy straight away, which is almost always faster than waiting for a bank.

We’d much rather sort this out with you directly. If you’re at the point of considering a chargeback, please email us first. It’s very likely we can find a better answer.

How refunds are paid

• Refunds go to your original payment method only. We can’t send them anywhere else.
• We’ll email you confirmation once the refund is issued.
• Your bank or card provider then takes its own time to show it, usually a few days and occasionally up to 28 days. Once we’ve issued it, the timing is between you and your financial institution. We are happy to provide a screenshot showing you the refund has been processed.
• All our prices are in US dollars. Refunds are issued in US dollars and converted back by your provider, and because exchange rates move, the amount landing in your account may differ slightly from the amount that left it.