How do payments work? Why does my card appear to have been charged before a lesson has taken place?

Payment is only taken once a lesson has started.

To guarantee payment to our tutors, we carry out a card authentication check to ensure you have enough funds in your card to cover your lesson. Depending on your bank, this authorisation may look like you have been charged for the lesson.

The authorisation check takes place at 72 hours before your lesson. If you decide to book within 72 hours of the start time of your lesson, the check is carried out as soon as the lesson is confirmed. If you have insufficient funds in your bank, your booking may be cancelled or may fail depending on how close it is to the lesson. You can read more about what to do when a payment fails here.

If you cancel a lesson within 48 hours of a lesson’s start time, you may still be charged 50% or 100% of the lesson price.

PMT Education’s cancellation policy allows clients to cancel their lesson up to 48 hours before the lesson starts without being charged. If a client cancels within 48 hours, the tutor has the option to charge 100%, 50%, and 0% of the lesson price. We leave this completely up to our tutor’s discretion, as we believe our tutors have the right to be fairly compensated for their time.

The full cancellation policy is outlined in our Terms and Conditions.

If a lesson is not confirmed by a tutor, the card authorisation will automatically be stopped by our system. This authorisation will be dropped from your statement entirely after a few days. There will be no payment and no refund. It will appear as if the transaction never happened. Your bank will be able to confirm this for you.

How long it takes to drop the authorisation depends on your bank, some take longer than others to clear.