1. Where your money sits
When you pay for a booking, the money does not go straight to the provider. StrictlyByIV holds it until the service has happened and a short protection window has passed. That hold is the point of paying through the app rather than around it.
You can pay in full, or pay a deposit now and the balance before an agreed deadline. Either way, the same rule applies: held first, released later.
2. Cancelling and refunds
You can cancel a booking yourself while it is still inside its refund window. The window and the refundable amount are shown on the booking itself, so you never have to work them out.
Once that window closes, the Cancel option goes away. That is deliberate — by then the provider has been holding your date. If something is genuinely wrong after that point, the routes below are still open.
3. When you can no longer cancel
The app will tell you which of these applies, and offer you a way to reach us where one exists:
- The service has already started. Cancelling is closed, but we can still look at it.
- Your payment is past its refund window. You can open a dispute, which freezes the money while a person reviews it.
- The money has already been paid out. Cancelling cannot reach it, so this one goes to support.
- The booking is already complete or closed. There is nothing left to cancel.
4. Raising a dispute
A dispute is available while StrictlyByIV is still holding your money. Opening one freezes the payout and puts the booking in front of a person, who reads your statement and the booking conversation before deciding. It also pauses any balance still to pay — nothing is due and no deadline runs until the review is decided.
We aim to resolve disputes within 2 business days. Only one dispute can be open at a time. If a booking goes ahead after a review and something else goes wrong while money is still held, you can open another.
The review can refund you in full, pay the provider, or split the money — for example, the provider keeps the deposit and your balance is refunded.
Keep talking to the provider in the booking chat while a dispute is open. That conversation is the record we read.
5. If you are the provider
Nothing is paid to you automatically before your service ends. Once it ends, we wait out the booker's protection window and then release your money.
If identity verification is required for your account, a payout is held until you are verified, which is the one cause you can clear yourself. The booking will say so and link you straight to verification.
StrictlyByIV takes a percentage of each booking, with a floor and a cap. The app shows what you will receive after the fee; the exact rate and cap are available from support on request.
6. The formal version
This page is the plain-language explanation. The binding policy, including exact windows, percentages and the rules for balance defaults, is the payment policy.