Refund Policy

1. What this covers

Rail Island sells one thing: Rail Island PLUS, a monthly subscription that lifts the free tier’s limits. There are no one-off purchases, no in-game currency, no loot boxes and nothing else to buy. Everything else in the game is free, so there is nothing else to refund.

PLUS is also given away in two ways that involve no money — earned with a five-star island, or granted by us. Neither was paid for, so neither is refundable; and neither is affected by anything on this page.

Your subscription is sold by Paddle as the merchant of record. Paddle is the seller on your receipt, it took the payment and it is the party that returns it. We decide whether a refund is due; Paddle is the plumbing that pays it back.

2. Fourteen days to change your mind

If you ask within 14 days of your first payment for PLUS, we refund it in full. You do not have to give a reason, and it does not matter how much you played in the meantime. Your subscription is cancelled at the same time and your account returns to the free tier.

This is deliberately at least as generous as the statutory right of withdrawal that consumers in the EU, the EEA and the UK have for a digital service. Where the law would let us keep a proportion for the days you used the service, we do not: within those 14 days you get the whole first payment back.

3. Cancelling after that

You can cancel at any time. Open the account menu in the game, choose Manage subscription, and cancel in Paddle’s customer portal. You will get an email confirming it.

Cancelling stops the next payment. It does not end PLUS immediately — you keep it for the rest of the period you have already paid for, which is what you paid for. We do not refund the unused part of a month that has already started, so there is no advantage in cancelling early rather than near the end of the month.

4. Renewals

A renewal is not covered by the 14-day rule above: by the time it is charged you have had the service for a month and know what it is. Renewals are not routinely refunded.

We do refund a renewal in these cases, and we do not argue about them:

• you were charged after you had cancelled;
• you were charged twice for the same period;
• somebody used your card without your permission;
• a fault on our side meant PLUS did not actually work for a meaningful part of the period you paid for;
• we changed what PLUS includes in a way that materially reduced it, and you do not want to continue — in that case we refund the unused part of the current period.

Beyond that list, write to us anyway. If you forgot to cancel and have not played at all since the renewal, say so — we would rather give the money back than keep money from somebody who is not using the game.

5. How to ask for a refund

Email us at the address at the foot of this page, from the address your Rail Island account uses. Tell us which payment you mean — the transaction number from your Paddle receipt is the fastest way, and the date and amount work too. You do not need to give a reason within the first 14 days.

You can also reply to the Paddle receipt email or use Paddle’s own buyer support, which reaches the same place.

When you hear back

we answer refund requests within 5 business days, usually much sooner.

Where the money goes

back to the payment method that was charged. We cannot send it anywhere else.

How long it takes to arrive

Paddle processes an approved refund promptly; your bank or card issuer then typically takes a further 5 to 10 business days to show it.

What it costs you

nothing. We deduct no fee from a refund.

6. Please ask before you file a chargeback

If something looks wrong with a charge, one email settles it faster than a chargeback does — a chargeback takes weeks, and it may suspend the account while the bank works through it. That said, if you genuinely did not authorise a payment, going to your bank is entirely your right and we will not hold it against you.

7. Your statutory rights

Nothing on this page reduces the rights the law gives you as a consumer, including the right of withdrawal and the right to a remedy where a digital service is not as described. Where your local law gives you more than this policy does, your local law wins. If we cannot settle a payment dispute between us, section 12 of the Terms of Service explains where you can take it.

8. Language

This policy is published in English only, and the English text is the binding one.