Skip to content

Cookies on Essential Comps

We use essential cookies to run the site — your basket and sign-in. With your permission we’d also use optional cookies to see how visitors find and use the site, to measure and improve our adverts, and to play Live Draw videos automatically. We also count visits in total, without cookies or anything that identifies you, to improve the site — you can switch this off in Manage preferences. Cookie Policy ·

Log in

Legal

Refund Policy

This Refund Policy explains when we give refunds for competition entries and how they work. It forms part of our Terms & Conditions; if there is any difference, the Terms & Conditions apply.

Last updated: 11 October 2026

Entries are final

Once a competition entry has been successfully purchased or accepted, it cannot be cancelled, transferred to another person, exchanged for another competition or amended. Please check your basket before you pay.

Payments that never become entries

  • If your payment is authorised after the competition has closed, or after the order could no longer be entered, no entries are created and the payment is not taken: the card authorisation is cancelled. Your bank may briefly show a pending amount, which is released, not charged. This is not a refund, because no money is taken.
  • If a payment is taken but the entries cannot then be issued for another reason (for example the competition has no tickets left), we refund it in full.

When we give refunds

  • Cancelled competitions: if we have to cancel a competition before a winner has been selected, all valid paid entries will normally be refunded to the original payment method. Where entries were bought using Essential Points, those points will normally be returned to your account.
  • Errors: we reserve the right to correct any genuine error, omission or technical mistake relating to a competition, prize, ticket allocation, pricing, website content or promotional material. Where a significant error has materially affected customers or the fairness of a competition, we may, at our discretion, amend the competition, cancel affected purchases or issue refunds where appropriate.
  • We may also give a refund in other circumstances at our discretion.

How refunds work

  • A refund returns what the refunded entries actually cost after any discount, bundle price or promotion — not the normal ticket price — in the form you paid: money back to the card you paid with, and Essential Points back to your account.
  • A refund can cover a whole order or only some of its entries.
  • Timescale: we aim to process an approved refund within 5 Working Days. Card refunds are made through our payment provider, DNA Payments, to the card you paid with; how long a refund then takes to appear on your statement depends on your bank or card issuer.
  • Refunded entries are cancelled. They cannot win any draw made after the refund, even if their ticket number is drawn, and this is not reversed if a refund is later withdrawn.
  • Refunded entries still count towards that competition’s maximum entries per person, so a refund does not free up room to buy more entries.
  • Essential Points earned on the order, and any promotional reward linked to it, are taken back in proportion. Your Points balance will not go below zero.
  • A discount code used on the order is not returned, and a place in a limited promotion (for example “first 100 customers”) is not reopened.
  • We do not refund entries simply to make room for promotional entries or to allow more entries than a competition’s maximum per person.

Winning tickets and Instant Wins

  • An order that contains a ticket that has won a Main Draw prize cannot be refunded.
  • If a ticket that has won an Instant Win is refunded at your request, or its payment is fraudulent, charged back or otherwise invalid, the Instant Win is void. A void Instant Win is never re-awarded: its winning number stays used, the prize is not offered again, and withdrawing or reversing the refund later does not restore it.
  • A refund you ask for is not available for a ticket whose Instant Win prize has already been delivered.
  • If we cancel or refund entries through no fault of yours, for example because of an error on our part, an Instant Win prize you have already legitimately won is not taken away.

Chargebacks and payment disputes

If something has gone wrong with a payment, please contact us first so we can help. A chargeback or payment dispute is treated as a refund of the whole order: its entries are cancelled, cannot win any draw made after the dispute, and any Instant Win on them is void.

Submitting a fraudulent or unjustified chargeback, payment dispute or payment reversal is considered abuse of our services. Essential Comps reserves the right to suspend or permanently close the associated account, cancel any entries, withhold or recover prizes where legally permitted, remove Essential Points, referral rewards and promotional rewards, refuse future participation and take reasonable steps to recover any monies, prizes or losses incurred where permitted by law.

Asking about a refund

Email info@essentialcomps.co.uk with your order number and the email address on your account, and tell us what has gone wrong. We will reply to let you know whether a refund can be given.

Nothing in this policy affects your statutory rights.