Non-Refundable Deposit at a Clinic Abroad: When It Comes Back

A clinic abroad usually asks for money before you have seen it, and often before you have seen the full contract. The deposit holds a date. What happens to it if you cancel, or if the surgeon decides not to operate, depends on terms most patients read only after something goes wrong.

We read the published deposit and cancellation terms of nine clinics, agencies and surgery providers. They cover treatment in Turkey, Hungary and Mexico. Then we set them against the UK and EU rules on keeping a consumer's money.

Nine sets of deposit terms, side by side

"Not stated" means the page we read did not say. Two of the providers are UK companies and one has a US address, so check which company your contract is with.

Why clinics take a deposit

The providers give their reasons in their own terms. Turkey Hair Center says its deposit "secures your treatment planning and preferred appointment date".² The Health Store Turkey says its £150 fee "covers the costs we have already incurred in arranging your consultations, medical assessments, and booking coordination".⁴

Freedom Bariatrics lists the costs it deducts from a refund. They include "transportation, hotel accommodations, pre-op test(s), doctor fees". A $25 processing fee and a $150 nutrition consultation are on the list too.⁹

A Turkish hospital group's patient guide gives the same logic from the provider's side. Acibadem International says consultations, tests, imaging and "some administrative or reservation-related costs" are "frequently non-refundable, because those services have been delivered or committed".¹⁰ The clinic terms above agree: what a clinic says it keeps is tied to work already done or booked.

That is the fair version of a deposit. The terms in the table show how far some go past it.

When "non-refundable" stops at the deadline

Most of the terms we read set a deadline, not a blanket rule. Firma Clinic refunds the deposit in full if you cancel at least 14 days before. Inside 14 days, any refund is "at the discretion of the coordinating hospital".¹ Firma is a coordinator, not the clinic, so the decision sits with a hospital whose terms you may not have.

The Health Store Turkey has three steps. More than eight weeks before travel, you get "a full refund minus a £150 administration fee". Between four and eight weeks, you get 50% of what you paid. Under four weeks, nothing.⁴ It also gives a 14-day right to cancel "for any reason" after the booking confirmation.

Tijuana Bariatrics works on the deposit itself. Cancel more than 60 days ahead and you get half of the $600 back. Between 31 and 59 days, a quarter.⁸

Turkey Hair Center's window is short. Its $300 is refundable "within 7 days of payment", and refund requests must come at least 72 hours before the date. "After this period, the deposit becomes non-refundable."²

When "non-refundable" means always

Three providers call the deposit non-refundable outright. Dr. CBS clinic in Istanbul takes 10% to confirm a surgery date. Its page says plainly that the deposit "is non-refundable".³ Freedom Bariatrics says "any deposit under $500 USD is non-refundable".⁹

Tijuana Bariatric Center's $400 is "non-refundable under any circumstances".⁷ That includes cancelling for medical reasons after you arrive. In that case, it says, "the patient will be responsible for covering any incurred expenses".

When the surgeon says no

This is the case the terms cover least. A surgeon may examine you on arrival and decide the operation is not safe. Five of the nine pages we read do not say what happens to your money then.

The four that do differ sharply:

• The Health Store Turkey: "If you are deemed medically unsuitable for your procedure", you get a full refund minus the £150 fee, "regardless of when the cancellation occurs".⁴
• Freedom Bariatrics: if surgery is cancelled for a condition found before the operation, "a refund may be provided minus any costs incurred".⁹ "May" leaves the decision with the clinic.
• Tijuana Bariatric Center: the patient covers "any incurred expenses".⁷
• Tijuana Bariatrics: if the surgeon decides "not to attempt or complete your surgery", you lose "the entire amount of your security deposit".⁸ The rest of what you paid goes to "incurred expenses".

Turkey Hair Center states that "final treatment eligibility depends on medical evaluation", but not what that means for the $300.² Acibadem's guide suggests asking whether unused prepaid amounts are "refunded, credited towards the revised plan, or held for future care". It adds that providers "may review these situations individually and sympathetically, but sympathy is not a policy".¹⁰

What the law says about keeping a deposit

In the UK, the Consumer Rights Act 2015 has a list of terms that may be unfair. One is a term letting the trader keep money when the consumer cancels, "without providing for the consumer to receive compensation of an equivalent amount" when the trader cancels.¹¹ Another requires a consumer who cancels to pay "a disproportionately high sum in compensation or for services which have not been supplied".

The Act calls this "an indicative and non-exhaustive list of terms" that "may be regarded as unfair".¹² So being on the list does not make a term unfair automatically. A court decides.

The EU's unfair-terms directive has the first point in its annex in nearly the same words.¹³ It also lists a "disproportionately high sum in compensation" for a consumer who fails to meet their obligations. Its preamble says the list is "of indicative value only".

The UK Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) explains how this works in practice. A business "may legitimately keep a deposit in full if it's no more than a small percentage of the price". The condition is that "you make it clear when exactly it would be non-refundable".¹⁴ Making prepayments non-refundable "regardless of why the customer cancels" is unlikely to be fair.

A business should "only seek to recoup losses that you have actually made".

The guidance points to two tests: how big the deposit is, and how clear the deadline is. Read the table with both in mind. Neither the CMA nor a court has ruled on any provider in it that we know of. The guidance is written for UK businesses, and a clinic abroad is not bound by it.

The surgeon-says-no case has its own entry. Both lists include a term letting the trader "retain the sums paid for services not yet supplied" where it is the trader who ends the contract.¹¹¹³ Whether a surgeon's refusal counts as the clinic ending the contract is a question only a court could settle. We found no ruling on it.

What the published terms leave out

Cooling-off. In the EU, the 14-day right to withdraw from a distance contract does not apply to healthcare.¹⁵ Of the nine pages we read, only one, from a UK agency, states a 14-day right to cancel. Where the terms are silent, do not assume you have one.

Whose terms apply. A deposit paid to an agency or coordinator may be governed by that company's terms, while the hospital's terms decide the treatment. Firma Clinic's terms hand the late-cancellation decision to "the coordinating hospital".¹ Ask for both sets.

Which law applies. The UK and EU rules above protect consumers in their own markets. Whether a court applies them to a clinic in Turkey or Mexico depends on the contract and where the clinic sells. Our medical tourism contract checklist covers the jurisdiction clause.

The sample. Nine providers, chosen because they publish their terms, are not a survey. Many clinics publish nothing. That is itself a reason to ask before you pay.

How to pay a deposit you can get back

Ask for the deposit terms in writing before you send money. Then check four things:

• The deadline. On what date, with what time zone, does the deposit stop being refundable?
• The medical "no". What do you get back if the surgeon decides not to operate, and which costs are deducted?
• The decider. Who decides on a refund: the clinic, an agency, or a partner hospital?
• The size. Is the deposit a small percentage of the price, or most of it?

If the answer to the medical "no" is "nothing", ask for it to be changed before you pay.

How you pay matters too. A credit card can give you a claim against the card provider that a bank transfer does not, as our step-by-step medical contract review explains. A card in a foreign currency adds its own cost, which our breakdown of the foreign transaction fee on a clinic bill prices.

The payment and cancellation sections of our free medical contract review checklist walk through the same questions for your own contract.