Two rules deal with most of the risk. A clinic booking deposit is not collected outside the route GetClinic shows you at checkout, so any request to pay one another way should stop you. And before sending a treatment balance direct to a clinic, verify who you are paying, especially if the bank details have changed.
A deposit is not collected off-platform
A clinic booking deposit may be collected only through an approved collection route displayed at checkout, where GetClinic or the payment provider is authorised and technically able to initiate or facilitate a refund (Booking Terms §20).
Direct off-platform payment to the clinic is not a permitted route for a deposit. If a clinic asks you to pay a GetClinic booking deposit outside the route shown at checkout, contact GetClinic before paying (Terms of Service §28).
This is not only a fraud control. The cancellation protections in the Refund & Cancellation Policy attach to a deposit paid through an approved refundable route, because that is what makes a refund possible to initiate (Refund Policy §17). A deposit sent somewhere else sits outside that.
Before you pay a balance direct
The treatment balance may lawfully be paid directly to the clinic where that route is disclosed and permitted (Booking Terms §44). Before you send it, the Booking Terms tell you to verify:
- the clinic's legal identity;
- the bank-account holder;
- the payment details;
- any unexpected change to bank instructions.
Be particularly cautious about last-minute requests to send substantial funds to a different account. That is the pattern the Booking Terms single out, and it is the most common shape of payment fraud in this setting.
Verify a change of instructions through a channel you already trust
If payment instructions appear suspicious, verify them using a previously verified communication channel before sending funds (Booking Terms §45). That means a phone number, an address or a marketplace message thread you were already using, not the contact details printed in the suspicious message itself.
Warning signs worth pausing on:
- new bank details arriving shortly before you are due to pay;
- pressure to pay immediately to hold a date;
- a request to move a deposit off the platform;
- an account in a name that does not match the clinic;
- a request for full card details by message or email.
GetClinic does not intentionally ask patients to send full card credentials through ordinary messages or document uploads (Patient Privacy Policy §10). See is my card stored anywhere.
GetClinic is not responsible for funds you voluntarily send outside GetClinic to a fraudulent account, where the instructions did not originate from GetClinic or the verified clinic, except so far as the law provides otherwise (Booking Terms §45; Terms of Service §33). This does not limit any responsibility GetClinic cannot lawfully exclude for its own acts or omissions (Terms of Service §33).
If a payment goes wrong
If a duplicate payment, an incorrect amount, a payment taken after cancellation or another processing error is confirmed, the incorrect amount is corrected or refunded through the applicable collection route (Refund Policy §21).
If you believe your payment method was used without authorisation, notify your bank or card issuer promptly, and tell GetClinic payment support at [email protected]. GetClinic may ask for information reasonably needed to investigate and protect your account.
A payment attempt that failed, was declined, expired, was reversed or was not authenticated is not treated as paid, however it looked on screen (Refund Policy §21; Booking Terms §25).
Your card and bank rights are unaffected
Nothing in the GetClinic terms removes legitimate rights you have through your card issuer, your bank, your payment provider, card-network rules or mandatory law (Refund Policy §23; Booking Terms §42).
Where it is practical, the Refund & Cancellation Policy encourages you to contact [email protected] first so the issue can be investigated and potentially resolved quickly, because the transaction record can be checked directly. You can still use your bank's dispute route. What you must not do is knowingly submit a false or duplicate payment dispute.
Suspected fraud involving a clinic listing can also be raised through the complaint routes in how to make a complaint.
GetClinic is a technology marketplace. The clinic you choose provides your healthcare and is responsible for it. This is general information about how GetClinic works, not medical advice. Only the clinic's qualified healthcare professionals can decide what treatment is right for you.