Terms

ByeFine is an online service. Contact: support@byefine.com.

What ByeFine does

You send us a photo or PDF of a penalty notice. Our AI reads it and tells you, free, how strong a challenge looks and why. If you choose to go ahead and pay, it writes an appeal in your name and we file it with whoever issued the notice.

We file through the issuer’s online form where we can, or by email to the address the issuer publishes for appeals. Where neither is possible, a member of our team files it by hand. The appeal asks for the charge to be cancelled in full. It never offers to pay, or asks to pay in instalments or less.

This covers parking tickets and private parking charges, bus lane and other moving traffic penalties, ULEZ, Congestion Charge and Clean Air Zone charges, rail, tram and bus penalty fares, toll and crossing charges, and any other penalty or charge that has a written way to challenge it. We do not handle court papers or criminal charges, or a police penalty that is not about driving. If you upload one, we say so and do not charge you. Read the notice and go by the dates on it; a solicitor or Citizens Advice can help.

Police tickets are different: we write the letter, you send it. For a Notice of Intended Prosecution for speeding or a red light, a police fixed penalty notice or a conditional offer (a phone, insurance, a seat belt, careless driving and the like) we write a letter of representations to the police force in your name, from the notice and what you tell us, for £34.99. You copy it from your case page and send it yourself, by email, by post or through the force’s own form. We do not send it, we do not act for you with the police, we take no authority to act, and we do not answer the notice’s request for the driver’s details, which has its own time limit that our letter does not pause. The notice’s own dates run on whatever we write. The police force decides on the letter at its discretion; after that, only a court can decide the matter, and we do not act in court. Because you send the letter yourself, our promise to refund you if we cannot file an appeal does not apply to it: the service is complete when the letter is written and shown to you, and we refund you in full only if we cannot write it.

ByeFine is not a law firm and does not give legal advice. We write challenges and representations; we never appear at a hearing or take part in court proceedings for you. We never send anything to a court for you. We cannot promise that any notice will be cancelled. The issuer, and after them the independent adjudicator, decides.

Acting for you

When our team, and not you, sends your challenge, we are acting for you as your representative. We do that only with your permission. When you give us your details you tick a box that lets us send the challenge in your name to the body that issued the notice, or to the independent adjudicator or appeals service you are appealing to, receive the replies, and tell you what they say. We record when you gave it and the wording you saw, and we do not file anything without it. You can withdraw it at any time before the challenge is sent by replying to any email from us, and we will not send it. The permission covers sending what you have asked us to send. It does not let us pay anything, agree anything or make any other decision for you.

The price

The check is free. The appeal costs £6.99, paid once, for one notice, and nothing more is owed to us whatever the outcome. A letter for a police ticket costs £34.99, paid once by card; it is not covered by the monthly plan, a free appeal, the friend price or a fleet account. The monthly plan below is the only recurring payment, and only if you choose it. Payment is taken by Stripe; we never see your card details. If you have a discount code, you enter it on the Stripe payment page. If the issuer asks for more evidence about an appeal we filed, we ask you for it and send it, at no charge. If the issuer refuses an appeal we filed and you ask us to take it to the independent adjudicator or appeals service, we write and file that appeal at no charge; our service for that notice ends with their decision. If you bring us a refusal of an appeal you made yourself, our appeal to the adjudicator or appeals service is a separate service at £9.99, paid once. Either way, you authorise us to submit it on your behalf, as your representative. On a fleet account, each appeal a driver goes ahead with is billed to the fleet at the same prices, on an invoice for each month that Stripe charges to the fleet’s saved card on the 1st of the following month; the fleet’s owner is responsible for paying it.

Posting a letter

A few issuers and tribunals take appeals only by post. When yours does, we tell you on your case page and you choose the postage and pay for it once through Stripe: 2nd class £4.99, 1st class £6.99, 2nd class Signed For £9.99, 1st class Signed For £11.99, Special Delivery £19.99. The Signed For and Special Delivery options are tracked by Royal Mail with a signature on delivery; 2nd and 1st class are not tracked, though our print-and-post provider keeps a record of every job. We post the letter the way you chose and email you when it has gone. Nothing is posted until the posting is paid. A fleet account has the posting added to its monthly invoice instead.

The monthly plan

The plan costs £9.99 a month, taken by Stripe when you start it and again on the same date each month until you cancel. You can cancel any time from your account; the plan then runs to the end of the month you have paid for, and nothing more is taken. While it runs, it covers every first appeal you go ahead with for a car named on the plan, for a notice dated after the day that car was added, with nothing more to pay for those appeals, under fair use. The price covers one car, named when you start the plan. You can add more cars from your account, up to 5 in all, for £4.99 a month each, charged from the day you add one (the first charge is for the rest of that month). A car stays on the plan until the plan ends: it cannot be swapped for another or taken off. The plan is for the vehicles you and your household drive privately, and if the use is plainly not that (for example a business running its vehicles on it), we may contact you and end the plan at the end of the month you have paid for. If one of those appeals is refused, taking it to the adjudicator or appeals service is free, as for any appeal we filed. An appeal to the adjudicator from a refusal of an appeal you made yourself (£9.99) and a letter for a police ticket are not covered by the plan.

The plan is for private use. A vehicle used by a business is not covered by it; businesses should use a fleet package, described below.

You can stop the plan renewing at any time from your account page; it then runs to the end of the month you have paid for. You also have the 14-day right to cancel described below, from the day you start the plan and from the day it renews. If you use that right, we refund the payment less a proportionate amount for any appeals you have used on the plan in that time.

Fleet packages

A fleet package is for a business with a fleet account. It lasts 12 months from its start date and is paid in advance by an invoice we send, before we set it up. It is one of: Team, up to 5 vehicles and 20 first appeals, £99; Business, up to 20 vehicles and 80 first appeals, £299; Fleet, up to 60 vehicles and 240 first appeals, £799; Large fleet, up to 150 vehicles and 600 first appeals, £1,799. For more than 150 vehicles we give a quote.

The package gives the business a pool of first appeals for the term. A first appeal beyond the pool costs £4.99 and goes on the monthly invoice. An appeal to the adjudicator or appeals service for a listed vehicle is free when we filed its first appeal, and costs £9.99 when the first appeal was made without us; it is not taken from the pool. Posting a letter is added at the posting prices above. Appeals not used by the end of the term do not carry over, and appeals already used are not refunded if the package ends early. A package belongs to one fleet account and cannot be transferred.

The business’s owner lists its vehicles by registration, up to the package’s vehicle limit, and confirms that each is owned, leased or operated by the business. A listed vehicle covers a notice only if the notice is dated (by its contravention date, or its issue date if that is not shown) on or after the day the vehicle was added and, if it was removed, on or before the day it was removed, while the package is current. A notice with no date we can read is not covered. Nothing is covered backdated.

A vehicle keeps its place on the package for at least 90 days from the day it was added, even if it is removed sooner, and its place cannot be given to another vehicle before then. In one term a package may have registrations added up to 2 times its vehicle limit, counting every addition, including one that replaced another. We tell the owner why when a vehicle cannot be added. An appeal for a vehicle that is not listed, or is dated outside the dates above, is not covered: it is billed to the fleet account at the normal price, as without a package.

Refer a friend

Your account page has a referral code and link. A friend who opens the link and then pays for their first appeal with us pays £1.99 for it instead of £6.99, and you receive one free first appeal, added to your account once their payment is complete. A friend counts once, cannot be you, and must not have paid us before. We treat it as you, and give neither the lower price nor the free appeal, when the friend uses your email address written another way, when the ticket is for a vehicle in your account or on one of your tickets, when it is sent from the same internet connection as one of yours, or when it is paid with a card you have paid us with. A free appeal cannot be used on a vehicle that was on the ticket of the friend who earned it. Free appeals have no cash value, cannot be transferred or exchanged, and cover a first appeal only. We may withhold or remove a credit obtained by misuse, for example by referring yourself.

API keys

You may make keys on your account page to use ByeFine from your own software or an AI assistant. A key opens your own cases and account, so keep it secret: anything done with it counts as done by you, and you can revoke it at any time. The same prices, limits and terms apply as on the site.

What we need from you

• A clear image of the whole notice.
• Your name and address, so the appeal can be made in your name.
• The truth. The appeal says what the notice shows and what you tell us. Do not tell us anything that is not true: it is your appeal and you are responsible for what it says.

Before an appeal goes out we check it against the notice and what you told us, and take out any sentence that states something neither of them gives. It also carries a short, general plea about the cost of living and a request that the issuer use its discretion to cancel the charge. Neither says anything about your own finances.

Some online forms ask us to declare that you are the registered keeper. We do that only where the notice is addressed to you, and not if you have told us you were hiring the vehicle or driving someone else’s. Some forms also ask for a title, such as Mr or Ms. If your name does not give one, we choose one from your name.

Deadlines

We read the dates from your photo and show them to you. Check them against the notice itself. We aim to file promptly and before the date printed on your notice, where that date is still ahead when you give us your details. If we cannot file it, or cannot file it in time, we tell you and refund you in full.

The appeal gives our support address for the issuer’s reply, so replies come to us first. We read them and tell you what they say. A reply carries its own deadline, so if anything from the issuer reaches you directly, read it and act on its date.

We send it, not you

We file your appeal with the issuer ourselves; we do not give it to you to send. Before you pay, your case page shows the first lines of it. Once it has been filed, the whole appeal we sent in your name is on your case page, and we will also email you a copy if you ask.

Cancelling and refunds

Your right to cancel. If you are buying as a consumer, you have 14 days from the day you pay to cancel without giving a reason (the Consumer Contracts Regulations 2013). To cancel, tell us clearly in writing: email ByeFine at the address in the contact details above, or use the form below. You can cancel any time within the 14 days, including after the service has started.

Starting straight away. Before you pay, we ask you to tick two boxes: that you want us to start the service now, within the 14 days, and that you understand what that means for your right to cancel. Appeals are often filed within minutes, because the notice has a deadline. If you cancel after we have started, you pay for what has been done up to then, in proportion to the whole service; we refund the rest. Once the service has been fully carried out, you can no longer cancel. You cannot pay without ticking both.

Our promise, which is more than the law asks. If you cancel before your appeal has been filed, we refund you in full, and charge nothing for work already done. If we cannot file it, or cannot file it in time, we refund you in full. We refund by the method you paid with, without delay and within 14 days of your cancelling or of our telling you we cannot file.

The exception: a police ticket letter. We do not file that letter, you send it, so the promise above cannot apply to it. If you cancel before the letter is written, we refund you in full. Once it is written and shown to you on your case page, the service is complete and you can no longer cancel. If we cannot write it, we refund you in full.

Model cancellation form. You do not have to use it. Copy it into an email to the address above: “I give notice that I cancel my contract for the supply of the following service: ByeFine appeal (or monthly plan), case reference [your reference]. Ordered on [date]. Name: [your name]. Address: [your address]. Date: [today’s date].”

What we do not handle

A police penalty that is not about driving or a vehicle. Court papers and criminal charges, such as a summons, a charge, a Single Justice Procedure notice, a requisition, a council tax liability order or a TV licensing prosecution, and anything where the only route is a court hearing, including a police ticket once a court is involved. Notices that have already reached a Charge Certificate or debt recovery are also outside the appeal, and so are court stage documents such as an Order for Recovery: we do not handle those at the moment. Read the document, because it says what to do and by when. If you send us one of these we tell you, point you to Citizens Advice or a solicitor, and do not charge you.

Our responsibility to you

We take reasonable care in reading your notice and writing your appeal. Our verdict is an automated estimate, not legal advice, and nobody can promise a result. If we get something wrong through our own fault, we are responsible for the loss that was a foreseeable result of it. Nothing in these terms limits your statutory rights as a consumer, or excludes or limits any liability that the law does not allow to be excluded or limited, including liability for death or personal injury caused by negligence, for fraud, or for fraudulent misrepresentation.

Changes to these terms

If we change these terms, the new version applies to appeals you pay for after the date at the top. Appeals you have already paid for stay on the terms you agreed to.

Law

These terms are governed by the law of England and Wales.