ExpressVPN Is Swapping Its Money-Back Guarantee for a Raffle, and Users Aren't Happy

ExpressVPN is quietly trading a real consumer protection for a lottery ticket. On several current plans and promotions, the standard 30-day money-back guarantee has been replaced by entry into a giveaway, most recently a “Summer Tech Competition” running July 11 to August 9, 2026, offering 30 iPhone 17 Pros to random winners. TechRadar covered the backlash under a headline that says it plainly: “Who came up with this idea?”

Here’s what actually changed, why a raffle is not a substitute for a refund, and what to buy instead if a real guarantee matters to you.

What ExpressVPN changed

For years, ExpressVPN’s pitch included a no-questions-asked 30-day refund window, the same baseline offered by most of the industry. That guarantee still applies as ExpressVPN’s stated policy. But on a growing number of plans and promotional sign-up paths, the company has started swapping it out for a sweepstakes instead: buy a subscription, get entered into a prize draw, no refund promised.

The current version is the Summer Tech Competition, live from July 11 to August 9, 2026, dangling 30 iPhone 17 Pro handsets. It follows an earlier giveaway tied to FIFA World Cup 2026 tickets. Both replaced the refund window on the plans they were attached to rather than sitting alongside it.

The pattern is consistent enough that reviewers have noticed it happening more than once. TechRadar’s piece frames it as ExpressVPN “continuing” to drop the guarantee in favor of raffles, not a one-off experiment.

Why a raffle isn’t a refund

A money-back guarantee is a contractual promise. Buy the product, decide it’s not for you within the window, get your money back. Every buyer who asks gets one.

A raffle entry is not that. You pay full price, you might win something, and the overwhelming majority of buyers get nothing beyond the subscription they already paid for. Thirty iPhones split across however many thousands of people bought a plan during a four-week window is not a meaningful expected return for any individual buyer. It’s a marketing mechanic, not a protection.

The distinction matters most for exactly the buyers a refund window is designed to protect: people who sign up, hit a snag (a blocked streaming server, a connection that won’t hold on their ISP, a country where the app underperforms), and want their money back without an argument. A raffle gives them nothing to point to. There’s no clock, no guarantee, no obligation on ExpressVPN’s part beyond the paperwork for a prize draw that most entrants will lose.

Dressing that up as a “bonus” on top of a purchase, when it’s actually replacing a policy that used to be there, is the part users are objecting to. It reads as ExpressVPN making refunds structurally harder to claim while keeping the marketing language upbeat.

Where this leaves ExpressVPN overall

This is one policy lever, not a verdict on the whole product. ExpressVPN still scores 3.72/5 overall in our rankings, with a perfect 5/5 on speed and an Excellent streaming rating across every major platform we test, including Netflix and BBC iPlayer. Its no-logs claims are backed by a PwC audit, which puts it in the same credibility tier as NordVPN on that specific point.

None of that changes because of a raffle. What changes is trust in one specific, easy-to-check signal: can you get your money back if the product doesn’t work for you. That’s the exact thing a money-back guarantee exists to answer cleanly, and it’s the thing ExpressVPN is currently making murkier on some of its plans.

Worth being precise here: ExpressVPN’s baseline policy, and the number that still applies broadly, remains a 30-day guarantee. That’s the figure in our refund policy comparison, and it’s accurate as a standard policy. What this article covers is the erosion happening underneath that headline number on specific plans and promotional sign-up flows, where the refund is being swapped out rather than offered.

If the guarantee is the deciding factor, look elsewhere

If a hard, unconditional refund window matters to your decision (and for a lot of buyers, it should), the market still has better options than a prize draw:

NordVPN’s 60-day window is still the longest among major providers, double what ExpressVPN currently advertises where the guarantee survives at all, and it comes attached to the highest overall score in our rankings. CyberGhost’s 45 days is the next best margin for buyers who want more runway than the industry-standard month. We break down the fine print, the hidden conditions, and how each provider actually processes a refund request in our full money-back guarantee comparison.

Want to compare all VPNs side by side? Check our full VPN comparison table with scores across 18 criteria.

What to check before you buy

If you’re eyeing ExpressVPN specifically, don’t assume the 30-day guarantee applies to whatever plan or promo you’re looking at. Check the refund terms on the exact checkout page before you pay, not the general marketing page. If the plan you want only offers raffle entry, treat that as a genuine downgrade and decide whether the product’s other strengths (speed, streaming access, the PwC audit) are worth buying without a safety net.

For everyone else, this is a useful reminder to read the actual terms on any “money-back guarantee” badge rather than trusting the badge itself. Providers can and do change what sits behind it.