# Ombudly > Ombudly is your personal ombudsman: an AI financial advocate. It works through your accounts, bills and receipts in the background, finds fees, missing refunds, price hikes and forgotten subscriptions, and handles the requests to get your money back. You approve what matters. Ombudly is a web app (and API/MCP server) for US households. It reads bank transactions (Plaid or uploaded statements), billing emails, receipts and documents; finds fees, missing refunds, duplicate charges, charges after cancellation, price increases, unused subscriptions and settlements; contacts companies through their support pages in an isolated cloud browser; and verifies that money arrived. Users choose a permission mode (Paranoid, Default, Delegated); payments and attestations always need the user, and the agent signs in only with a login the user saved in the vault. ## Pages - [How it works](https://ombudly.com/how-it-works): what it finds, how it asks, how it verifies, and the benchmark it is tested on - [Safety and control](https://ombudly.com/security): permission modes, the browser approval gate, the vault - [Pricing](https://ombudly.com/pricing): Watchdog $0/month + 20% of recovered money, no cap, 200 credits of AI work a month; Advocate $29/month + 10% of recovered money, no cap, 800 credits of AI work a month; Intensive $99/month + 10% of recovered money, no cap, 3,000 credits of AI work a month - [Connect your agent](https://ombudly.com/agents): MCP setup for Claude Code, Codex and other clients - [Affiliate partners](https://ombudly.com/partners): approved partners earn 25% of eligible subscription revenue for 12 calendar months from each customer's first subscription payment, subject to holds and reversals - [Referral credits](https://ombudly.com/referrals): each person can earn 100 hosted-work credits after a qualifying new customer's first $10+ net subscription payment and a 30-day hold; not signup credit or cash - [Brand guidelines](https://ombudly.com/legal/brand-guidelines): approved assets, accurate claims, prominent compensation disclosures and channel restrictions - [Questions](https://ombudly.com/faq) ## Guides - [How to get overdraft fees refunded](https://ombudly.com/guides/get-overdraft-fees-refunded): Banks reverse overdraft and NSF fees more often than people think. What to check, exactly what to say, and what to do if they say no. - [How to dispute a duplicate charge](https://ombudly.com/guides/dispute-a-duplicate-charge): Charged twice for one order? How to prove it's a duplicate, ask the merchant first, and use your card's dispute rights if you need to. - [What to do when a refund never arrives](https://ombudly.com/guides/refund-never-arrived): "Your refund will post in 5–7 business days." It didn't. How to trace a missing refund and get it reissued. - [Charged after you cancelled? How to get it back](https://ombudly.com/guides/charged-after-cancelling): You have the cancellation confirmation and they billed you anyway. How to get every charge after the cancellation refunded. - [How to push back on a subscription price increase](https://ombudly.com/guides/push-back-on-a-price-increase): Your streaming, internet or software bill went up. A short, polite message often gets you loyalty pricing or credits. - [How to check if you're owed money from a class-action settlement](https://ombudly.com/guides/find-class-action-settlements): Settlement notices are easy to ignore. How to check eligibility honestly, meet the deadline, and avoid settlement scams. ## Connect an agent (MCP) - Endpoint: https://ombudly.com/mcp (Streamable HTTP, JSON-RPC: initialize, tools/list, tools/call) - Auth: `Authorization: Bearer `. Users create tokens in the app (Settings → Connect an agent), read-only or read-and-act. - Claude Code: `claude mcp add --transport http ombudly https://ombudly.com/mcp --header "Authorization: Bearer $OMBUDLY_TOKEN"` - Codex: in ~/.codex/config.toml, `[mcp_servers.ombudly]` with `url = "https://ombudly.com/mcp"` and `bearer_token_env_var = "OMBUDLY_TOKEN"` - Rules for agents: consequential steps (submit, commit, attest, money, access) need an approved `propose_action` for that class and site; the browser refuses them otherwise. Agent tokens can propose but never approve, and can't change permission settings. Money, taxes and benefits: `get_finances`, `screen_benefits`, `tax_organizer`, `find_help`. Use `ask_user` for facts only the user knows (household size, income, whether a charge was theirs); only the signed-in user answers. Vault secrets are filled by reference and never returned. Call `review_status` before finishing a household review. ## Optional - [Full text for language models](https://ombudly.com/llms-full.txt) --- # Questions ## Does Ombudly move my money? No. It can't pay, transfer or enter card details without your approval for that exact step, in every mode. Its job is to get money sent back to you, and nothing counts until a refund or credit shows up in your own transactions. ## What does it need access to? Read-only bank data through Plaid (or uploaded statements), plus the emails, receipts and documents you forward or upload. To contact companies it uses its own isolated cloud browser, not your computer. ## What will it do without asking me? In the Default mode: research, draft, and send routine requests like fee reversals, refund follow-ups and duplicate-charge disputes to companies you already do business with, after an approver checks the request against your evidence. Cancelling or changing a service, accepting an offer, signing anything, sharing account numbers, paying or signing in always waits for you. ## Does it see my passwords? No. Logins you save go into an encrypted vault. When a site needs one, Ombudly fills it by reference, on that site only, and the AI never receives the password itself. You can also sign in yourself through the live browser view. ## How do you make money? The free plan takes a share of money that actually comes back to you: 20%. Paid plans include more credits of AI work each month and lower the share to 10%. No recovery, no fee; no fee on tax refunds, government benefits, settlements or unclaimed property. ## What if the company says no? Then you owe nothing for it. Ombudly records the answer, tells you, and suggests the next step if there is one, such as a card dispute window that is still open. ## Can I use my own AI agent instead? Yes. Claude Code, Codex and any MCP client can connect with an agent token you create. Your agent gets the same tools and the same safety rules: it can propose actions, but only you can approve them. ## Is this financial or legal advice? No. Ombudly is not a bank, a law firm or a financial adviser. It handles routine consumer requests with the evidence you already have and asks you before anything that commits you. ## Which banks work? Thousands of US banks and card issuers through Plaid. You can also upload CSV statements or PDFs from any bank. --- # How to get overdraft fees refunded Source: https://ombudly.com/guides/get-overdraft-fees-refunded (updated 2026-10-17) Overdraft and insufficient-funds fees are some of the easiest money to get back, because many banks will waive them on request, especially the first one in a while or a cluster that hit on the same day. Most people simply never ask. ## 1. Find every fee, not just the last one Search your statements for "overdraft", "OD fee", "NSF", "insufficient funds" and "returned item". Fees often come in clusters: one low balance can trigger several fees over two or three days. Note the date and amount of each, and whether any were already reversed (look for a matching credit a few days later). ## 2. Ask, specifically Use the bank's secure message or chat rather than a branch: you get a written record. Name each fee with its date and amount, give a one-line reason, and ask for a reversal. Short and specific beats long and emotional. Message you can copy: > Hi, I was charged overdraft fees of $35.00 on September 9 and $35.00 on September 10, both caused by a single low balance that I corrected the next day. I've been a customer since 2019. Could you please reverse these fees as a courtesy? Thank you. ## 3. If they reverse some but not all Banks often have a courtesy limit (for example, a couple of fees per year). Accept what they offer, note it, and ask whether the remaining fee can be reviewed next statement cycle. Ask about overdraft settings at the same time: many accounts let you turn off overdraft coverage for debit card purchases so the card is simply declined instead of charged a fee. ## 4. If they say no Ask once more politely, then escalate in writing to a supervisor or the bank's complaint process. If you believe a fee broke the bank's own terms (for example, charged while the account showed a positive available balance), you can also file a complaint with the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. Ombudly finds clustered fees automatically, checks whether they were already reversed, and sends the request with the exact dates and amounts. You only get pinged if the bank offers something that changes your account. --- # How to dispute a duplicate charge Source: https://ombudly.com/guides/dispute-a-duplicate-charge (updated 2026-10-17) Duplicate charges happen when a payment is retried, a checkout times out, or a merchant's system glitches. The fix is usually quick if you can show it was one order. ## 1. Make sure it really is a duplicate Two identical amounts on the same day can be two real purchases. Check your order confirmation emails: if there is one order number and one total, but two charges, it's a duplicate. Pending authorizations sometimes drop off within a few days on their own. If one of the two charges is still pending, give it a few days before disputing. ## 2. Ask the merchant first Merchants can refund a duplicate faster than a card dispute resolves. Use their support form, quote the order number, the date and both charges, and attach the confirmation. Message you can copy: > Hello, I placed one order (SM-40213, $89.99) on September 14, but my card was charged $89.99 twice that day. My confirmation email shows a single order. Please refund the duplicate charge. Thank you. ## 3. If they already refunded part of it Check for smaller credits from the same merchant after the duplicate. If one of them was a partial adjustment for this order, ask only for the remaining amount, and say so: it makes the request easy to approve. ## 4. Use your card's dispute rights if needed If the merchant won't fix it, dispute the charge with your card issuer. For credit cards, US law generally gives you 60 days from the statement that first showed the error to dispute it in writing; debit card error rules have their own deadlines, so act promptly and check your account agreement. Ombudly matches order confirmations against your charges, notices partial refunds, and asks for exactly what's still owed. --- # What to do when a refund never arrives Source: https://ombudly.com/guides/refund-never-arrived (updated 2026-10-17) Refunds go missing more often than people expect: a return gets scanned but never processed, a refund is sent to an expired card, or it simply falls through the cracks. Companies fix these quickly once someone asks with the details. ## 1. Confirm it really didn't post Search your transactions for a credit from the merchant since the date of the refund email. Refunds can appear under a slightly different name than the original charge, and card refunds sometimes post to the card you paid with even if it's been replaced. ## 2. Send one specific message Quote the order or return number, the refund amount, and the date the company promised it. Ask them to trace and reissue it. Message you can copy: > Hi, your email on August 20 confirmed my return for order SM-82352 and said a $60.63 refund would post within 5–7 business days. It hasn't arrived as of October 15. Could you trace it and reissue the refund? Thank you. ## 3. Answer follow-up questions exactly Support teams often ask for one more detail, such as the return's tracking number. Reply in the same thread with exactly what they asked for. Never send card numbers or passwords. ## 4. Escalate if it stalls If the company stops responding, a card dispute for "credit not processed" is often available when you paid by card. Keep the refund confirmation email: it's your best evidence. Ombudly reads your refund emails, watches your transactions for the credit, and follows up with the company, including answering their follow-up questions. --- # Charged after you cancelled? How to get it back Source: https://ombudly.com/guides/charged-after-cancelling (updated 2026-10-17) Subscriptions that keep billing after you cancel are frustrating but usually easy to fix, because the cancellation confirmation is strong evidence. ## 1. Find the confirmation and every charge after it Search your email for the cancellation confirmation (the date and any confirmation number matter). Then list every charge from that company dated after it. ## 2. Ask for all of them back at once Contact billing support, quote the confirmation, and list each charge. Ask them to refund all charges after the cancellation and confirm the account is closed. Message you can copy: > Hello, I cancelled my plan on July 28 (confirmation CB-77412), but I was charged $9.99 on August 3, September 3 and October 3. Please refund these three charges ($29.97) and confirm my account is closed. Thank you. ## 3. If they refuse Ask for a supervisor and repeat the request in writing. Charges after a confirmed cancellation are a common reason for a card dispute; your confirmation email is the evidence your card issuer will ask for. Ombudly links cancellation emails to later charges automatically and sends one request covering every charge. --- # How to push back on a subscription price increase Source: https://ombudly.com/guides/push-back-on-a-price-increase (updated 2026-10-17) Price increases are designed to stick because few people push back. A short message to support asking about loyalty pricing works more often than you'd think, and costs nothing to try. ## 1. Know the numbers Find the old price, the new price, and how long you've been a customer. Check the price-change email for any mention of loyalty or retention offers. ## 2. Ask support, not the cancel flow The cancel flow often offers a discount, but accepting it may change your plan or lock in a term. Asking support for loyalty pricing keeps your plan as it is. Message you can copy: > Hi, my Premium plan went from $15.99 to $19.99 this month. I've been a member for four years and would like to stay. Is there any loyalty pricing or credit you can offer? Thanks. ## 3. Decide on any offer deliberately If they offer a discounted plan, read the terms: is it a different tier, a fixed term, or an automatic return to full price later? Accepting an offer is a commitment, so it deserves a minute of thought. Ombudly spots price increases in your recurring charges and asks for loyalty pricing. If a company offers a plan change, it asks you first. --- # How to check if you're owed money from a class-action settlement Source: https://ombudly.com/guides/find-class-action-settlements (updated 2026-10-17) Class-action settlements pay people who were affected by a company's conduct, often without needing receipts. The catch: you have to file a claim before a deadline, and you have to actually be eligible. ## 1. Check the notice is real Legitimate notices name the case, the court, the settlement administrator and a claim deadline, and they never ask for a fee or your bank password. Go to the administrator's site by typing its address, not by clicking a link in a suspicious email. ## 2. Check eligibility against your records Settlements define a class (for example, people who paid for a service between two dates). Check your transactions or account history for that period. If you weren't in the class, don't file: claims are made under penalty of perjury. ## 3. File before the deadline, and only once Deadlines are firm. Once a deadline has passed, filing is not an option, no matter what an email says. Keep the claim confirmation number. Ombudly checks settlement notices against your history and prepares the claim. Because a claim is a sworn statement, it always waits for you to sign.