# Untap > Untap is a UK consumer fintech that finds money you are already owed. It scans booking confirmations, notices, and statements you forward to it, then tells you exactly what to claim and how. Detection and guidance only. We do not take a cut of your refund and we do not file claims for you. The site is for people in the United Kingdom. All numbers, deadlines, and rules below refer to UK schemes (HMRC, the train operating companies, the Civil Aviation Authority, Ofcom, Ofgem, the Valuation Office Agency, local councils, and the Financial Conduct Authority). ## Tools, data and AI assistants - [Untap for Claude and ChatGPT](https://untap.money/connect): a remote MCP server at https://untap.money/api/mcp (Streamable HTTP). Seven public tools run without an Untap account: find_money_owed, check_train_delay, check_flight_compensation, check_tfl_journeys, get_delay_repay_rules, get_claim_instructions (how to submit a train, flight or TfL claim on the company's own form, with deadlines, who may submit and the escalation route) and scan_for_claims (finds possible claims in a batch of emails, with no language model and nothing stored). Journey checks return the applicable amount or percentage, deadline, assumptions and a claim pack where eligible. The passenger submits the claim themselves. OAuth 2.1 sign-in is needed only for account tools: saving or tracking claims, adding booking or parking-notice records, and saved commutes checked for dates the person requests. Untap does not schedule commute checks or file claims. - [Agent Skills for UK travel claims](https://untap.money/skills): two portable skills in the open Agent Skills format (SKILL.md plus reference files) for Claude, ChatGPT, Codex, Cursor, Copilot and other agents. uk-travel-claims (https://untap.money/skills/uk-travel-claims/SKILL.md) is the workflow for a late or cancelled train, a delayed, cancelled or overbooked flight, or a TfL maximum fare: check with Untap, get the submission instructions, confirm with the person, fill in the official form with their permission, record and chase. find-travel-refunds-in-inbox (https://untap.money/skills/find-travel-refunds-in-inbox/SKILL.md) searches an inbox for candidate claims. Zips at https://untap.money/skills/uk-travel-claims.zip and https://untap.money/skills/find-travel-refunds-in-inbox.zip, manifest at https://untap.money/skills/index.json. - [Assistant tool documentation](https://untap.money/connect/docs): every current tool, its inputs, authentication, data handling and rate limits. The [public server card](https://untap.money/.well-known/mcp/server-card.json) advertises the same tool schemas and workflow instructions as the live MCP server. - [Agent REST API](https://untap.money/openapi.json): the same seven public tools as plain JSON over HTTPS at POST https://untap.money/api/agent/v1/{tool}, described in OpenAPI 3.1, with no sign-in and the same limits as the MCP server. - [TfL refund checker](https://untap.money/tfl-check): upload TfL contactless journey history (PDF, CSV or screenshots) to find incomplete journeys and missed Hopper fares still inside the 8-week refund window. No account, and the file is not kept. - [Delay Repay calculator and refund estimator](https://untap.money/estimator): what a delayed train, a missed tap out, a late flight or a parking charge is worth. No sign-in. - [Delay Repay by train operator](https://untap.money/guides/train-delay-repay): one page per operator, for example https://untap.money/guides/train-delay-repay/avanti-west-coast, with the delay threshold, what each tier pays, the 28-day deadline, the claim form link and whether the operator pays automatically. - [Open data](https://untap.money/open-data): the Index tables and the rules Untap applies, free under CC BY 4.0 as CSV and JSON. Delay Repay rules by operator (https://untap.money/open-data/rules/delay-repay-operators.json), UK261 and EU261 compensation bands, TfL refund rules, water surface drainage charges by company, and a dated rules change log (https://untap.money/open-data/rules/changelog.json). The /guides section is the canonical reference. Each article walks the reader through the free route to the claim first, with sourced numbers and links to gov.uk and the relevant regulator. The /journal section is original research: source-cited essays on money UK consumers are owed and don't claim. ## Journal — original research - [Second Thoughts · The 2026 Untap Parking Index](https://untap.money/parking-index): When a private parking ticket is challenged, how often does the company defend it? Of 107,202 appeals completed in the year to September 2025, 67,680 were decided and 39,522 were never contested, including 34,502 dropped by the parking operator itself. Adjudicated allow rates range from 7.5% (UK Parking Control) to 43.4% (NCP); overall cancellation rates from 29.6% to 90.2%. Joined to DVLA keeper-data enquiries: parking companies made 14,381,119 enquiries in FY2024-25 and 13,098,550 between April and December 2025, up 19.3% like for like. 10.4% of keeper-enquiry volume belongs to operators on the other trade body's scheme, whose appeals service (the IAS) publishes no allowed or refused figures at all; a further 8.0% could not be matched. Sources: POPLA Annual Report 2025 Appendix; DVLA KADOE enquiry volumes; The Independent Appeals Service Annual Report 2024-25; London Councils; Traffic Penalty Tribunal. - [The Band You Are In](https://untap.money/journal/the-band-you-are-in): Of 39,590 council tax band challenges resolved in England and Wales in the year to March 2024, just 30 ended with the band going up. That is one in 1,320, against 10,530 that ended with the band coming down (26.6%). The route matters and has never been reported: the informal band review succeeded 41.3% of the time against 19.1% for the formal proposal. Challenge rates per 10,000 dwellings vary roughly tenfold between councils and success rates roughly sixfold, and the two are partly inverted: the most-challenged authorities include several of the least successful. A one-band drop is worth Band D divided by nine, about £265.78 a year at the England average of £2,392. The source series has been postponed since September 2025, so this is the most recent data published. Sources: VOA Council Tax challenges and changes March 2024; VOA Council Tax stock of properties 2025; MHCLG Council tax levels 2026-27. - [The Coffee Machine You're Owed](https://untap.money/journal/the-coffee-machine-you-are-owed): A year of unclaimed refunds across the four services UK adults use weekly — trains, London transport, flights and parking — stacks to roughly £170 per eligible person per year. About the price of an entry-level pump-espresso machine. Train Delay Repay ~£42/yr per commuter, TfL incomplete-journey refunds ~£35/yr per Tube user, UK261 flight compensation ~£70/yr per regular flier, parking ticket appeals ~£24/yr per driver. The money sits there because every category has its own rulebook — around 14 train operators each with their own Delay Repay rules, three TfL refund modes, three UK261 distance tiers plus a fault test, 193 private parking firms and four appeals routes. Sources: ORR; TfL FOI-4311-2324; CAA UK261 guidance; RAC Foundation 2023-24; POPLA Annual Report 2023. - [Money Owed · Renters](https://untap.money/journal/money-owed-renters): What changed for English private renters on 1 May 2026 under the Renters' Rights Act 2025 (no-fault eviction abolished; fixed-term assured tenancies abolished; rental bidding banned; Rent Repayment Orders doubled from 12 to 24 months' rent; rent rises now require Form 4A with at least two months' notice and the tribunal can confirm or reduce, not raise). Plus the older Housing Act 2004 deposit-protection penalty: if a landlord failed to protect a deposit within 30 days, a county court must order between one and three times the deposit (so up to £3,450 on a £1,150 average deposit) on top of returning the deposit itself. Sources: Renters' Rights Act 2025 c.26, Housing Act 2004 s.214(4) as amended by Localism Act 2011 s.184, Tenant Fees Act 2019, Superstrike v Rodrigues [2013] EWCA Civ 669, Generation Rent 'Short-changed' July 2025, English Housing Survey 2024-25. - [Money Owed · Class Actions](https://untap.money/journal/money-owed-class-actions): Five UK class actions that affect tens of millions of consumers. The biggest is the FCA's £7.5 billion motor finance redress scheme covering hire-purchase and PCP agreements between April 2007 and November 2024, with lenders ordered to start contacting customers from 30 June 2026. Mastercard Merricks settlement (£200 million, ~44 million UK adults), Kent v Apple (the UK's first opt-out class action damages award, £1.2-£2.2 billion range, ~36 million users), Alex Neill v Sony (trial in progress) and Coll v Alphabet for Google Play (trial October 2026) round out the list. Sources: FCA Policy Statement PS26/3, UK Supreme Court Hopcraft and others v FirstRand and Close Brothers [2025] UKSC 33, Competition Appeal Tribunal case files 1266 / 1403 / 1408 / 1527. - [Money Owed · Councils](https://untap.money/journal/money-owed-councils): Five UK council-tax discounts most households miss. The biggest is for adults with severe cognitive impairment (dementia, severe learning disability, late-stage Parkinson's etc) and is worth between £3,588 and £14,352 in a single backdated cheque at the average Band D rate over six years. The Single Person Discount, Disabled Band Reduction, the carer disregard and the new second-home premium exceptions round out the list. Sources: MHCLG Council Taxbase 2024 and Council Tax levels 2026-27, Money and Mental Health Policy Institute (April 2026), Limitation Act 1980 s.9, Alzheimer's Society 2025. - [Money Owed · HMRC](https://untap.money/journal/money-owed-hmrc): Around £1.5 billion in HMRC reliefs goes unclaimed by UK adults each year. Five reliefs ranked by per-person recovery: higher-rate pension top-up (£1,756/yr, ~880,000 not claiming), Marriage Allowance (£252/yr × 5 yrs = £1,260, ~2m not claiming), uniform tax relief (FRE List 3, £60-£1,022/yr), professional subscriptions (Section 344 ITEPA, ~1.5m members), and the closing Working from Home relief (abolished 6 April 2026 but 4-year backdate open until 5 April 2030). The first issue of the Money Owed series. Sources: HMRC Non-structural tax relief statistics December 2024, LCP FOI 2023-24, NAO 2022, GOV.UK policy paper 2025. - [Worth a Letter](https://untap.money/journal/worth-a-letter): UK drivers receive about 23 million parking tickets a year. Around half of POPLA appeals are upheld in the motorist's favour, and 57 to 60 per cent of council appeals at the Traffic Penalty Tribunal and London Tribunals. Fewer than 1 in 100 issued tickets is ever appealed. Estimated £200-£400m a year overpaid. Sources: RAC Foundation 2023-24, DVLA 2023-24, POPLA Annual Report 2023, ParkingEye v Beavis [2015] UKSC 67. - [Three Hours, Six Years](https://untap.money/journal/three-hours-six-years): Around £1.7 billion in UK261 flight compensation goes unclaimed by UK air passengers each year. Anchored on Lipton v BA Cityflyer [2024] UKSC 24 (the July 2024 Supreme Court ruling that staff illness is not extraordinary circumstances) and the six-year claim window (Dawson v Thomson Airways). Sources: CAA, UK Supreme Court, Bott & Co. - [The Forgotten Tap](https://untap.money/journal/the-forgotten-tap): In 2023, TfL collected £164.7 million in maximum fares from passengers who didn't tap correctly, against 30.9 million incomplete journeys. Sources: TfL FOI-4311-2324, Mayor of London fares package 2025, TfL press release December 2024. - [Late Britain · The 2026 Rail Compensation Index](https://untap.money/rail-index): An audit of UK Delay Repay across 24 train operators for FY 2024 to 2025. Estimates roughly £80 million in unclaimed Delay Repay each year. Downloadable PDF report. Sources: ORR, individual TOC annual reports, CMA. ## Guides — recurring categories - [Train Delay Repay, explained](https://untap.money/guides/train-delay-repay): The 15-minute threshold, every operator's published schedule, what counts as a delay, deadlines, and how to claim from any UK train operator. - [UK261 flight compensation, explained](https://untap.money/guides/flight-compensation-uk261): When delayed or cancelled flights pay out, the 3-hour and distance-tier amounts, what airlines try to argue, and how to make a claim stick. - [TfL refunds, explained](https://untap.money/guides/tfl-refunds): Incomplete journeys, maximum fares, service-delay refunds, and the 8-week claim window. Card clash is no longer a separate TfL route: it is one of four listed causes of an incomplete journey, on the same 8-week deadline. - [TfL refund tools and routes](https://untap.money/guides/tfl-refund-tools): Transport for London's refunds hub now recognises exactly three routes: incomplete journey (8 weeks, wait 48 hours first because most are corrected automatically), service delay (28 days, 15 minutes on Tube and DLR, 30 minutes on London Overground and the Elizabeth line, and nothing at all on bus or tram), and unused credit or ticket (no fixed deadline, £10 or less refunded instantly at a Tube ticket machine). Oyster journey history stays visible online for 8 weeks, exactly the length of the incomplete-journey claim window. Compares the tools: Reeclaim and Mind the Delay both require live TfL account access, Resolver and MoneySavingExpert are free but detect nothing, and Untap's /tfl-check reads an uploaded statement with no account and nothing stored. TfL disclosure FOI-0359-2526, published 13 April 2026, puts £268 million on 92 million dormant Oyster cards as at 31 March 2025. - [Train delay claim tools, and which of them still exist](https://untap.money/guides/train-delay-claim-tools): Delay Repay Sniper, the tool most people still search for, was dissolved on 19 July 2024 (Companies House 08653481) and its domain now redirects to an unrelated hotel booking site. Delay Repay Genie has closed too. What is left: operators that pay with no action at all (c2c is the only one), operators that pre-fill a claim and email you to confirm, the free Rail Ombudsman route, and the paid apps that remain. The claim window is 28 days from travel on every operator. Season ticket refunds carry a £5 admin fee, halved from £10 on 1 April 2026. - [UK parking fines, explained](https://untap.money/guides/parking-fines-uk): The difference between council PCNs and private parking notices, the grounds that actually win an appeal, and the British Parking Association vs IPC distinction. ## Guides — one-off opportunities - [Marriage Allowance, explained](https://untap.money/guides/marriage-allowance): Up to £252 a year, four-year backdate, the eligibility rules, and the free HMRC form. - [Council Tax Single Person Discount](https://untap.money/guides/council-tax-single-person-discount): The 25% discount, who counts as a "disregarded" adult, backdating rules, and how to apply. - [Council Tax Wrong Band Challenge](https://untap.money/guides/council-tax-wrong-band): How the 1991 valuation works, the neighbour-comparison method, the risk of the band going up, and the VOA process. - [Tenancy Deposit Protection compliance](https://untap.money/guides/tenancy-deposit-protection): Housing Act 2004, the three approved schemes, the prescribed information rule, and the 1x to 3x penalty. - [Motor Finance Commission Redress](https://untap.money/guides/motor-finance-redress): The FCA confirmed its redress scheme on 30 March 2026 (policy statement PS26/3), covering agreements from 6 April 2007 to 1 November 2024. On 2 July 2026 the Upper Tribunal suspended the parts that let lenders calculate or pay redress, after challenges from CA Auto Finance, Consumer Voice, Mercedes-Benz Financial Services and Volkswagen Financial Services. As at 20 August 2026 it is still suspended and no payout date exists; the challenge is listed for December 2026 or February 2027. The FCA expects 12.1 million of the 32.9 million agreements written in the period to qualify, averaging about £830, £7.5 billion in total. The deadline to complain to your lender is 31 August 2027. - [Mastercard Merricks settlement](https://untap.money/guides/mastercard-class-action): The £200m fund, automatic eligibility for 46m UK adults, and the registration window. - [Working From Home tax relief](https://untap.money/guides/working-from-home-tax-relief): The narrow post-April-2022 rules, who can still claim, and the £6 per week relief. - [Uniform tax relief (FRE)](https://untap.money/guides/uniform-tax-relief): The flat-rate expense list, the standard £60 deduction, and the four-year backdate. - [Professional Subscriptions tax relief](https://untap.money/guides/professional-subscriptions-tax-relief): HMRC's approved list, how to claim, and how to keep claiming year after year. - [Water Surface Drainage Rebate](https://untap.money/guides/water-surface-drainage-rebate): When your home is not connected to a public sewer, how to prove it, and the £30 to £80 annual rebate. - [Smart meter installation £30 missed-appointment](https://untap.money/guides/smart-meter-missed-appointment): The Energy Ombudsman complaint route, the qualifying delays, and how to ask for the £30. - [Broadband and landline auto-compensation](https://untap.money/guides/broadband-auto-compensation): The Ofcom scheme, daily compensation rates, and the providers that signed up. - [How to check a car finance claim free](https://untap.money/guides/car-finance-claim-checker): There is no official tool that tells you whether you are owed car finance compensation, and no payout date, because a court suspended part of the FCA scheme on 2 July 2026. What you can do free today: find your lender on the FCA's own published list and complain to it, which is what the FCA advises. Compares that free route against claims firms and law firms, whose fees are capped by the FCA at 30 per cent (maximum £420) up to £1,499, sliding to 15 per cent above £50,000, with VAT often charged on top. - [Your landlord kept your deposit](https://untap.money/guides/landlord-kept-my-deposit): The three approved schemes all run a free dispute service, decided on the evidence you submit, with a target of about 28 days and a three-month window after you move out. Only about 1 per cent of protected deposits ever reach adjudication (46,950 cases against 4.7 million protected deposits), yet tenants who do get all or part of the money back around 90 per cent of the time on insured schemes. If the deposit was never protected, the county court penalty is one to three times the deposit on top of returning it, unchanged by the Renters' Rights Act 2025. - [Rent Repayment Orders](https://untap.money/guides/rent-repayment-order): The maximum award doubled from 12 to 24 months' rent on 1 May 2026, and the change is not retrospective: offences before that date keep the 12-month cap. Ten offences currently qualify. The award is discretionary, so the guide reports a ceiling rather than an expected figure. Tribunal fees are £114 to apply and £227 for a hearing, and both can be waived on a low income. - [Mileage tax relief, now 55p a mile](https://untap.money/guides/mileage-tax-relief): The approved mileage rate for using your own car or van at work rose from 45p to 55p on 6 April 2026, with 25p for every mile above 10,000. If your employer pays less, you can claim relief on the shortfall, but relief is a deduction from taxable income rather than a cheque, so what reaches you is the shortfall at your own marginal rate. Scotland's six income tax bands (19, 20, 21, 42, 45 and 48 per cent) give a different answer from the rest of the UK on identical mileage. - [Ferry delay compensation](https://untap.money/guides/ferry-delay-compensation): Four journey-length bands, the delays that trigger 25 per cent and 50 per cent of the fare, the meals and accommodation you are owed while waiting, the weather exemption, and where each UK operator takes claims. - [Coach delay compensation and the 250 km line](https://untap.money/guides/coach-delay-compensation): Coach delay rights apply only to scheduled services of 250 km or more, so most UK coach journeys carry no delay entitlement at all. The 50 per cent is owed where the operator fails to offer you the choice between rerouting and a refund, not automatically on any long delay. ## Guides — supporting articles - [What the UK owes you in 2026](https://untap.money/guides/money-the-uk-owes-you): A single roundup of every refund and compensation scheme available to UK adults this year, with realistic numbers and links to each detailed guide. - [Just moved house: a money checklist](https://untap.money/guides/just-moved-house-money-checklist): Council Tax exit refund, energy final bill, deposit protection check, mail forwarding, and the deadlines that matter. - [Cost of living UK 2026: what you can claim back](https://untap.money/guides/cost-of-living-claim-back-2026): The schemes most relevant to households watching every bill in 2026. - [How much UK adults leave unclaimed each year](https://untap.money/guides/how-much-uk-adults-leave-unclaimed): The published figures from the ORR, the CAA, HMRC, and TfL, with the methodology behind each one. - [Ways to claim flight compensation, compared](https://untap.money/guides/flight-compensation-tools): Claiming direct is free and the amount is fixed in law (£220, £350 or £520 by distance band), so every route is a question of how much you keep. Covers the airline's own process, the six-year limit in England and Wales and five in Scotland, the CAA's own complaints team, the two approved dispute schemes (CEDR upheld 73 per cent of cases in Q4 2025, AviationADR 38 per cent), small claims from a £35 issue fee, the free tools, and every paid firm with its own published fee and the pounds you keep at each band. - [What claims companies charge](https://untap.money/guides/claims-companies): Flight compensation firms publish fees of 35 to 42 per cent, and up to about half your money once VAT and legal escalation are counted. AirHelp charges 35 per cent including VAT; Bott and Co, a solicitors' firm regulated by the SRA rather than a claims company, charges 42 per cent plus VAT, about 50.4 per cent effective. What that costs in pounds, and the cases where it is still the right call. - [How to write to the phone or broadband ombudsman](https://untap.money/guides/phone-and-broadband-ombudsman): There is no single telecoms ombudsman. Two approved schemes share the work and your provider decides which one covers you. Find yours, then use the six-week rule that replaced the eight-week wait on 8 April 2026. - [How to write a complaint letter that works](https://untap.money/guides/how-to-write-a-complaint-letter): The structure that gets results, the regulators to escalate to, and the templates we use ourselves. ## About - [Why we built Untap](https://untap.money/story): The founder's note. Plain personal account of the small wins that motivated the product. - [Privacy policy](https://untap.money/privacy) - [Terms](https://untap.money/terms) - [Cookie policy](https://untap.money/cookies) ## What Untap is not We do not take a cut of any refund. We do not auto-file claims (we tell you what to send and where). We do not have access to your bank account. We are not regulated as a Claims Management Company because we do not act on your behalf for compensation. The current product is free while we work out a sensible business model.