When you hail a ride with Uber, you can end the trip early by tapping a few buttons on your screen. The ride-hailing service doesn’t charge you for ending your trip early. But if you request another trip with Uber before the end of the first ride, you will be charged again. This article explains how to end an Uber trip without being charged again and what factors might influence whether or not you’re charged. It also covers the situations when it makes sense to continue your trip rather than ending it early. Whether or not you get charged for ending an Uber trip depends on where you are and how much time has passed since ordering the ride. Here is what you should know about canceling rides with Uber to avoid any unnecessary charges in the future.
How To Cancel Uber Ride Without Charge?
1. Cancel Your Ride Early if You Need to Leave
If you’re taking an Uber to a place where you need to leave early, such as an airport or train station, it doesn’t cost anything to end your trip early. As long as you cancel the ride before you reach your destination, then you won’t be charged for the full trip.
2. Avoid Canceling Rides at Peak Times
Canceling a ride early does not result in cancellation fees when the request is made during off-peak hours. This means that if your ride is scheduled between 2 a.m. and 4 a.m., or during any other time when demand is low, it won’t cost anything to cancel your trip early. However, canceling a ride that was ordered at peak times will incur cancellation fees of up to $5 per region depending on where you are in the world and which service plan you have with Uber.
3. Don’t Cancel Your Ride If You’re Running Late
If your driver hasn’t arrived in five minutes, then go ahead and cancel the ride without worrying about being charged for another one later on in the day or week. Uber will automatically credit your account for any rides canceled within five minutes of ordering them due to driver issues like traffic jams or bad weather conditions that make it impossible for them to arrive on time. If there’s no traffic or bad weather affecting your route and yet your driver hasn’t arrived within five minutes, then you can also cancel the ride without being charged.
4. Avoid Canceling Rides in the Middle of a Trip
If you’ve already started your trip and need to cancel it, then you will be charged a cancellation fee that varies based on your service plan and where you are in the world. For example, if you’re using UberX and you’re in New York City, then it will cost $5 to end a trip that’s between 0.1 miles and 2 miles away from where it was requested. The same fee applies for trips that are 2-10 miles away from where they were requested if you’re using UberX in San Francisco or Los Angeles. In all other regions where Uber operates, the cancellation fee is $8 per region if your trip is between 0.1 miles to 10 miles away from where it was requested. If your driver has already arrived at the pickup location by the time of cancellation, then there’s no charge for canceling your ride early because drivers don’t get paid for time spent waiting for passengers to arrive. However, any time spent driving towards the location after arriving at their destination does count against drivers’ pay rates so they will receive payment for those minutes whether or not passengers cancel their rides before they get there.
5 . Ignore Cancellation Fees When Rides Are Delayed or Drivers Are Unavailable
Uber recently updated its policy regarding cancellations due to driver unavailability or delays with rides so now most of the time you won’t be charged a cancellation fee if your driver is late or unavailable when you request a ride. The only time you’ll be charged is if your driver has already arrived at the pickup location by the time of cancellation and then you cancel the ride, in which case there’s no charge for canceling your ride early because drivers don’t get paid for time spent waiting for passengers to arrive. However, any time spent driving towards the location after arriving at their destination does count against drivers’ pay rates so they will receive payment for those minutes whether or not passengers cancel their rides before they get there.
6. Avoid Paying Tolls and Highways When You Order an Uber
Uber now lets users pay tolls and highway fees automatically on all rides that take place in certain major cities across the country like New York City and Boston. Users can enable this feature by opening the Uber app, clicking on Settings, clicking on Payment, and then checking the box next to “Tolls & Highways.” After that’s done, users can simply sit back and relax as their trip with Uber automatically deducts tolls from their accounts based on their service plan.
7. Don’t Drive Around With Friends or Family Members Before Rides Are Requested
If a friend or family member of yours is in need of a ride but hasn’t requested one yet, then don’t drive around with them unless they’re paying for it directly through Uber. If someone else requests an Uber ride while you’re with them in your car, then the fare for that ride will be charged to your account. This is because Uber treats all Uberpool rides as being requested by the person who’s paying for the ride, which in this case would be you.
8. Don’t Drive Your Car When You’re Not Available to Accept Rides
If you need to go somewhere but are unavailable to accept rides on Uber, then make sure you don’t drive your car until after you’ve finished going somewhere or have completed a task. If someone requests an Uber ride while you’re driving around and you accept it, then the fare for that ride will be charged to your account because it will look like you were accepting rides on Uber while you were behind the wheel even though that wasn’t actually the case.
9. Use Your Smartphone When You Accept Rides on Uber
Before accepting any new rides with Uber, make sure that your smartphone is turned on and ready so that it can quickly send a text message back to drivers when they request a ride from you. If your smartphone isn’t turned on and available when drivers request trips from you, then they’ll most likely cancel those requests after waiting five minutes without getting a response from you. This is because all drivers are paid at least $5 per trip whether or not passengers cancel their trips before they arrive. That means drivers have no incentive not to cancel trips if passengers don’t respond in time, which means passengers have no incentive not to accept rides when they’re ready but aren’t able to respond to new requests from drivers.
10. Take Advantage of Uber’s “Destination” Feature
If you’re going somewhere that’s a popular destination for Uber riders, then make sure to use the “Destination” feature when you accept rides. The “Destination” feature allows you to tell Uber where you’re going so that it can send a notification to all drivers in the area, not just the one who requested your ride. This means that more drivers will be able to see your destination and hopefully request a trip from you as a result. When choosing a destination, be sure to choose something specific like an address or intersection rather than something vague like “downtown.” The reason being is that this will help minimize the number of drivers who are sent on wild goose chases while trying to find you.
What Happens When You End An Uber Trip Early?
- If you end your trip early to take a different ride, you will not be charged a cancellation fee.
- If you end your trip early to walk somewhere, you will not be charged a cancellation fee.
- If you end your trip early because of an emergency situation, you will not be charged a cancellation fee.
- However, if the driver has already arrived and is waiting for you at your destination and you call the driver to cancel the ride before he/she has arrived at your location, then that is considered a no-show and there will be a cancellation fee of $5-$10 depending on where in the U.S. or Canada that you are riding in.
- If the driver has already arrived at your location when calling to cancel and he/she had been waiting for more than 5 minutes before being called by Uber customer service to confirm that he/she needs assistance with anything, then there is also going to be a $5-$10 cancellation fee as well (no-show).
- If you are on an UberPOOL (group ride) and need to get out, but don’t want to wait for another rider(s) or don’t want others in the car with you anymore then there is going to be a $3-$4 fee added on top of whatever fare was previously charged for getting out of the vehicle (this does NOT apply if it was originally an UberX ride).
When It Makes Sense To Continue Your Trip?
- If you don’t want to wait for another UberX driver, but there is a carpool option available called UberPOOL, then it’s probably better to just take that ride and share the cost with another rider or two.
- If you’re already on your way to your destination and the fare is going to be expensive anyway, then it makes sense to finish out your trip.
- If you’re not in a rush and plan on being out for a long time, then it’s probably better to finish out your trip so that you don’t lose any time from when you started the ride.
- If there were an accident or traffic issues along the way (or something else unexpected) which caused a delay in getting somewhere, then it might make sense to finish out the trip so that you can get back on track with whatever plans you had made before taking an Uber ride in the first place.
- If there was something taken from your car (phone/wallet/keys etc.) while driving with Uber and the driver already dropped you off at home/work/etc., then it might make sense to finish out your trip so that he can go back and try to find whatever was lost during his shift before getting deactivated by Uber as a result of losing something valuable like that while giving rides for them.
Wrapping Up
Uber allows you to cancel your ride before you’ve reached your destination, but it’s important to understand when you will be charged for ending your ride early. You can avoid being charged a cancellation fee if you end your ride before you’re en route to your destination. If you want to save money on rides, you can try out one of these money-saving hacks to lower your Uber expenses. These hacks can save you a lot of money over time, especially if you use them frequently.
