Terms of Service

1. About These Terms

These Terms of Service ("Terms") apply to your use of FindGrinds at findgrinds.ie (the "Service"). FindGrinds is operated by Matthew Callinan Keenan, a sole trader based in Ireland trading as FindGrinds ("we", "our", or "us").

By creating an account or using the Service, you agree to these Terms. If you do not agree, please do not use the Service. Our Privacy Policy explains how we handle your personal data.

If you are a consumer, nothing in these Terms affects your statutory rights under Irish or EU consumer law, including the Consumer Rights Act 2022.

2. What FindGrinds Does

FindGrinds is an online marketplace that connects students and parents with independent tutors for Junior Certificate and Leaving Certificate grinds in Ireland. Through the Service you can:

• Search for tutors and view their profiles, rates and reviews
• Book and pay for one-to-one online, one-to-one in-person, and online group sessions
• Take online sessions through our built-in video calls
• Message tutors through our in-app messaging
• Buy and download study resources created by tutors
• Leave reviews and raise disputes

Tutors are independent. They are not our employees, agents or contractors, and they decide how they teach. The agreement for tutoring is between you and the tutor. We are not a party to it, but we collect payment on the tutor's behalf through Stripe, and we run the cancellation, refund and dispute processes described in these Terms.

3. Your Account

3.1 Account types

• Student: someone looking for tutoring or study resources
• Parent: a parent or guardian who books and oversees tutoring for their child
• Tutor: someone offering tutoring sessions and study resources

3.2 Your responsibilities

When you create an account, you agree to:

• Give accurate, current and complete information, including your real name and date of birth
• Keep your password secure and not share your account
• Tell us straight away if you think someone else has accessed your account
• Take responsibility for everything done through your account

Once your date of birth has been saved it cannot be changed from your account. If it is wrong, contact us and we will correct it.

4. Students Under 18 and Parents

If you are under 18, you must have permission from a parent or guardian to use FindGrinds. We strongly encourage parents to link their account to their child's account.

4.1 Linking accounts

A student generates a one-time link code from their dashboard, and their parent or guardian enters it in their own account. Once linked, the parent can:

• See the student's sessions, purchases and spending
• Read all of the student's conversations with tutors
• Message tutors on the student's behalf
• Book sessions and buy resources for the student

By linking, the student agrees that their parent can see this information. A parent who books or pays for sessions is responsible for those bookings.

4.2 Messaging limits for under-18s

Students under 18 who do not have a linked parent can only send tutors a set of pre-written messages. Free-text messaging is unlocked once a parent links their account. Tutors must never ask a student to get around this limit.

5. Safety: Keep Everything on FindGrinds

Keeping conversations, lessons and payments on FindGrinds is central to keeping students safe. Everyone who uses the Service agrees to the following rules.

• All contact between tutors and students (or their parents) must happen through FindGrinds messaging, and all online lessons must use FindGrinds video calls
• Tutors must not ask for or share personal contact details (such as phone numbers, email addresses or social media accounts), or ask to move a conversation to another app, particularly with a student under 18
• All payments for sessions booked through FindGrinds must be made through FindGrinds. Asking for, offering or accepting payment in cash, by bank transfer or through any other service is not allowed
• Tutors must never ask a student to keep anything secret from their parents or guardians

5.1 How we monitor messages

Messages from tutors to students under 18 are automatically checked for signs of an attempt to move contact off FindGrinds, such as sharing a phone number or social media handle. Messages that are flagged are not blocked, but are sent to our team for review. Any user can report a message from their inbox. We review every report and may suspend or remove accounts that break these rules.

5.2 In-person sessions

For in-person sessions, the tutor and the student or parent arrange the location through FindGrinds messaging. We recommend meeting in a safe, public place such as a library, or at home with a parent present. We do not supervise in-person sessions and are not responsible for what happens at them, except as set out in Section 17.

6. Tutors

6.1 Your obligations

As a tutor, you agree to:

• Give accurate information about your qualifications, experience and subjects
• Turn up to and deliver the sessions you are booked for, as advertised
• Behave professionally and appropriately with every student, especially students under 18
• Follow the safety rules in Section 5
• Comply with all laws that apply to you, including any Garda vetting requirements
• Handle your own tax affairs and declare your earnings. You are not our employee

6.2 Verification

Qualifications on tutor profiles are provided by the tutor and are not checked by us. Tutors can upload a Garda vetting document. A "Garda vetted" badge is only shown once our team has reviewed that document. Paid Featured badges (Section 10) show a tutor's subscription, not a verification.

6.3 Getting paid

To receive bookings you must set up a payout account with our payment provider, Stripe, and agree to the Stripe Connected Account Agreement. Stripe may ask you for identity information to meet its legal obligations.

7. Bookings and Payments

7.1 Prices

Tutors set their own hourly rates. The price of a session is the tutor's hourly rate (or group rate, for group sessions) multiplied by the length of the session. Sessions are booked in 30-minute steps. Students and parents pay no booking fees on top of the price shown.

7.2 One-to-one sessions

One-to-one sessions, online or in person, are paid in full when you book. Your booking is confirmed once payment goes through.

7.3 Group sessions

Group sessions need a minimum number of students, set by the tutor. When you reserve a place, your card is saved but not charged. Everyone who has reserved is charged once the minimum is reached. If the minimum has not been reached 24 hours before the session starts, the session is cancelled automatically and nobody is charged.

7.4 How payment works

All payments are processed by Stripe. We never see or store your full card details. When you pay, the tutor's share (the price minus our platform fee) is transferred to the tutor's Stripe account. If a refund is later given, the refunded amount is taken back from the tutor's share and our fee in proportion.

8. Cancellations, Refunds and Disputes

8.1 If the tutor cancels

You always get a full refund.

8.2 If you cancel

Each tutor sets a cancellation policy, shown on their profile before you book:

• A notice period of 6, 12, 24, 48 or 72 hours
• If you cancel before the notice period starts, you get a full refund
• If you cancel later than that, you get the tutor's late-cancellation refund, which is 0%, 25%, 50%, 75% or 100% of the price

Cancelling a group reservation before you have been charged costs nothing. Refunds go back to the card you paid with.

8.3 Disputes

If a tutor does not show up, or a session was seriously below what was advertised, you can raise a dispute from your dashboard after the session. Both you and the tutor can give your side and upload evidence. Our team will review it and decide whether to give a refund. This does not affect your statutory rights.

9. Platform Fees

Tutors pay us a platform fee, which is taken from their earnings:

• Tutoring sessions: 15% of the session price
• Study resource sales: 15% of the sale price

Referral offer: there is no platform fee (0%) on sessions with a student who signed up through the tutor's own invite link, or whose parent did. This applies to sessions scheduled before 1 July 2027.

10. Featured Tutor Subscriptions

Tutors can use FindGrinds for free, or subscribe to a paid Featured plan (Professional or Enterprise) at the prices shown on our Featured Listings page. Featured plans give higher placement in search results (see Section 13) and a Featured badge. The Enterprise plan also lets you show an organisation name and website.

• Subscriptions are billed monthly through Stripe and renew automatically
• You can cancel at any time. Your plan stays active until the end of the period you have paid for, then returns to the free plan
• We do not normally refund part-used periods, but we may do so at our discretion
• If a payment fails, your plan may be downgraded to free

Free Professional month: tutors who qualify through our referral offer can start a free 30-day trial of the Professional plan. You must add a card to start the trial. Unless you cancel before the trial ends, you will be charged the standard Professional price each month after that.

11. Study Resources

11.1 For tutors selling resources

You may only upload material that you created or have the right to sell. It must be accurate and suitable for students. Resources are published straight away without review by us, but we may remove any resource that breaks these Terms. You keep ownership of your resources. You give buyers the licence described below, and give us permission to display, store and deliver them. Buyers keep access to resources they have already bought, even if you later remove the resource or close your account.

11.2 For buyers

When you buy a resource, you get a personal, non-transferable licence to download it and use it for your own study. You may not share, resell, copy for others, or publish it.

Resources are digital content that you can download straight away. If you ask for immediate access when you buy, you lose your 14-day right to withdraw from the purchase once the download is available to you. If a resource is faulty or not as described, report it from your dashboard. We will review it and give a refund where appropriate. This does not affect your statutory rights.

12. Reviews

Students can leave one review for each session after it has taken place. Reviews must be honest, based on your own experience, and must not contain abusive language or personal information. Reviews are shown with your first name and last initial. Tutors can report a review they believe breaks these rules, and we may remove it. We do not edit reviews, and we do not remove reviews just because they are negative.

13. How Search Results Are Ranked

By default, tutor search results are ordered first by Featured plan (tutors on paid plans appear higher), then by rating. The rating takes into account how many reviews a tutor has, so that a small number of reviews does not count as much. You can also sort and filter results in other ways, such as by price.

14. Video Sessions

Online sessions take place on video calls hosted by FindGrinds through our video provider. We do not record sessions. You must not record a session, or take screenshots of other participants, without the consent of everyone in it, and of a parent or guardian for any student under 18.

15. AI Assistant

Our AI chat assistant can help you find tutors and resources and answer questions about FindGrinds. Its answers are automated and may sometimes be wrong. Check important details, such as prices and availability, on the relevant page. Do not share personal or sensitive information with the assistant.

16. Prohibited Conduct

You must not:

• Break the safety rules in Section 5
• Harass, bully, threaten, or behave inappropriately towards anyone, especially a minor
• Pretend to be someone else, or give false information about yourself or your qualifications
• Arrange to pay or be paid outside FindGrinds for sessions found through FindGrinds
• Post fake reviews, or pressure anyone to change a review
• Upload content you do not have the rights to, or that is unlawful or inappropriate
• Upload malicious files or send spam
• Access or try to access other people's accounts
• Scrape the Service or collect other users' data
• Use the Service for anything unlawful

17. Our Liability

We work hard to keep FindGrinds safe and running, but we do not guarantee the quality or results of any tutoring, exam results, the accuracy of what tutors say about themselves (beyond what we have verified), or that the Service will always be available.

Tutors are responsible for the sessions they deliver. To the extent the law allows, we are not liable for any loss arising from a tutor's or another user's conduct, or for indirect or consequential loss.

Nothing in these Terms limits or excludes our liability for death or personal injury caused by our negligence, for fraud, or for anything else that cannot be limited or excluded under Irish law, including your rights as a consumer.

18. Suspension and Closing Your Account

We may suspend or close an account, or remove a listing, resource or review, if we reasonably believe the user has broken these Terms, put someone at risk, or acted unlawfully. Where it is safe and lawful to do so, we will tell you why. Tutors will be told the reasons and can ask us to review the decision.

You can delete your account from your account settings. You will need to cancel or complete any upcoming sessions first. When your account is deleted, your personal data is removed or anonymised as described in our Privacy Policy.

19. Complaints and Governing Law

If you have a problem, please contact us first at support@findgrinds.ie and we will try to sort it out. These Terms are governed by Irish law. The Irish courts have jurisdiction, but if you are a consumer living elsewhere in the EU you may also bring proceedings in your own country.

20. Changes to These Terms

We may update these Terms from time to time. We will tell you about significant changes by email or with a notice on the Service before they take effect. Tutors will get at least 15 days' notice of changes that affect them. If you keep using the Service after changes take effect, you accept the updated Terms. If you do not agree, you can close your account.

21. Contact Us

For questions about these Terms of Service: