A service contract is often signed at a counter, a kitchen table, or a closing, which is when a reader is least likely to read closely. Before you commit, find out how long you have to change your mind, what you must do to exit, and what comes back to you. Those answers sit in the contract, in the state law that governs it, and in the seller's cancellation terms. They are rarely the points a sales conversation covers.
Find the window in the paper
Look for a cancellation section, sometimes called a free look period. Note the stated length of time, whether it runs from the signing, from delivery of the signed copy, or from activation of coverage, and whether it counts calendar days or business days. Write the last day of the window on your own calendar, not the seller's. If the paper gives no window at all, do not assume one exists. Ask the seller to point to the sentence that gives it.
Ask how a cancellation is made
Ask whether the notice must be in writing, and to which address, email, or online form it must go. Ask whether a phone call counts. Ask whether the seller must receive the notice inside the window or only be sent it inside the window. A notice that is mailed late, or sent to the wrong place, can leave you holding a contract you meant to end.
Ask how any refund is figured
Refunds are often calculated by a pro-rata method, a short-rate method, or a schedule that deducts a claim already paid, an administrative charge, or both. Ask which method applies, what is deducted, how long the refund takes once the cancellation is received, and whether the money goes back to the card used or by another route. Get the answers in writing. This index does not publish contract figures, and the state rules and the published tables on this site are where any official numbers belong, so check them there rather than taking a figure from a sales sheet.
Check the waiting period and the transfer
A waiting period is the stretch after signing, or after a coverage start date, during which a claim is not paid. Ask whether one applies, what starts it, and whether it reaches back to a problem that began before the signing. Then ask whether the contract can move to a new owner if you sell the home or the vehicle. Ask whether the transfer restarts or ends the cancellation window, and whether a transfer fee applies. A contract that cannot move may give you a refund right at the moment of sale that you did not plan for.
Compare the paper to the state rules
State rules set minimums for some of these terms, and the rules differ from state to state. Each state page on this site names the regulator and the statute and says whether the state publishes a roster. Where a page says this edition has not read a rule, that gap is yours to close. Ask the seller for the citation the contract relies on, then check it with the regulator the page names. The Florida page and the Georgia page show how a state entry is laid out, which is a useful model for reading any state's rules.
Questions to take to the counter
Before you sign, ask where the cancellation window is written and when it ends. Ask how to cancel, in what form, and to whom. Ask which refund method applies and what it deducts. Ask whether a waiting period applies and what starts it. Ask whether the contract transfers to a new owner and what the transfer does to your rights. If the seller will not give a clear answer to any of these, treat the refusal as information. Keep the signed page and the cancellation section together in the same folder, and read them again before the window closes.