Medical Alert Cancellation Policies

Almost nobody reads the cancellation terms before they order a medical alert system, and then a parent moves into assisted living, or dies, and the bill keeps arriving. On 17 September 2026 we read the cancellation and return pages that Bay Alarm Medical, Medical Guardian, MobileHelp and Lively publish on their own websites. Everything below comes from those pages. Where a company does not publish something, we say that instead of filling the gap from a comparison site.

Marketing copy about “no contracts” tells you very little. These four points decide what cancelling costs you.

• Are unused months prorated back? If you paid a year up front and cancel in March, does the balance return, and what gets subtracted before it does.
• Does the equipment have to go back? Most base units are leased rather than sold, so cancelling means packing and shipping hardware, usually at your cost.
• How long is the return window? A trial period is the window in which you can send the device itself back and walk away, and it is short.
• How much does the provider publish? A policy you can read before you order is worth more than a reassuring sentence from a salesperson.

Bay Alarm Medical publishes more detail than the other three, and the detail is specific enough to plan around. Its pricing FAQ says: “You may cancel your Bay Alarm Medical subscription at any time and we will refund any unused months less shipping costs.” There is a 15-day trial period that starts the date the system arrives, and the company states it has no long-term contracts and no cancellation fees.

Prepaid plans get their own paragraph: “If you purchase a quarterly or annual plan and cancel early, we will prorate and refund any unused months minus shipping and/or any free month promotions. Please note that we require 3 months of paid service for free shipping and 11 months of paid service for a free month.” In plain terms, the promotions that made the plan attractive are conditional on staying, and leaving early claws them back.

Hardware comes back. Bay Alarm states that “SOS Home consoles are leased free of charge but must be returned upon subscription cancellation.” You cancel by phone, and the device ships to 1140 Galaxy Way, Suite #150, Concord, CA 94520. Read our full Bay Alarm Medical review for how the service itself performs.

Medical Guardian's policy page confirms the refund principle: “Upon receipt of either the equipment or the executed Cancellation Letter a prorated refund will be issued for the unused service period that may have been prepaid.” Two things follow from that sentence. The refund is prorated, which is good, and the clock is tied to Medical Guardian receiving something from you, so a slow return slows the refund.

The equipment charges are the part to note before you order. The policy states that “a lost or damaged equipment fee of up to $350 will be charged” for most devices, and that “up to $150 will be charged for the Alert 911.” If a pendant has gone missing in a house move or a hospital stay, that is a real number.

MobileHelp's return policy is short and mostly about logistics. It states that “returning the equipment and accessories is at your expense,” that “a prorated refund will be issued for unused service that may have been prepaid,” and that “service will be cancelled effective the day the system is received at our location.”

That last line is the one families get caught by. Calling to cancel does not stop the billing. The system arriving at MobileHelp stops the billing. If you are cancelling at the end of a prepaid period, ship early and keep the tracking number.

As with Medical Guardian, third-party summaries quote a restocking fee and a non-return charge for MobileHelp that do not appear on the return-policy page itself, so we are leaving those numbers out. See our MobileHelp review for the equipment and pricing picture.

Lively, whose current medical alert device is the Lively Mobile2, gives the longest return window of the four: 30 days from receipt, with the item in original condition and original packaging. A $10 restocking fee applies, and shipping charges are not refundable. You cancel by calling 1-800-733-6632, returns are at your expense, Lively does not begin processing a refund until the device is received, and a refund can take up to 21 business days.

The distinctive term is what happens to the current month. For contracted services Lively does not bill for partial months, which means a mid-cycle cancellation is not prorated and you owe the full billing cycle. Time your call for the end of a cycle. Our Lively review covers the device and the plan tiers.

Bay Alarm Medical publishes the most and prorates unused months, with the caveat that promotional shipping and free-month offers are clawed back if you leave early. Medical Guardian and MobileHelp both prorate prepaid service, which is the substantive protection, while leaving minimum-term and restocking details off their own policy pages. Lively is the most explicit about a term that costs you money: contracted service is not prorated, so the month you cancel in is a month you pay for.

We treat the willingness to publish as part of the product. A company that puts its refund arithmetic on a public page has already told you what happens in the worst month of your parent's year. A company that leaves it to a phone call has not.

Ask these on the sales call, and write down the answers with the date and the name of the person who gave them.

1. If I cancel in month two of an annual plan, exactly how many months do you refund, and what do you subtract first?
2. Which pieces of equipment are leased and have to come back to you, and what do you charge if one is lost or damaged?
3. Is there a minimum number of paid months before I can cancel without losing a promotion or free shipping?
4. Is there a restocking fee, and does it apply to the base unit, the accessories, or both?
5. Who pays return shipping, and what address does the device go to?
6. On what date does billing actually stop: the day I call, or the day you receive the device?
7. How long does the refund take once you have the equipment back?

Because we have not read their cancellation policies at the source. This page covers four providers and no more. We publish a policy only when we have read it on the provider's own site, and paraphrasing a comparison site's summary of somebody else's contract is how wrong numbers spread. For what we have verified about Life Alert's pricing and terms, see our Life Alert cost page. When we have read the remaining policies at the source, they will be added here.