Terms of service
1. Who we are
Postio is a trading name of Onno Group Limited, registered in England & Wales (company no. 08622799). Registered office: Suite 22 Trym Lodge, 1 Henbury Road, Westbury-On-Trym, Bristol BS9 3HQ. In these terms, "we", "us" and "Postio" mean Onno Group Limited, and "you" means the person or company using the service.
2. The agreement
These terms govern your use of the Postio API and dashboard at postio.co.uk. By creating an account or calling the API with a valid key, you agree to them. The following also form part of this agreement: our PAF End User Terms at postio.co.uk/paf-end-user-terms (which govern your use of Royal Mail address data and are required by Royal Mail); our Privacy & cookies policy at postio.co.uk/privacy; and, where we process personal data on your behalf, our Data Processing Addendum at postio.co.uk/data-processing-addendum. Where the PAF End User Terms conflict with anything else in this agreement on the use of Royal Mail PAF data, the PAF End User Terms take precedence.
3. The service
Postio provides UK address lookup, email validation, and phone validation APIs on a pay-per-request basis. Current per-request prices are published at postio.co.uk/#pricing and debited from a prepaid balance; we may change them with notice as set out below. Prices are exclusive of any applicable VAT.
4. Your account and authorised users
You're responsible for keeping your API keys secret. Treat them like passwords. We log every request made with them — if a key is compromised, rotate it from the dashboard. You're liable for all usage under your keys until they're revoked. "Users" means the individuals you authorise to use the service through your account. You're responsible for making sure your Users keep to this agreement and the PAF End User Terms, and for everything done under your account.
5. Royal Mail PAF data and licensing
Postio's UK address data comes from Royal Mail's Postcode Address File (PAF®). Onno Group Limited is a licensed Royal Mail PAF Solutions Provider: we hold a PAF Data Solutions Provider Licence and a PAF Data Supply Agreement directly with Royal Mail Group Limited, and we source PAF data directly under those agreements. We do not sub-license PAF data through another provider.
Because PAF data reaches you through our service, Royal Mail requires that your use of it is governed by its end-user terms. We pass those down to you as the PAF End User Terms at postio.co.uk/paf-end-user-terms. They form part of this agreement and bind you and your Users. If you don't accept them, you can't use the address service.
You acknowledge that: Royal Mail is the owner of all intellectual property rights in PAF data and the PAF brand; Royal Mail may enforce the PAF End User Terms against you directly and recover any losses it incurs (you agree Royal Mail has this right under the Contracts (Rights of Third Parties) Act 1999); and you consent to us giving Royal Mail your business details and a summary of your usage where Royal Mail reasonably requires it to verify compliance, and to Royal Mail contacting you about it.
6. Acceptable use
Don't use the API for fraud, spam targeting, stalking, harassment, or anything that breaks UK law. Because the address service uses Royal Mail PAF data, you must also keep to the PAF End User Terms — in particular, don't copy, extract, resell, republish or publicly display PAF data except as those terms allow, don't use it to build a competing product, and don't try to reverse-engineer the underlying data files. Don't use automated means to scrape or bulk-harvest responses beyond your purchased lookups. We can suspend or terminate accounts that breach this clause, without refund of prepaid balance.
7. Payment
Payments are processed by Stripe Payments Europe Limited. We never see or store full card numbers; we hold a Stripe customer id plus the card brand and last four digits. By topping up, you authorise Stripe to charge your stored card under these terms and its own terms of service. Top-ups are non-refundable while the account is open, but any remaining balance is refunded to the original payment card when you close the account.
8. Chargebacks and disputes
If you dispute a charge, please contact us via postio.co.uk/contact first — we'll usually resolve it within 2 working days. Raising a chargeback without contacting us, or raising a chargeback for a charge that was clearly authorised and consumed as API usage, is a breach of these terms and will result in account suspension and a block from future signups.
9. SLA and credits
99.99% monthly uptime on the API. If we miss it in any month, contact us via postio.co.uk/contact with the affected period and we will credit a pro-rata percentage of that month's spend back to your balance, cross-checked against the public status page. Credits are the exclusive remedy for downtime. The SLA excludes scheduled maintenance announced at least 24 hours in advance, force majeure, and failures caused by your own misuse.
10. Liability
To the fullest extent permitted by law, our total liability to you is capped at the greater of £100 or the amount you paid us in the prior 12 months. We're not liable for indirect, consequential or special losses, loss of profits, or loss of data. Nothing in these terms limits liability for death or personal injury caused by negligence, or for fraud. Royal Mail does not warrant the accuracy or completeness of PAF data, and we pass that position through: the address data is supplied as-is, as a best-effort snapshot of Royal Mail's files, not legal, safety or financial advice — don't rely on it as your sole basis for a decision of that kind without your own checks. Nothing in these terms limits Royal Mail's rights to enforce the PAF End User Terms against you, or your liability to Royal Mail under them.
11. Suspension and termination
We can suspend or terminate your account, without refund of prepaid balance, if you breach this agreement or the PAF End User Terms. Royal Mail can also require us to act: if you breach the PAF End User Terms and that breach can be fixed but you don't fix it within 20 working days of us asking, then on Royal Mail's request we must end your right to use PAF data. Where Royal Mail requires it, or where the breach can't be fixed, we may end your access immediately.
If your right to use PAF data ends, you must stop using it and destroy any copies you hold, and confirm in writing within 7 days that you've done so. You may keep one archive copy solely to check compliance, meet a legal or regulatory requirement, or for legal proceedings. If you cause us to incur a charge or penalty from Royal Mail through your non-compliance, you'll reimburse us that amount on request.
If our own licence with Royal Mail ends for any reason, we'll tell you. Your right to use PAF data then continues only until the last day of the wind-down period Royal Mail allows (currently up to 12 months from the end date), after which the destroy-and-confirm obligation above applies. You can close your account at any time; we refund any remaining prepaid balance to your original payment card.
12. Complaints
Send complaints via postio.co.uk/contact with "complaint" in the message. We acknowledge within 2 working days and aim to resolve within 10 working days. If you're not happy with the resolution, you can escalate in writing to the registered office.
13. Changes
We can update these terms with 30 days' notice to your registered email. Continued use after that counts as acceptance. If you disagree, close the account — your balance will be refunded. Royal Mail can change its PAF terms on notice to us; where that happens we'll update the PAF End User Terms to match and tell you in the same way.
14. Governing law
These terms are governed by English law. Any disputes go to the courts of England and Wales.
15. Contact
postio.co.uk/contact — chat or message us there. We aim to respond within 2 working days.