Credit Card Refunds

[iloveglee]

I am asking on here, first of all just in case anyone knows the answer. Before attempting the soul destroying challenge of getting through to my bank.

Just recently, we have been receiving a lot of refunds for stuff, holidays days etc that have been cancelled. It appears that in any charging period when you get a refund, the card company takes a reduced amount via your direct debit, to allow for the fact that a payment has already been made, i.e. the refund.

This month I noticed that indeed the payment taken (I should say I pay in full every month and the direct debit is set up that way), was £200 less than the amount of the previous months spending, as I had a refund of £200. But looking at the new balance to be paid next month, it's the transactions made, plus an amount of £200 which had been deducted from the payment due. I have now looked back over previous months, and the same thing has happened. The following month the payment taken was the previous months transactions, plus the refund amount.

This can't possibly be right, and I must be missing something but I can't think what it can possibly be. I also noticed that, some months I get some cash back and the exact same thing happens. If there's anyone out there that can explain how the spending/paying/refund to credit cards happens I'd be grateful to know.

[ToraToraTora]

I'm confused by your terminology. Yes if you get a credit to your account in any period that will be deducted from your normal payment. Lets assume payment in full. Lets say your statement before any credit was £300 to pay, and you have until the due day to pay, now you get a refund of £200 so when the due date arrives you only owe £100 and that is paid by DD. The next statement will show the £200 credit and also the £100 credit that is the payment so the new Balance would be £300 - £200 - £100 +£n - N being what you have spent since the last statement. and that will be on the new statement. Now look at the statement and check that is what happened, does the arithmetic work out? remember the £200 and £100 will be shown as credits not debits.

[iloveglee]

Yes that's what you'd think. But this is how it's showing, and has done so in the same way for several months if ever there was a refund.

For example, in the last charging period, which was 22nd august to 22nd september , my spending was £790, which was due to be paid on 16th october, and indeed it was paid on that date via direct debit.
During that charging period, I had a refund of £200, so on the due date the amount paid on the direct debit was £590. Which is correct so far.

The statement I just received which was from 22nd september to 22nd october has £500 of new spending. What shows on the statement is previous balance 790 , payments received 590. New transactions 500, your new balance 700 due to be paid 16th november.This has happened over the course of several months whenever there has been a refund and on every occasion, had I realised at the time, was reflected in new transactions, plus the amount of the credit that was deducted from the previous payment.

It all sounds rather complicated I know, and I just can't work out how this works, because it looks as though the refund is applied to the payment due during the next month, and then added back on to the payment due the month after that.

The bank has a live chat except that it's a bot so you can't get it to understand what it is you want.

[bednobs]

i am findingit difficult to follow.
Can you scan in a bill to show us (covering up the bits you dont want us to see>?)

[iloveglee]

I'll try to do that, I know it sounds a bit complicated. I can print off and scan the document, although I'm not sure how to upload that on to this website, I've never done it before.

[ToraToraTora]

so is the refund of £200 from expenditure on a previous statement? If you could scan in the statement that would help. cover up Identifying text etc

[bobbinwales]

Just redone it and your right TTT, my memory played tricks

[ToraToraTora]

just take a picture with your phone and edit and upload here
https://imgbb.com/ - no need to set up an account.

[bobbinwales]

sorry TT that was for your other excel calculation

[ToraToraTora]

wrong thread bob?

[Hopkirk]

I'm not sure why you are worrying, it will all work out correctly in the end.

If you ring the bank, it won't change anything.

[iloveglee]

Normally I would have said yes it will all work out right in the end, but I have had so many refunds in the past few months (lucky me eh), and every single time, the payment due from the direct debit has been reduced by the amount of the refund, then added to the following month's payment due. And that larger payment has indeed been taken.

I think I do need to speak to a person and not a chatbot!! The ones on the bank website, not people on here!!

[bobbinwales]

It dont sound right. Hopefully its just a misreading

[ToraToraTora]

"he payment due from the direct debit has been reduced by the amount of the refund, then added to the following month's payment due." - so it's the payment due that worries you, not the balance, is the balance correct?

[bobbinwales]

Is it just the same £200 amount that keep's showing in your due payment or are all the other credits been treated in the same way

[iloveglee]

I have managed to get a person on the live chat. not sure how helpful this is as the system keeps logging me out. What they're telling me is that the statement I get this month showing how much I owe next month is not accurate, and all will be made right the month after that.

So without I go through every statement and check what happens the month after the month I got the refund I'm not going to be able to tell what's going on. I have been getting refunds almost every month for a few months now, so it's really complicated to work out.

[ToraToraTora]

the arithmetic will be correct, just go through each item on the statement and understand where it comes from. Is the balance correct in your opinion? Is it just a case of confusion over the calculated payment amount?

[THECORBYLOON]

They said the latest statement was wrong but did they check the previous statements where you said a similar thing had happened?

[THECORBYLOON]

TORATORATORA, how can the maths be accurate when the bank has said this month's statement is not accurate?

[bednobs]

can i ask whic CC it is?
i recently had a problem when i paid off my CC (by balance transfer) well within the month, but got stung for interest charges the following month
this was tesco

[iloveglee]

It's santander, and how they charge, and take payment is very very complicated and confusing. Especially when it comes to manual payments and refunds. The chat guy assures me that it doesn't always reflect accurately on the current statement shown, but does the following month!! Make of that what you will.

I am going to go through all the statements where I know I have had a refund, and look what happened the month the payment was reduced because of it, and what happened the following month.

We use this card a lot, and since the pandemic as you can imagine for multiple small payments, so it's a job of work going through them. And I should check them myself regularly and I don't. I no longer get paper statements, when I did I automatically went through them when they arrived, now I have to make the effort to log in to the website and look at them.

We have taken the decision not to use this card at all for the forseeable future, until we see how this has all worked out. Fortunately we have another one we can use. Normally, the transactions from one month get paid off the next and it's all very straightforward, but seems as though when refunds come into it's not so much.