Refund From Air Bnb

[iloveglee]

Here I am again asking questions, to which only the people on here appear to have answer to. probably from experience I expect.

I have a booking with air bnb which i am going to cancel. no issues here, I can do this and get a full refund. However, the card that I used to pay them was lost a few weeks ago, and replaced by the bank.

In the air bnb system the booking is linked to the invalid card, and there is no way to unlink it. I can add another card, but cannot delete the invalid card, or change where the refund will go.

Does anyone know, in the event of getting a refund to an invalid card, does this find its way to the replacement card. Have never had to do this before so not sure whether the new card is still linked somehow in the bank's system. I presume it must be somehow to stop fraudulent use but for refunds. ? not sure at all.

I would ring the bank, but it takes so long and is so complicated at the moment, I thought in the first instance I would ask if anyone else has had this kind of experience.

[Zacs-Master]

Credit card or debit card?

[woofgang]

I have but its years ago. The refund got bounced back to the payer. I think you will have to talk to your bank on this one. You might find it easier to use their email or chat service if there is one.

[Apc2604]

Something like this happened to me a few years back. The bank accepted the refund. I presume this happens a lot, due to card losses and card expiry dates.

[iloveglee]

It's a credit card. I've tweeted to the bank in the first instance, but the responses suggested they don't have the first clue what i'm talking about!!

What I was fearful of is that the payment would bounce back to air bnb and then what would happen to it. It's not that the credit card account is closed, it's an account in my husband's name, and I have a second card on this account. The second card is what has been replaced, but the actual card account is open.

Having looked at the replacement card, it's only the last 4 digits of the number that are different, and the number on the back. Sadly the bank has no effective chat system at the moment, it's just a bot, and they don't respond to emails.

When we reported the card lost, they froze the whole account, and I couldn't unfreeze it. In the end I had to ring them and it was such a performance, I feel like I don't want to go through it again any time soon.

But if I want my money back ....... maybe I'll have to!!

[Zacs-Master]

The credit card company will sort it. Money should be refunded onto your old credit card number which should automatically roll over as a credit for the new one. So contact your bank/credit card company and check this is the case.

[iloveglee]

I did manage to get an answer on twitter from the bank. At first they had no clue what I was talking about, I think they mistook the situation and thought that the whole credit card account had been closed, which is not the case. After much to-ing and fro-ing I think they got it, and said that yes, it should just go into the account.

Trying to get anywhere with air bnb was very challenging. Again because I don't think their live chat people have english as a first language. They must have some kind of translator but if its google translate, frankly i don't wonder they can't work out what you mean.

Air bnb's policy for anyone else who might come on here and wonder about it, is only to return to the card the booking was made on. Even if that card is now invalid for whatever reason, it can't be changed. They say to prevent fraud, which I can see, but given that you have to log into your account using a password, why you can't make this change yourself, using all the codes and information that you set it up with I don't know.

In the end, their live chat person put through a refund, even though I didn't ask them to, to the invalid card, so I am now waiting events. They also, in error, put through a payment, also to the invalid card, which obviously was declined. They keep trying to take this payment, even though the booking is now cancelled!! There is something not quite right in their system, which has surprised me because previously I have never had any kind of problem with them.

And all this because of a silly little virus with the potential to kill!!