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Credit Card Refunds
26 Answers
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.
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.
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The refunds both came through in early october, one of them a couple of days after the other. One of them caused the direct debit to be reduced when the payment was taken, the other didn't. ?Maybe it came too close to the date when the direct debit begins to be processed.
It's a computer that works it out certainly. Although a computer is only as good as the people who write the software and input the data.
I have got an annual statement of the credit card transactions, it shows the spending, the fees and the direct debit payments. It doesn't show refunds and cash back payments. I've no idea why.
It may be a little while before I can do a proper reconciliation of the past year plus a week or so spending and payments, as I have stopped using the card for now. The last few transactions came into the charging period that will be paid in december, so by then I should have a better idea of what's going on.
Unfortunately the account only shows the current year's annual statement, october 2020 to october 2021. So I can't look back at the previous year to see how that all added up. I really do think credit card transactions/payments are set up to be as complicated and confusing as possible, and the person on the live chat agreed. I'm not at all sure he quite got what I was trying to say, so we left it that if things didn't work out as I had expected, I would do battle with the customer services on the phone. When I have a day to spare.
It's a computer that works it out certainly. Although a computer is only as good as the people who write the software and input the data.
I have got an annual statement of the credit card transactions, it shows the spending, the fees and the direct debit payments. It doesn't show refunds and cash back payments. I've no idea why.
It may be a little while before I can do a proper reconciliation of the past year plus a week or so spending and payments, as I have stopped using the card for now. The last few transactions came into the charging period that will be paid in december, so by then I should have a better idea of what's going on.
Unfortunately the account only shows the current year's annual statement, october 2020 to october 2021. So I can't look back at the previous year to see how that all added up. I really do think credit card transactions/payments are set up to be as complicated and confusing as possible, and the person on the live chat agreed. I'm not at all sure he quite got what I was trying to say, so we left it that if things didn't work out as I had expected, I would do battle with the customer services on the phone. When I have a day to spare.
Just an update on this. I have finally, with some difficulty managed to work out how this all happens. Part of the problem has been that I don't get a paper statement, so don't always look at the online as closely as maybe I should.
So, when you get your monthly statement the figure that shows as your spending for the month, has all the refunds taken off it, so you've actually spent more than the figure showing. So far, so straightforward. But, if, during the current charging period, if you get a refund before your regular monthly payment from the previous month goes out, they take that amount from your payment, so you pay less than the monthly spend for that month.
Again so far so good. But because then in the next month, your monthly spend has had the refunds taken from it, it appears that you have had the refund twice. So the amount of the refund is added back into the total. Why on earth they do it that way I don't know. I have looked at the other credit cards and they don't do it that way. They deduct your refund from your spend for that month, but they don't count any of it towards the payment from before. So it's more easy to understand.
Anyway, the upshot of all this, the accounting was right. I didn't want to re-start paper statements, waste of paper, and then you have to shred it, but I am looking a bit more carefully at the ones I get online.
So, when you get your monthly statement the figure that shows as your spending for the month, has all the refunds taken off it, so you've actually spent more than the figure showing. So far, so straightforward. But, if, during the current charging period, if you get a refund before your regular monthly payment from the previous month goes out, they take that amount from your payment, so you pay less than the monthly spend for that month.
Again so far so good. But because then in the next month, your monthly spend has had the refunds taken from it, it appears that you have had the refund twice. So the amount of the refund is added back into the total. Why on earth they do it that way I don't know. I have looked at the other credit cards and they don't do it that way. They deduct your refund from your spend for that month, but they don't count any of it towards the payment from before. So it's more easy to understand.
Anyway, the upshot of all this, the accounting was right. I didn't want to re-start paper statements, waste of paper, and then you have to shred it, but I am looking a bit more carefully at the ones I get online.
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