How do I get a Refund from a Merchant?

There are three main types of refunds: failed/cancelled transactions, (merchant) refund, and chargeback.

Failed/Cancelled transaction

When you make a transaction with your card, the merchant or ATM needs to authorise the transaction amount first or "freeze" it. You will see such transactions listed as Pending in your card transaction history. In case the transaction fails or gets rejected, the authorised funds will be released within 14 days. This is an automated process and cannot be sped up.

Common situations:

There was a glitch in the ATM, and it did not give you your money;

The card was rejected by the merchant due to some policies or errors;

A small amount was authorised by the service to confirm your card is active and can be used. This usually applies to subscription services, payment systems like PayPal, and apps like Uber and Gett.

Refund

The refund is made by the merchant willingly after the transaction is settled. For example, you successfully paid for a product or service to the merchant but did not receive what you paid for. Upon request, the merchant agrees to return the money. In these cases, such refunds will take 5-14 days.

You will see two different transactions in your transaction history: the original successful transaction (debit) and a separate refund transaction (credit).

Advice: ARN (Acquirer's Reference Number, 23-digits) is helpful to locate the funds quickly in case you did not get the money within 14 days.

Common situations:

You bought some goods from an online shop but they never arrived (e.g. Aliexpress or eBay);

You paid for accommodation, but for some reason, your booking was cancelled (e.g. Airbnb host rejected your booking or the hotel cancelled your reservation);

You returned a plane/train/bus ticket paid for with the card.

Chargeback

You can request chargebacks in rare situations such as:

When you tried to get a refund from the merchant but your communication did not go well;

When you cannot unsubscribe from a subscription service;

When the ATM did not give you the money (but the transaction is listed as successful in your transaction history);

When you simply did not authorise a transaction you see in your ledger.

To process a chargeback, you will need to request a special Dispute Form from our support team. We will then forward the filled form to our card issuer for further investigation. If your chargeback rights are confirmed, you will get a refund to your card.

Please mind the following:

You can only dispute successful transactions (authorised and failed transactions cannot be disputed);

You can only dispute transactions made within the last 120 days;

You cannot dispute transactions made with gambling services;

You will need to provide accurate information related to this transaction, such as your communication with the merchant, ATM receipts, and any other relevant information;

The chargeback process is slow. Once the card issuer confirms your chargeback rights, it would take 7-9 days to raise it to merchants. Once it is raised, the merchant will have 45 business days to reply. In some situations, disputes may take up to 120 days.

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