How long does a refund take?
5-7 Business days, potentially longer depending on your bank.
If for some reason we need to issue a refund of something to your card, here’s what will happen.
You will receive an email confirmation almost immediately.
Our bank and merchant processor will handle the refund, usually within 24 hours.
YOUR bank then has to actually give it to you, which can take as long as 5-7 days and in some cases even longer. We have NO control over this.
Bonus Issue: Refund shows up as Pending then Disappears
Your bank MAY sometimes show the refund as pending in your online account. Then it will disappear. WE HAVE NOT CANCELLED IT. They will eventually apply it. If you call them, they may say they don’t see it–front line folks do not know how to look it up at most banks. We do not know why some banks, especially American Express, do this thing where they show it as pending, then it disappears, then shows up later as permanent. We suspect it shows up as pending when it first happens, then that goes away when the bank gets the money, but they don’t apply the funds until whatever there ruleset is for cardholders and their risk profiles. We don’t have any control over this but have never had a situation where it shows up as pending and then disappears but never shows back up.
If you really want us to, we can look up a number called an ARN and you can give that to your back to confirm it. But really just don’t be antsy. In olden days, you would have waited til the end of the month, gotten the statement and it would have all cleared.
Yes, we have had a few people ask about all this and out bank and merchant service provided said, in no uncertain terms, that if we show it as issued and settled, it is held up at the cardholders bank:
Per our merchant processing bank:
Refunds typically take 7-10 business days (in rare cases they can take up to 30). If someone is particularly worried, then we can look up and provide the ARN number (Acquirer Reference Number) for the transaction. The cardholder can provide the ARN to their card issuer showing that the funds were sent to them. It’s up to the issuing bank in terms of when the returned funds are made available to the cardholder. I should mentioned that not all banks front-line customer service personnel will know what the ARN is and the cardholder may become frustrated or possibly get an incorrect initial answer from them, but rest assured it is in process and is at their bank.
