When will your debit card get refunded

Your debit card is probably the most used plastic in your wallet. It makes sense that more often than not, refunds will need to be paid against that debit card.  This is a fairly straightforward procedure. Refunds are usually issued by shops. These refunds are for goods that can not be delivered, or are not fit for purpose or even that the person who has bought the good changes their mind.  It used to be the case that refunds were always paid by cash or cheque, but this is no longer the case with the refunding directly back to cards.

What are the pros of debit card refunds?

There are a number of advantages with refunding directly back to debit cards.

Firstly it can be very convenient in that it can only need a quick entry in a terminal or a shopping cart payment program.  This can, over time save a large amount of money, particularly if there is otherwise a cheque to print out, getting an address to send the cheque to and then sending the cheque out.  Where a cheque can cost a couple of dollars to print out and despatch, a debit card refund can cost a few cents.

Another advantage is that refunds can be prone to fraud, and refunding to a card can cut this.  It is quite common for a person to steal a good and its receipt and then take it back to the shop to get a refund in cash.  It used to be the case that shops would try to discourage this practice by paying back in vouchers when they had a return.  This could be very unpopular with genuine customers as they vastly preferred cash and although vouchers were not as popular as cash they could still be traded for cash, albeit considerably below face value.

Now days, you must present the card the original transaction was made with to have the refund processed. If it’s over a certain amount you’ll also have to enter your PIN to authorise the transaction.

The thing that must be remembered is that a refund against a debit card will not be made against the debit card itself, but against a bank account.  This means that the card user has to be careful that their bank account is able to take these recharges.  In most cases this will not be a problem, rarely will there will be an issue (unless you closed that account).

If the account charges a transaction charge for using a debit card then it may charge separately for the refund.  This can either be refunded by the bank that issued the card (as it is part of one transaction) or it can be timed so that it goes in the next month if there is a certain amount of transactions allowed in a month.

So there you have it. A complete guide to getting your refund on your debit card.