Why does it take so long to refund to credit card?
"It's not usually apparent to the average consumer, but there's actually two stages to collecting a payment, and two ways to undo it.  The particular combination that occurs may lead to long refund times, on top of any human delays (like Ben Miller's answer addresses). When you pay with a credit card, it is typically only authorized - the issuing bank says ""I'm setting this money aside for this transaction"", but no money actually changes hands.  You'll typically see this on your statement as a ""pending"" charge.  Only later, in a process called ""settlement"", does your bank actually send money to the merchant's bank.  Typically, this process starts the same day that the authorization happens (at close of business), but it may take a few days to complete.  In the case of an ecommerce transaction, the merchant may not be allowed to start it until they ship whatever you ordered. On the flip side, a given transaction can be voided off or money can be sent back to your card.  In the first case, the transaction will just disappear altogether; in the second, it may disappear or you may see both the payment and the refund on your statement.  Voids can be as fast as an authorization, but once a transaction has started settlement, it can't be voided any more.  Sending money back (a ""refund"") goes through the same settlement process as above, and can take just as long. So, to specifically apply that to your question: You get the SMS when the transaction is authorized, even though no money has yet moved.  The refund money won't show up until several days after someone indicates that it should happen, and there's no ""reverse authorize"" operation to let you or your bank know that it's coming." The holdup is from the merchant.  To protect themselves, a merchant requires payment before giving you your purchased item/service. That is why you are charged immediately.  When getting a refund, the same reason applies. The merchant needs to ensure that you are returning the correct item, or that it is still good, or that you are not trying to defraud the merchant in some way. Once the merchant processes that refund, it is all over for them, and they have no recourse later if they find out they were cheated. That is why they wait a while: the delay gives them time to discover any problems.
That transaction probably cost the merchant $0.50 + 3% or close to $5.  They should have refunded your credit card so they could have recouped some of the fees. (I imagine that's why big-box retailers like Home Depot always prefer to put it back on your card than give you store credit) Consider yourself lucky you made out with $0.15 this time.  (Had they refunded your card, the 1% of $150 credit would have gone against next month's reward) Once upon a time folks were buying money from the US Mint by the tens of thousands $ range and receiving credit card rewards, then depositing the money to pay it off.. They figured that out and put a stop to it. They will credit your account and it will be applied to future purchases. If the credit card is not used for several months, they will send you a check or transfer it to your bank account. Some people on this site have actually considered sending money to the credit card company in advance, so that the amount that can be charged is temporarily inflated. Keep in mind they will eventually refund the money. Plus you will not earn interest on the refund. "Personally, I would just dispute this one with your CC.  I had a situation where a subscription I had cancelled the prior year was billed to me.  I called up to have a refund issued, they couldn't find me in their system under three phone numbers and two addresses.  The solution they proposed was ""send us your credit card statement with the charge circled,"" to which I responded ""there's no way in hell I'm sending you my CC statement.""  Then I disputed the charge with the CC bank and it was gone about two days later.  I partially expect to have the same charge appear next year when they try to renew my non-existent subscription again. Now, whether or not this is a normal practice for the company, or just a call center person making a good-faith but insecure attempt to solve your problem is irrelevant.  Fact of the matter is, you tried to resolve this with the merchant and the merchant asked for something that's likely outside the bounds of your CC Terms and Conditions; sending your entire number via email.   Dispute it and move on.  The dispute process exists for a reason." "Debit Cards have a certain processing delay, ""lag time"", before the transaction from the vendor completes with your bank. In the US it's typically 3 business days but I have seen even a 15 day lag from Panera Bread. I guess in the UK, payment processors have similar processing delays. A business is not obliged to run its payment processing in realtime, as that's very expensive. Whatever be the lag time, your bank is supposed to cover the payment you promised through your card. Now if you don't have agreements in place (for example, overdraft) with your bank, they will likely have to turn down payments that exceed your available balance. Here is the raw deal: In the end, the responsibility to ensure that your available balance is enough is upon you (and whether you have agreements in place to handle such situations) So what happened is very much legal, a business is not obliged to run its payment processing in realtime and no ethics are at stake. To ensure such things do not happen to me, I used to use a sub-account from which my debit card used to get paid. I have since moved to credit cards as the hassle of not overdrawing was too much (and overdraft fees from banks in the US are disastrous, especially for people who actually need such a facility)" "For customer accounts that you have with a merchant, normally a positive balance in the account is what you owe the merchant. When you have a credit on the account or a negative balance, it usually means that it is an amount that the merchant owes you. This could be because you paid too much, or perhaps it is because the merchant is giving you a refund for some reason.  However, it is always a possibility that this particular merchant is not using the terminology in the conventional way. If you aren't sure, the best thing to do is to ask the merchant directly by contacting their customer service department.  Just judging from the screenshot you posted, it looks to me like they owe you some money. I suggest you click the ""Statement"" button; it looks like that will generate some type of statement that will instruct the merchant to send you a refund. But that is only a guess. Their customer service should be able to tell you what to do." "The preferred accounts are designed to hope you do one of several things: Pay one day late.  Then charge you all the deferred interest. Many people think If they put $X a month aside, then pay just before the 6 months, 12 moths or no-payment before 2014 period ends then I will be able to afford the computer, carpet, or furniture. The interest rate they will charge you if you are late will be buried in the fine print. But expect it to be very high. Pay on time, but now that you have a card with their logo on it.  So now you feel that you should buy the accessories from them. They hope that you become a long time customer. They want to make money on your next computer also. Their ""Bill Me Later"" option on that site as essentially the same as the preferred account. In the end you will have another line of credit. They will do a credit check. The impact, both positive and negative, on your credit picture is discussed in other questions.  Because two of the three options you mentioned in your question (cash, debit card) imply that you have enough cash to buy the computer today, there is no reason to get another credit card to finance the purchase. The delayed payment with the preferred account, will save you about 10 dollars (2000 * 1% interest * 0.5 years).  The choice of store might save you more money, though with Apple there are fewer places to get legitimate discounts. Here are your options: How to get the limit increased: You can ask for a temporary increase in the credit limit, or you can ask for a permanent one. Some credit cards can do this online, others require you to talk to them. If they are going to agree to this, it can be done in a few minutes. Some individuals on this site have even been able to send the check to the credit card company before completing the purchase, thus ""increasing"" their credit limit. YMMV. I have no idea if it works.  A good reason to use the existing credit card, instead of the debit card is if the credit card is a rewards card. The extra money or points can be very nice. Just make sure you pay it back before the bill is due. In fact you can send the money to the credit card company the same day the computer arrives in the mail.  Having the transaction on the credit card can also get you purchase protection, and some cards automatically extend the warranty." It is barely possible that this is Citi's fault, but it sounds more like it is on the Costco end.   The way that this is supposed to work is that they preauthorize your card for the necessary amount.  That reserves the payment, removing the money from your credit line.  On delivery, they are supposed to capture the preauthorization.  That causes the money to transfer to them.  Until that point, they've reserved your payment but not actually received it.  If you cancel, then they don't have to pay processing fees.   The capture should allow for a larger sale so as to provide for tips, upsells, and unanticipated taxes and fees.   In this case, instead of capturing the preauthorization, they seem to have simply generated a new transaction.  Citi could be doing something wrong and processing the capture incorrectly.  Or Costco could be doing a purchase when they should be doing a capture.  From outside, we can't really say.   The thirty days would seem to be how long Costco can schedule in advance.  So the preauthorization can last that long for them.   Costco should also have the ability to cancel a preauthorization.  However, they may not know how to trigger that.  With smaller merchants, they usually have an interface where they can view preauthorizations and capture or cancel them.  Costco may have those messages sent automatically from their system.   Note that a common use for this pattern is with things like gasoline or delivery purchases.  If this has been Citi/Costco both times, I'd try ordering a pizza or some other delivery food and see if they do it correctly.  If it was Citi both times and a different merchant the other time, then it's probably a Citi problem rather than a merchant problem. You can't make your bank do a charge back. This function is to assist with straight up fraud, not a customer service mistake. (Think spoofed or stolen card or if a vendor intentionally acted fraudulently.) While you may believe what they did is fraud, your bank will require that you provide the vendor with the opportunity to rectify the situation themselves. Trying to call back and giving up after a long hold time won't meet their standards. If banks started letting anyone unhappy with a vendor start doing charge backs, they would be doing nothing else all day. The issues you're describing has not reached the threshold for the bank to authorize a charge back.  Comcast has local and regional offices, and you could go in person to speak with someone. Maybe there isn't one near you. There are non-peak hours which wait times will be less. You'll just have to grin and bear it if you truly want the money back. Then, take your business elsewhere and post bad reviews online. Always keep in mind that when you eventually speak with someone, they will not be the person that messed up, and you should be overly nice and polite to them. I promise it will yield far better results than being surly and demanding. Another way to get Comcast's attention would be to file a complaint with the BBB. It might take longer, but I've had this work with big companies, usually with good results. Again, be nice to whomever contacts you. In reference to your recent duplicate question: Mastercard won't be able to help at all. They play no part in the transaction at all. "While I agree with Ben a lot I feel like his answer is really poor here. You do not call a number to give your credit card information out for a refund.  That is ridiculous.  Just from his answer - he has had 5 cases of fraud lately - you should know that you shouldn't follow this advice. I personally don't ever give my credit card number over the phone, unless it is the very very very last resort.  It is not just about money and safety but it is about time.  Every time that you give your number out over the phone there is a chance that the employee on the other end (by either scam or legitimate business) will use or sell your info.  So you need to determine if the time saved by doing a transaction over the phone is worth hours/days of your time if your card has a fraud issue.  And note that fraud sometimes is easily negated, but if done smartly can be hard to prove via a quick call or email to card company. What should you do? Tell company that you will simply get the refund through your credit card company. And if we go back to time element...  You fill out form on card website.  Card company goes back to vendor and says - ""Why are you asking for card numbers via email?""  Card company either cancels vendor contract or more likely helps them understand the technology available so they don't have to do this.  Therefore that quick form that you filled out will now keep this company from bugging you again.  By going through their archaic ""systems"" you are enabling their behavior." Bank products have been pretty common with tax refunds as well, and they are also being heavily scrutinized for the same reasons.  Refund Anticipation Loans (RALs) have been outlawed for future tax seasons due to lack of consumer protection.  What is a bank product, you might ask?  Rather than waiting 7-14 days for the a direct deposit from the IRS, a lot of places like H+R Block and Jackson Hewitt would offer a bank product to get you money quicker.  For this service, they charge a fee (usually $99-$149) which is grossly overpriced for how little work it takes, but if your refund is several thousand dollars, you may not care.  A Refund Anticipation Loan was the most predatory bank product, as it was an advance on your loan for the amount your expected refund.  However, if there were any errors in your return and the IRS decided your refund was less than what your tax preparer calculated it to be, you were stuck with paying back the advance amount, leaving you to foot the bill for whatever errors your preparer may have made.  These loans also had very high interest rates, since usually the people that wanted RALs were also the same people that rely upon cash advances.  There are also Electronic Refund Checks (which ironically are paper checks for the consumer, not electronic deposits), direct deposits, and prepaid debit cards.  Despite the fact that these same methods of refund payments are offered by the IRS themselves, preparers and banks alike sold these to collect fees for essentially no work.  I'm not sure how similar these bank products for student loans are, but I wanted to shed some light on them anyways.  Regardless of how badly you need money, **do not ever accept money through a bank product.**  If it benefited you more, banks and preparers would not offer these.  (Source:  telemarketing at a tax preparation software company) Your bank will convert it (taking a fee for that, of course). It might be delayed some days so it can clear (2-3 days). Its not just late fees. The fees for going over your credit limit are exorbitant. To make things worse, they will rearrange the transactions you make during a day so that they can charge you more by making more of them fail. "Executive summary: It sounds like the merchant just did an authorization then cancelled that authorization when you cancelled the order, so there was never an actual charge so you'll never see an actual refund and there's no money to ""claim"". More detail: From your second paragraph, it sounds like they just did an authorization but never posted the transaction. A credit card authorization is basically the merchant asking your credit card company ""Does sandi have enough credit to pay this amount and if so please reserve that amount for a bit."" The authorization will decrease the total credit you have available on the card, but it's not actually a charge, so if your billing cycle ends, it won't show up on your statement. Depending on which company issued your credit card, you may be able to see the authorization online, usually labelled something like ""Pending transactions"". Even if your credit card company doesn't show pending transactions, you'll see a decrease in your available credit, however you shouldn't see an increase in your balance. The next step, and the only way the original merchant gets paid, is for the merchant to actually post a transaction to your card. Then it becomes a real charge that will show up on your next credit card statement and you'll be expected to pay it (unless you dispute the charge, but that's a different issue). If the charge is for the same amount as the authorization, the authorization will go away (it's now been converted to an actual charge). If the amounts are different, or the merchant never posts a transaction, the authorization will be removed by your credit card company automatically after a certain amount of time. So it sounds like you placed the order, the merchant did an authorization to make sure you could pay for it and to reserve the money, but then you cancelled the order before the merchant could post the transaction, so you were never really charged for it. The merchant then cancelled the authorization (going by the start of your third paragraph). So there was never an actual transaction posted, you were never charged, and you never really owed any money. Your available credit went down for a bit, but now should be restored to what it was before you placed the order. You'll never see an actual refund reflected on your credit card statement because there was no actual transaction." Each bank is different. Usually in my experience for newer credit card accounts, there is a specific number of days in a billing cycle (something like 28) and then a 20-25 day grace period. Older accounts usually have 30+ day billing cycles. Back in the 90's, many cards also had 30-40 day grace periods. The language specific to your card is in the card agreement. "They are right to ask for the money back because you were not entitled to that money. However, you may have a defense called ""laches"". Basically, you can try to show that because of the government's unreasonable delay in asking for the money back, in the meantime you relied on the assumption that it was your money in good faith, and spent it, and now to have to come up with the money that you assumed you wouldn't need would cause great harm to you."