When the card you paid with no longer exists

A few months ago you paid with a card that has since expired, been blocked or been cancelled, and now you are sending an item back. A refund to an old card raises the obvious question of where the money is supposed to go when the original destination of the payment can no longer be reached. The answer depends mainly on whether only the card number has changed or whether the account behind it has been closed completely.

Why a refund goes back to the original source

For security reasons, shops and payment providers generally refund to exactly the payment method used for the original purchase, rather than to any alternative given later. This rule prevents a refund from going to someone else's account, by mistake or on purpose, just because somebody supplies a different account number. For you, though, it also means that if the original card is no longer valid, the automatic part of the process can come to nothing, even if the shop issued the refund correctly.

When only the card number has changed

If a card was replaced because it expired in the normal way, or a new card number was issued for the same account, many card networks automatically pass a refund on to the new, currently valid card on that account. In practice this works quite reliably, but it can take a few extra days, because the forwarding goes through its own check before the amount is actually credited. As a rule, you do not need to do anything except wait.

When the whole account has been closed

Things are different if not just the card but the entire bank account behind it has been closed, for example because you switched banks. In that case automatic forwarding cannot work, because there is no longer any destination the bank could pass the incoming credit on to. The payment is then often sent back to the shop or its payment provider rather than simply vanishing, but that means you have to take action yourself to get it after all.

Worked example: a return after switching accounts

Say that six months ago you paid 65 euros for an item with a card whose account you have since closed. If you send the item back now, the shop issues a refund of 65 euros to the old card. Because the account no longer exists, no automatic forwarding takes place, and the bank reports the payment back to the shop as undeliverable. Only then can the shop offer to send you the amount by bank transfer to a new account instead, usually after a short proof that it really is your order.

What you can do to get your money

• Tell the shop as early as possible if you know the original payment method no longer exists, rather than only asking after a refund has failed.
• Keep bank statements or a confirmation from your own bank ready in case the shop asks for proof before paying the amount out another way.
• Ask your own bank whether incoming credits to a cancelled card are forwarded automatically or rejected, so you can better judge how long a realistic wait is.
• Keep the refund confirmation email, because it usually shows the date and amount of the payment issued and helps if you need to follow up later.

How this differs from a normal refund

If the original payment method is still working normally, a refund by PayPal, card or invoice is hardly any different from the case described here, except that the last step does not come to nothing. If it is also unclear whether you are entitled to a refund at all, for example because you are returning something that is faulty, it helps to look at repair and refunds for faulty goods. Within the EU, the right of withdrawal for online purchases also applies regardless of whether the original payment method still exists; that only affects the route by which the money comes back in the end. Outside the EU, for example in the UK, the US or Canada, the rules are set nationally and can differ.

Why paying through PayPal is less prone to this problem

If the original order was paid through PayPal, a cancelled card is usually less of a problem, because the refund goes first to the PayPal account itself rather than directly to the card behind it. Only if the whole PayPal account has also been closed does a situation arise that is similar to a classic card payment. That is one reason why some people deliberately pay through a payment service rather than directly by card when they already plan to change their bank details in the near future.

When the bank reports a credit but nothing arrives

Sometimes your own bank confirms that a credit has come in, but the amount does not show up on your current account as expected, usually because internally it is still assigned to another card connection that has already been closed. In that case it is worth asking your own bank directly, not the shop, because at this point the shop can generally only confirm that the refund was issued correctly. What then happens to the payment internally is entirely a matter for the bank.

Frequently asked questions

Do I get my money automatically if only the card number changed, but not the account?

In most cases, yes. Card networks often forward a refund automatically to a newly issued card on the same account, even if the card number has changed.

What happens if the whole account no longer exists?

Then the refund cannot be delivered and usually goes back to the shop or its payment provider. In that case you need to contact the shop yourself so that it pays out the amount another way.

How long can a refund like this take?

There is no fixed deadline that applies across the board, because it depends on the processing time of the banks involved. If the process drags on for several weeks, it is worth contacting the shop in writing, giving the date the refund was originally issued.

Can I just give new account details to speed things up?

Not directly. For security reasons, a shop always refunds to the original payment method first, and only switches to another route such as a bank transfer once the automatic refund has demonstrably failed.