Why a refund does not always look the same

You have sent back or cancelled an order and are now waiting for your money. The payment method plays a big part in a refund, because how quickly and by which route the money comes back depends heavily on how you paid in the first place. A refund on a PayPal payment works differently behind the scenes from a credit to a card, and paying by invoice is different again, because no money has changed hands in advance.

If you know the basic process, you can judge more easily whether a wait is normal or whether it is worth asking the shop.

Refunds on a PayPal payment

When a shop confirms a refund on a PayPal payment, the amount usually shows up in your PayPal account fairly quickly, often faster than with most other payment routes. That is because PayPal, as a payment system in its own right, makes the booking directly between the two accounts, without waiting on an outside bank. If the original PayPal payment was itself funded from a stored card or bank account, the refund may either land in your PayPal balance or be passed on automatically to the original funding source, depending on your settings.

Refunds on a card payment

A refund to a credit or debit card tends to take longer, because there are several stages between the shop, its payment provider and your own bank, and each needs its own time. The shop often triggers the refund on the same day the return is processed, but it frequently only becomes visible on your account a few working days later, depending on how quickly your bank books the incoming credit. Looking at the original statement helps you work out whether the usual processing time has simply not passed yet.

Refunds when you paid by invoice

With paying by invoice, the process is fundamentally different, because at the time of the return there has usually been no payment at all. If you send the goods back before the payment due date, only the invoice itself has to be corrected or cancelled, so that in the end you only owe the value of what you actually kept. If you have already paid the invoice and then send something back, the refund goes, as with any other payment method, to the account the invoice was originally paid from.

Worked example: a partial return after paying by invoice

Say an invoice of 120 euros for three items has already been paid in full, and you then send back one item worth 45 euros. The shop confirms the return and arranges a refund of 45 euros to the account the original payment came from. If you had not yet paid the invoice, you would simply owe a corrected amount of 75 euros, with no refund needed at all, because no money had been paid that would have to come back.

When the original payment method is no longer available

Refunds normally go back to exactly the payment source used for the purchase, not to a new or different one. If the original card has since expired or the account has been closed, the process can be delayed considerably or, in some cases, fail, so that the shop asks about an alternative such as a bank transfer or a voucher. How that works in detail depends very much on the individual case and is easy to follow with a refund to a cancelled card.

When part of the payment was made with a voucher

Some orders are paid from a combination of two sources, such as a voucher or gift card for part of the amount and a card or PayPal for the rest. With a refund, the share paid with credit is usually booked back to the original gift card first, and only the remaining amount is refunded to the actual payment method. That explains why a refund sometimes arrives as two separate bookings rather than one single sum, and why it is worth checking both before you assume an amount is missing.

What you can check yourself before asking

Before you contact a shop's customer service, it is worth first looking at the confirmation email for your return, which usually also gives the date the refund was triggered. Compare that date with the usual processing time of your bank or payment provider before you assume something has gone wrong. If the refund still does not show the expected amount, or does not arrive at all over a clearly longer period, contacting the shop directly is the sensible next step, ideally with the tracking number of your return and the date of the confirmation to hand.

Where refunds follow other rules

How long a shop has to issue a refund at all depends on the reason for the return. If you are using the right of withdrawal for online purchases within the EU, separate deadlines apply. If the issue is instead a fault with the goods, the rules on repair and refunds for faulty goods come into play. What returns and return shipping costs mean in either case also helps decide how much is actually refunded in the end. These are EU rules; outside the EU, for example in the UK, the US or Canada, the rules are set nationally and can differ.

Frequently asked questions

Why does my PayPal refund arrive faster than a card refund?

Because PayPal makes the booking directly between two accounts within its own system, while a card refund passes through several stages between the shop, the payment provider and your bank, each needing its own processing time.

Do I still have to pay an invoice if I send part of the order back?

If the invoice has not been paid yet, you normally only owe the corrected remaining amount. If you have already paid in full, you get a regular refund for the part you sent back.

How long should I wait for a refund before I ask?

That depends on the payment method: a PayPal refund should be visible within a short time, while a card refund can take several working days. If the amount stays away for clearly longer than usual, it is worth asking the shop.

Do I also get the delivery costs back?

That depends on the reason for the return. When you withdraw from a purchase within the EU, the standard delivery costs for the original shipment are usually part of the refund, while extra costs for faster delivery are often not refunded.