$3.25 does not equal $325 - any better way to handle this?

[Yfandes]

I stopped by a harbor side boat rental place to grab an ice cream and a water. Total was $3.25 and the girl said she couldn't ring me up until the young man working with her got off the phone. It looked to me like he had left the register mid-transaction to socialize on the phone and she needed him to finish it before I could get rung up, but perhaps he was talking to a customer.

She passes him my debit card and tells him "ring her up for three twenty five" (which could have been clearer, I suppose), he does something at the register and the next thing I know shes scrambling at the register and I get a sinking feeling - yep, he had rung up my debit card for $325 dollars. Which can be a bit of a nightmare at the end of the month on a checking account...

She handed me two receipts, one showing the original $325 SALE AMOUNT, and then one that says $325 REFUND, and to her credit, did not charge me for the water and ice cream. The young guy just kinda looked at me blankly, as if he didn't see the big deal.

I contacted my bank online this morning (my bank's name rhymes with Chase). I can only see the pending debit of $325, so I sent the bank an email. My bank responds that they do not see a pending refund yet, and "Although a refund from a merchant typically takes about three to five business days to post, in some cases, it can take up to 30 days." Which I don't understand because I can take a photo of a check and see it clear in 24 hours...

This is incredibly annoying because I know that Chase would have been perfectly happy to hit me with overdraft fees if this screw up had put me in the negative for any pending charges.

So is there anything I can or should do in order to get this resolved faster? Or just leave it to sort itself out in 3-5 business days (up to 30! really!)?

If this happens in the future, would it make any sense to ask the refund in cash? Or is that just silly talk? I have a feeling that probably would not have been successful.

[SuckMyFuxkCustomers]

If this happens in the future, would it make any sense to ask the refund in cash? Or is that just silly talk? I have a feeling that probably would not have been successful.

Couldn't you get an overdraft fee if you didn't have that much in your account to begin with?

[XCashier]

The only thing I can think of it going into the bank and showing them the refund slip.

[Yfandes]

Couldn't you get an overdraft fee if you didn't have that much in your account to begin with?

In theory my card should just not work if I try to use it for more than I have, but my worry was about other checks and pending charges already in the works.

[gremcint]

look it's simple, it's always faster for someone to take your money than for you to receive it.

[EricKei]

How overdrafts are handled depends on the bank, and which account/plan you have set up with them -- when I signed up for a checking account last year, I was given the choice whether or not to opt-in to Overdraft "protection" -- I chose not to.

As for deposits/refunds...? Talk to a manager at the bank about it if any fines show up, preferably BEFORE. Bring the receipts. In my experience, there's a reasonable chance they will have to wait until the fines (if any) show up, and then reverse them. If so, once they do, call that same manager and say "Hey, those fines related to the reversed transaction we discussed showed up" and they will be able to take care of them.

[mathnerd]

I have, in the past, set up customer's accounts to do a daily "memo credit" for the contested amount until the refund fully came through. Essentially, what that means is that we soft posted the money and since it didn't match up with an actual transaction during batch, it fell off. Then the next day we went through the entire process again, repeated daily until the real credit finally came through. It's a pain in the ass, but doable. Of course, the customer I was willing to do that for was super sweet and asked nicely and was never rude the entire time she was working with the banker who was working with me. This was another Major Bank, so I'm not sure if your bank can do that, but the major banks all work with pretty similar mainframe systems, so there's probably a way for your bank to do something to help you out.

[bainsidhe]

I think it's pretty common for a refund to show up in a couple days, at least from what I've seen. But it also depends on the store doing the refunding and how quickly they send their information to the bank. Perhaps one of our local CS bankers can clarify?

[MoonCat]

I think it's pretty common for a refund to show up in a couple days, at least from what I've seen. But it also depends on the store doing the refunding and how quickly they send their information to the bank. Perhaps one of our local CS bankers can clarify?

Depends. Where I work they first make sure that we got the money in the first place, before they issue a refund. And of course they only process refunds on a certain day each week so if you miss that, you have to wait until next week - unless you're a big enough customer to raise enough of a stink that they do it right away

[cindybubbles]

This is one reason why I use credit cards.

Fratching thread here, if you are interested.

[Captain Trips]

This is one reason why I use credit cards.

And it's one reason I use credit unions.

[LillFilly]

I hope you get your refund ASAP! Yeah, always takes longer to get your money back than for them to take it!

I went to a new store and made a 300+ purchase. The reader stated "transaction interrupted" the first 2 times he ran my debit card; the 3rd time I got a receipt and signed. I go to the next store and card was declined. I called the bank and found out that the 300 was ACTUALLY run all 3 times!!!! The store was so sorry and I managed to get one refund the next day but the 2nd took about a week. At least the store owner offered to give me the cash if the refund didn't come through.

[Gerrinson]

Depending on when and how they process their credit card batches, the debit may not hit your account at all.

Our system will check your account to verify that it has enough to cover the transaction. But, if we refund the amount back during the same business day, at the end of the night the total against your account would be $0 and nothing would actually come out. The hold on your account, from the initial request, would then drop off in a few days with no actual transaction to offset it.

[Yfandes]

Ok its all sorted, and the bank did something so that the refund is in front of the debit so its all good! Thanks for all the advice

[strawbabies]

I hope you get your refund ASAP! Yeah, always takes longer to get your money back than for them to take it!

As someone who used to work in billing for an insurance company, I'd like to clarify something. When someone charges your card, the money comes out of your account right away, but does not go directly to the merchant. It usually takes about four business days to get to them, as it goes through the Automated Clearing House first.

When you are issued a refund, the reverse happens, which is why refunds also take several days to get back to your account.