Infrequently, a refund transaction attempt may be declined. In all instances, our support team will not be able to initiate the refund on your behalf. It is also not possible to send a refund to a different bank or card account using the Portal, and those options are not available to our support team either. This is a security feature.
There are multiple reasons a refund may decline, and depending on the circumstances, there are some additional actions you are able to take.
The first step is to determine the original payment type. Was the transaction an e-check, a Mastercard or Discover card, or a Visa card?
To do this, navigate to the payment you are attempting to refund.
The payment type is located with the billing information.
Depending on the original payment type, there are some additional actions you may be able to take:
- An eCheck refund transaction declines when the original transaction from the purchaser had insufficient funds, or when the account number did not exist at their banking institution. In either case, we were not able to collect the funds from the client, so there is no need to refund them the transaction.
- A Mastercard or Discover refund transaction declines when the original transaction from the purchaser has been charged back. The customer has requested their funds from their banking institution, so there is no need to refund them the transaction.
- There are two possibilities for a Visa transaction. You'll need to determine if there has been a chargeback or not. Our operations department emails your business contacts whenever a chargeback occurs on one of your transactions, but if you are not sure please reach out to us by submitting a support request.
- If a chargeback has been initiated for the original transaction, the customer has requested their funds from their banking institution, so there is no need to refund them the transaction.
- It is also possible for a Visa transaction refund to be declined by the end-users banking institution. You will not be able to issue this refund in the Portal. In this instance, you may refund the customer another way, like issuing them a check for the funds.