Bank won’t let me retrieve credit on credit card

One, you deposit illicit or stolen money into a bank account.
Two, you buy an item on your credit card.
Three, you use the illicit or stolen money in the bank account to pay your credit card.
Four, you return/ cancel the order and request a refund for the item.
Five, the reputable company issues a refund to your credit card.
Six, you request a refund from the credit card company to your bank account (the same (step one) or a different account).
This layering is an example of money laundering.

I have done that before- paid the bill for the wrong card.
The bill for the card i had paid came through and I realised. Paid that one and used the first card, that had credit for the next few transactions i did,to use the balance.

It's very annoying, but on the bright side, you would probably spend this amount on food and petrol over 1 or 2 months, and even if you had put £640 into a savings account, it would only earn you £2.36 a month in interest,

Happened to me. They refund the interest..it all balances through..

It's interesting OP you being so indignant when this situation was caused by the fact that you don't have a handle enough on your money to know from which card you've paid your holiday on.

Yeah I think someone had suggested she just withdraw the money as cash rather then wait for them to agree to refund (once the pending transaction had dropped off.)

I didn't do anything incorrect.

My bill was paid, then an event was cancelled and the money was credited back to my card.

I had a letter to tell me my account was in credit, when it shouldn't be. I used that card to pay for all household expenses until the balance was used up.

Heard nothing else from the credit card company because my next statement showed I had a balance to pay to them.

I hace two current accounts - a personal one and a joint one. My personal account had bought the event tickets. My joint one would have normally paid the household expenses. The only transfer of money was between my two accounts, to balance things out.

It is going to happen at times. There are times when I pay a bill in full, then end up needing a refund of something on the bill. Normally the refunded amount will be absorbed by the new spending, but occasionally it isn't.

Oh I think I had the wrong end of the stick (long week!)
I had two lloyds credit cards one was £0 balance the other £260, in my haste I accidently paid the balance of £260 to the account that was at £0, but thankfully Lloyds just transferred it over to the correct account without charging me interest. But I guess it was an obvious honest mistake.

All banks charge interest and / or fees on cash withdrawals form credit cards (not to be confused with them transferring the credit balance).

Wow, which bank is this?

If you want to save £640 you can still do that.! Save your normal wages and spend on the credit card. E.g. Food and petrol for the week =£100. Save that £100 and spend the £100 of food and drinks on the credit card.

Money laundering is about layering money to hide its source and make it appear that it comes from legitimate sources. Refunds from companies is absolutely part of that.

How do you think people launder money?!

From someone who spent many years working in banking, I would say you don’t understand money laundering. Whilst a one off refund isn’t likely to be that. Refunds / Credit balances etc are red flags for it in a wider picture.

No need to be so rude, especially when you clearly have no fraud knowledge!! If you did you would know that it absolutely can be a fraud flag!!!

I was going to say have you tried ringing them. I once accidentally transferred a large sum from my cash account to my credit card instead on my savings account, stupid or what. I rang them up and they moved it back, felt like an absolute idiot, it would have taken many months to spend it on my credit card. I am a lot more careful about clicking on accounts in the drop down menu since then.

You aren’t insane, you just actually understand how people can hide the proceeds of crime. The previous poster doesn’t

What are you talking about? My comment is in response to the chain of messages talking about taking it out as a cash withdrawal or as a cash transfer (which is a balance transfer but to your bank account)…the things I’ve said will happen if it is done either of those ways.

What you had was a credit balance refund, and so you did not do a cash transfer or a cash withdrawal, and so didn’t get charged

Am I insane, or someone who is involved in money laundering cases?

I’d love to hear which bit is insane.

that 2.8%, even if it's double that it's still only £3 a month, which is the point. it's very little.

and surely if you need the washing machine, car bill etc, you would just use the credit card!

total non story really

Refunds from legitimate companies are absolutely part of money laundering.

Do what you’ve done 10 times with 10 different companies over a year, that’s £6k that immediately looks like it’s come from refunds, and it’s now so much harder to trace the money back to its original source, particularly as it’s across multiple accounts.

You might not be money laundering, but someone who is uses legitimate means to layer cash and transactions to hide where they’re from.

Anyway, they didn’t not do it for a money laundering reason as I’ve had money back from my credit cards a few times in that scenario. They did it because you also have a pending balance so they’ll only do it when the credit card is clear, which yours wasn’t. Had you waited it would have been easier, but you got your answer anyway.

presumably you would've spend the 640 in a month or two rather than a year, so more like £3.

Academic now anyway as you sorted it, nice one.

If that's all you're getting you need a better account and most people won't be taxed on savings interest anyway due to ISAs and personal savings allowances.

Also, for that sort of amount, it's having savings that's important, not what interest is earned as it could replace a washing machine, pay a car bill or go towards Christmas or any other variation in monthly expenses.

But this thread just shows how weird MN is about credit cards because the obvious answer was always to just spend the £640 on groceries and other day to day costs and put the money not spent on those items in a savings account either in dribs and drabs until you get to £640, or in one lump when the credit has been used up, using the money that has built up in the OPs credit account because it's not been spent on groceries and other day to day costs.

What a tough life you have... Horrific! Thoughts and prayers.