Credit card account really stupid question but I don’t understand

[Doubleyikes]

I had money taken out my account fraudulently by an American company I’d not heard of. The bank investigated and the company have paid the money back into my credit card account.

Ok this is the stupid question part - where is the money? If it was in my debit account then obviously I would see the transaction and the associated increased sum in my account. I’m really bad at thinking in abstracts and can’t work out where this returned amount actually is 🙈. Can someone explain this is very simple terms. I’ve googled and still can’t work it out. Thanks

If they paid it back to your credit card then it will be in there, not in your bank account.

Can you check your credit card balance or statement?

Does your credit card account show you as being in credit to the amount (disregarding any other transactions)?

So if they had taken out £20. Credit card would show you owing £20. If they have put it back you now owe £0. it should show as going out and then back into the credit card.

They’ve paid back the ‘loan’ that someone took from you.

Credit card normally goes down to -£ values when you use it, so it’s now gone back to 0 for you. (Or whatever it was.)
So it’s like when you pay off your credit balance. They’ve done that for you.

the money does not exist. There was a fraudulent charge on your Card, so the balance was minus. Then the bank credited you it back, which brought the balance back up to zero. So there is no money, but more importantly, there is no outstanding debt either. You're sorted. Relax.

Do you have a balance owing on your credit card? Or have you previously cleared the disputed amount?

There will either have been a credit to your credit card, meaning you owe less than you did (someone else has paid off some of the debt) or the credit card now owes you money, and your next bill will be a bit less, because some has been paid off.

There will be a line on the credit card statement.

Thank you so much. I don’t know why it’s so hard for my brain to make sense of things like this.