Refusing to refund to my credit card….

[Bollocksmorelike]

I recently visited our vets and was told I had an outstanding bill to pay (from a previous visit) so I paid it all on my credit card. When I got home I checked my statement and could see I had already paid it last month. I phoned the vet, they admitted they had made a mistake.
But they won’t refund me back to my card. They said they only do refunds as a bank transfer directly to our bank account, so they need all our bank details.
Surely that’s not right/legal??

What would be the problem with doing that?

Cal your card provider to find out if the vet is in breach of their terms of having the POS equipment.

I don't know whether it is illegal but if it is going to create a problem for you, consider contacting your credit card provider directly to explain the situation and request a reversal or chargeback.

Does it matter? You can just pay the money back onto the card straight away when you get it

Seems a bit odd, the standard rules for refunds anywhere i've worked is that the refund is made in the same way as the original payment.

This. Take the cash and put on credit card.

Why is it an issue op? Is your bank account over drawn or something?

Same and I don’t understand why they can’t do this. Especially as it’s their mistake. Not sure on any legalities though.

That sounds so annoying! They've caused extra life admin already for you by demanding a payment you'd already made. Now they want to cause even more life admin by refunding as a bank transfer instead of putting it back onto your card?! Totally bizarre. I'd be looking to change vets to one that's better organised.

My card takes 7 working days to put any payments onto it from my bank so I'd be very cross if that took me over the point where I got charged interest due to the vet admin's mistake.

Normally they have to refund to the card that made the payment - the bank transfer seems tricky to me, was it a large amount? I'm wondering if there is an associated card fee they're avoiding? Or perhaps avoiding refunding and admitting it was an error and instead transferring?

A chargeback will cost them more....

Stand firm, this is very odd, of course they can do it.

They don't want to pay the chargeback fee by the sounds of things. I know with some banks it can be quite costly. However it is their mistake so they will have to absorb that.

Assuming they're using something like Stripe, they will get charged a small fee for a refund but if they don't refund to your credit card, then they risk you raising a chargeback dispute on your credit card which they would struggle to win. This is normally part of their t's and c's with their payment processer and they should be refunding via the same method you paid with.

Under the terms of their card machine agreement they are not supposed to do that. They are supposed to refund using the same method and to the same card as was used for the original transaction.

But I suppose if you get your refund paid into your bank account, you can then use that to pay your card provider back anyway.

As long as they pay you back it doesn't matter. If they refund money into your account you can then pay it off your credit card. You should be no worse off because of their error.

Consumer Rights Act 2015

270.The refund must be in the same form as the original payment unless the consumer agrees otherwise. So for example if the consumer paid for the service by credit card the refund should be to their credit card, unless the consumer agrees that a cheque is acceptable. The trader cannot charge the consumer a fee for the payment of the refund.

Full text is here but it is a bit of a pain to wade through...

https://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/2015/15/notes/division/3/1/5

That’s not always possible, if someone is into an unauthorised overdraft the money will be swallowed up to,pay that, and the op wouldn’t have anything to then pay the credit card.

im sure she’s not just “i can’t be arsed paying it “ as some are thinking as it’s “life admin”. But that there is a solid reason she doesn’t want the money to go to the bank account.

Remind them that doing so is against Anti money laundering advice.

I can think of lots of reasons why it might be a problem for OP. Eg. she is getting close to her credit limit, she has an unauthorised overdraft, she has a joint bank account and a profligate partner, she doesn't do online banking and has no bank branch nearby and it will be a mission to move the funds.

I think you should insist that they refund directly to the method of payment. Technically they certainly have the means to do so.

On their pov, they have no idea if the money will have gone to the right person - aka the one who paid (let’s say in case of a gift).

On your pov, will you be paid back by the vet and how can you prove this payment was a refund?
eg you get UC and they could treat that as income

If they end up having to pay a charge, it’s their issue. They chose which system to use. They need to either get wiser or plan for it.

Thanks so much for the replies. I don’t honestly think my reason for not wanting a bank transfer is relevant to my question so I’m not going in to that.
In my workplaces I have always been told that any refund needs to be done through the same method of payment as the original transaction. So I wanted to know whether this was true or not.
Thanks again

Thanks so much 👍

@Bollocksmorelike I’d quote that to them. They can’t pay in another way unless you agree to it as far as I can see. Good luck