Refund on friend's credit card

[Lemonsaretheonlyfruit]

Hi. I hope that someone more in the know than me can help out here.

I had been saving for 2 years to take my 2 DC and I on a holiday over Easter. It was a once In a life time type holiday to see my friend who lives there and not the kind of holiday we would normally be able to take.

When booking my flights, my credit card company declined payment as I don't normally use the card and this was a particularly large sum. I was with my friend and we were in a hurry and she said I could put the flights on her card and I could transfer the money to her later in the week so she could pay the amount off on her card which is what I did.

This was all fine until everything happened and the holiday couldn't go ahead. The airlines are offering vouchers for future travel but I am holding out for a refund as I may end to needing the money now rather than rebooking.

Can the airline only refund my friend's credit card? I just want it paid into my back account. I don't want to give her the hassle of getting the money back to me. How would she do that anyway? Batches of cash being withdrawn?

If anyone can help with a solution that would be really helpful. Thanks!

She could link the card to a PayPal account and PayPal the money to you. Or she could just pay you from her current account and use the balance on the card for things she may otherwise have paid on her debit card.

Refunds are usually via the method that was used to pay. So in this case, your friend's credit card. It's hardly a hassle for her then to transfer the money to you, it takes a couple minutes, assuming she has the money in her bank as she will have to use her credit card to use the refund if you get what I mean.

That's part of the problem. She is alSo a single parent and was made redundant 2 months ago so is now really struggling for cash.

She is really trying not to spend money on her credit card and just can't see a time when she is going to be able to physically have that cash to give to me. I don't need it immediately but depending on how my own job financial situation is in the next couple of months I may do.

We are very good friends and there is no problem there. I really feel for her as she is understandably having problems finding a new job.

It seemed such an inconsequential thing to do at the time when we were in a rush to be somewhere and I just needed the get the flights booked as the prices were rising. We could never have predicted this scenario back then!

The airline are not going to put money in your account nor should they.
If you get a refund it will go to the account of the person who actually paid.
If you are worried about whether your friend will pay you back you can discuss the arrangement over email so you have a record of her acknowledging the transaction and her guaranteeing to pay you back.
If I were you I would then give her some cash or a present for being so accommodating to you in the first place.

The refund has to go back to the card that made the payment unfortunately. It isn't possible to change this. This is due to regulations

It will go back on the friends credit card, and then her card provider should refund the credit back to her bank account, which she can then transfer back to you.

It's possible that she could get refunded onto a different card after all cards get lost or renewed occasionally and the original one is unavailable, not sure how this would work being a credit card though, worth a try?

She can get a free monzo account and connect the card to that. Then send you the money from the credit card via the app.

She should be able to request with the credit card company that the money she is transferred to her current account but there will be a fee involved so will you get Less back though.

Ok thanks. @Ulver it's the kind of thing we do for each other the whole time. We are more like family as we are both on our own with 5 DCs between us who all get on (go on holidays together etc) .. I have done similar for her before too. It just didn't seem like an issue at the time as we could not have predicted this!

If she gets the refund to her credit card she could use the credit card for her weekly shop and bank transfer you the cash amount for the number of weeks it takes for the amount to be paid off. She won't be using her credit card she'll just be spending the credit balance

Tricky one OP - as presumably if she has a debit balance on her credit card any refund back into it will be deducted to pay off her balance in the first instance - meaning she can’t simply have the refund credit transferred back into her account to then send on to you..

If this is the case, you may just need to set up an instalment payment system with her making sure she’s not unfairly put out financially.

Yeah tricky one!

CC company refunds the sum to friend's card.
Friend goes to her bank and asks for cash advance from card. As she will be in credit, no interest will be payable.
Friend pays the money into her account.
Friend transfers money to your account.

As a PP said use PayPal and link her credit card to the account so she can transfer you the money from that.

Easy jet cancelled FIL flight and they won't give refunds only offering a flight rebook or voucher.

Sorry sent too early. Also refunds will only usually go back to the card they were paid from so she will need to transfer you the money back IF they are doing refunds at all (see about post about easyJet)

If you've already made the transaction it has to go on to the card or payment method you used initially. Like you said though, the issue will be getting the refunded money back to you in cash. I'm in a similar position where I have put a group holiday hotel on my card. I will get a full refund of the £ as it's cancelable, however I will need find around £2000 in cash to pay my friends back. Hopefully they all have paypal!

That's a tricky one OP. If your friend has £3,000 of debt on the credit card and the refund is £1,500. Her debt will reduce by £1,500. Taking money out of a credit card to repay you will be very expensive.

Your friend might need to talk to the credit card company to see what they suggest.

And IF the refund...🤦🏼‍♀️

Some Airlines are being very slow regarding refunding anyway. I was due to take long haul flights a month ago. I have yet to get even a response from the Airline after many phone calls and over 10 emails.
Credit card company is the same...just ignoring my messages.
Don't hold your breath for a refund

All she needs to do is contact the card company when the money is in and and afk for it to be transferred into her bank account and then transfer it over to you.
I’ve done that with all my refunds onto cards. It doesn’t take very long

There has been a lot of good advice so far. It would be better still if you could say the airline and the company the card is with and whether your friend is up to date with the payments or whether there is debt on the card.

Sorry about your holiday.

Hi. Yes it's BA. Like others I couldn't get through in any wAy shape or form before the flight (April 3rd) so I have gone through their complaints form telling them I definitely don't want a voucher as I don't know when I'll next be able to afford a holiday so at least I have a case number now . I know I'll be waiting a while to hear anything!

I don't know what my friend's credit card situ is. I don't really know too much about how they work- is it relevant how much she has on it? I'm sure she won't mind telling me.

Thanks also for the PayPal and other advice. Will have a proper study when the DC are settled.