I know that having cash off a credit card is a very bad idea, but this will work, won’t it?

[TeapotCollection]

I would never normally withdraw cash on my CC because I know it’s costs an horrendous amount in the long run, but I’ve just been refunded a few hundred pounds from a cancelled event so if I have that in cash that’s fine isn’t it?

Can’t go wrong, can it?

Just want to make sure I’m not missing anything

I don’t think so. Logically it seems it would be.

Do you owe money on the card? Because I think if you do it would still count as withdrawing cash.

Nothing owing, there’s a zero balance until the refund is credited

When I looked onto this after having a holiday refunded I found I would still be charged for withdrawing it.

So I kept a spreadsheet of what o would have spent the money on and bought that with the credit card instead.

It was a faff, but best way I could find to do it

So you've had money refunded to your credit card after an event was cancelled -

If this has led to your balance being in credit, you can ask your credit card provider to issue a refund to your bank account. They have no right to insist you retain a positive balance, as you could (technically) never use the CC again.

If the refund has simply lessened your owed balance on the CC, it would be foolish to lift the cash. You will be charged a staggering rate of interest. The cancelled event isn't equating to "free money" if you still need to pay it off, or pay interest on it.

I had a refunded trip on my credit card recently and just left it there for future purchases as it's more expensive to withdraw it.

I agree with fatbottomedgurl - it's your money, so the credit card company should refund it. This would be the proper way to do it.

However, when you withdraw money on a credit card it costs so much because you are charged interest on your entire balance from the day you withdraw the money (you are only charged interest on purchases if you don't pay your balance in full). So if you only withdraw your own money then it can't be an issue. But it may damage your credit rating to have withdrawn money on a credit card.

I use a credit card to withdraw money when I'm abroad and I never get charged interest because I always pay it off straight away (the payment sometimes hits my account before the withdrawal!) so the account is never in debit.

I’m not clear what you mean but if you mean you are now in credit on the card due to the refund, don’t withdraw it as cash. Contact the credit card provider and ask them to transfer it to your bank account. If you don’t, you will pay interest. Cash borrowed on a credit card incurs interest from the day of withdrawal, there is no credit free period like you get with purchases. Recently I had a refund of £150 to a credit card, so I subtracted that from the amount due and paid the balance. I thought this was the right thing to do but no, they charged interest on the £150 because it was a “credit” and not a “payment”. After a lot of arguing I got the interest refunded, it’s creative accounting on their part as I see it but they are a business that exists to make money. Don’t pay extra for getting your hands on your money.

Just keep careful track and spend it on food etc until you use it up.

You will still get charged for withdrawing it as cash.

Hmm, sounds like I’d better leave it there and spend on the card until it’s gone

I definitely hadn’t thought of it possibly damaging my credit rating, thanks for that

Thank you all 😊

We had this with flights and called the company. They just transferred the balance to our bank account

If I can get it transferred to our bank account that would be perfect, I’ll give them a call when it goes in

Thanks again folks 😊

I had this with first direct, I was allowed to do an internal transfer of the surplus to my current account via online banking. No charges

Just ask for a refund from the credit card. I paid £600 twice for something and one lot got re credited to my card and they then paid it back to me. No bother.

I’ve had to do it a few times this year and you can just get the balance transferred you your bank account. I can do it on the credit card app

Can you link PayPal to that account and send the money over? Asking the CC company for a refund sounds like the easiest option.

Thanks for your help everyone I really do appreciate your input

To save myself time I’ll probably leave it there and do our next 3 or 4 shops on it

I’m glad I asked though, I hadn’t thought that I could be penalised for taking the cash

I have had this happen at various points during lockdown (event cancellations, items found to be out of stock etc) and I just contacted my credit card company and they refunded it into my current account for me

I was told by Barclaycard that it affects your credit score because it looks like desperation , so that looks like you cannot either manage money or don’t have enough income to cover basic needs.

If your credit score isn’t important, like you are applying for a mortgage fe, then go ahead but pay it back ASAP.

I transferred a positive balance over to my current acc- v easy and no fees

@AlwaysLatte

I had a refunded trip on my credit card recently and just left it there for future purchases as it's more expensive to withdraw it.

This is what I do

I accidentally paid something like £5100 rather than £1500 onto my credit card when paying it online- no problem, they just refunded the difference back to my bank account when I phoned them- they said they'd had to do a lot due to eg holiday refunds coming through.

Last month I transferred a positive balance from my CC to my current account with no fees. It took a few days to show in my account but no other issues.

I had the cost of some cancelled flights refunded to my zero balance credit card and the CC company automatically refunded it to my card with a stern email about not having a credit balance! it was a fair amount (half term holiday flights to spain) so it was useful that the refunded it to me direct.

I have cancelled a few holidays this year because of Covid, all refunds back to the card.overall about 8k worth. Because I had cleared the balance when I paid for the holiday the credit was mine to be refunded to my bank.

Didn’t cost a penny. Why would it? It was a credit balance.

Sorry ignore me! I get it, the op was going to take the credit in cash where fees would likely apply rather than transferring to her bank.