Where do the monies for my refund come from?

Your Slate Payments Deposit Account includes a holding account with Stripe (a connected account) where your funds are 'held' until they are scheduled to be transferred to you. Funds are collected, held, and paid out in separate sub-balances depending on the source of the payment (credit card charge vs. ACH payment). If there are funds (of the relevant funds source) currently in that account when you make a refund, those funds are used.

If there are not sufficient funds in the account, the refund will be initiated anyway, and the balance in that account (or sub-balance) will become negative. Whenever an account balance (or sub-balance) is negative (at the cutoff time), regularly scheduled payouts (for that funds type) are suspended.

If you are planning to issue a large number of refunds (or a substantial individual transaction), you may encounter limits or NSF scenarios that impact the timing of your refunds. The transactions will show as "Refund Pending" in the payment history.

What does 'Refund Pending' mean?

The 'Refund Pending' status means that the refund process was initiated with Stripe. Still, no funds have been released, and the counter-party financial institution has not been notified about a refund. No ARN would exist in this case, regardless of timing.

What is the timing for receiving a refund?

Once you initiate a refund, the payment processor contacts your customer’s bank or card issuer to complete the refund requests. Your payer or applicant sees the refund as a credit approximately 5-10 business days later, depending upon the bank or card issuer. This can take longer for certain international cards.

(This timing is assuming that your deposit account had a positive balance at the time of refund initiation. More complicated scenarios may come into play when attempting to issue unusually large numbers of refunds or a substantial single refund. If you see a 'Pending Refund' in the payment history, the process was initiated, but no funds have been released.

Can you trace a refund?

An applicant or payer may contact you if they don’t see the refund. First, remember all the timing guidelines from above. Make sure you are counting business days and account for bank holidays.

A refund may not be visible to the customer for several reasons:

• Refunds issued shortly after the original charge generally appear as a reversal instead of a refund. In the case of a reversal, the original charge drops off the customer’s billing statement, and a separate credit is not issued.

• Refunds can fail if the customer’s bank or card issuer has been unable to process them correctly. The bank returns the refunded amount to Slate Payments, and we add it back to your connected account balance. This process can take up to 30 days from requesting the refund.

If a payer is asking about a refund (again, keeping the general timing guidelines in mind), it can be helpful to give them the Acquirer Reference Number (ARN) corresponding to the refund. An ARN is a unique number assigned to a card transaction as it moves through the payment flow. Your applicant or payer can then take the ARN to their bank, which will provide more information about when the refund will be available. A reference number can also increase your customer’s confidence that the refund has been initiated.

ARNs are available under the following conditions:

1. They are only supported for Visa and Mastercard card transactions.

2. It takes 1-3 business days after initiating the refund for the processor to receive the ARN from downstream banking partners.

3. An ARN is not available in the case of a reversal since the original charge is not processed.

Assuming that 5-10 business days have passed since you initiated the refund, you can reach out to us via a Support Desk ticket. We will attempt to locate the ARN corresponding to the refund (if available).

Are there 'time-based limitations' on initiating refunds?

• There is no set time limit for credit card refunds.

• Refunds for checking account payments (ACH) must be made within 90 days of the original payment (and can only be initiated once the payment clears). The ACH network sets this limit. It is not possible for us to adjust this or grant exceptions.

Refund initiated to a closed payer account. What now?

A payer may have closed the card or bank account from which the original payment was made. It is important to note that in many cases, it may take up to 30 days (sometimes longer) before the result of a 'failure to refund' scenario is surfaced back to a processor from the downstream banking partner.

If there is still an open card account for that customer with that bank (or some other business relationship), the funds will usually get routed automatically to the new card. If that is not possible, the bank will often attempt to issue a check directly to their former card customer.

If these options are not available, we will eventually be notified that the refund has failed. While rare, we will record the 'Refund Failed' action and the originally drawn funds will be returned to you as part of a  scheduled payout.

For Visa and Mastercard card payments, an ARN reference number (usually available 2-3 business days after the refund is issued) can be used to locate funds. We can retrieve an ARN for you to share with your customer, which they must then share with their bank to locate the funds. 

You cannot send or direct a refund to a different bank account or card account.

If a payer is merely concerned that the expiration date on the credit card that was originally used has now passed (i.e., the original physical card is expired), you can generally reassure them that the payment processor will be aware of and able to locate the 'current' version of the card. No further action is usually required.

Are there 'other' limitations for refunds?

You can't send or direct a refund to a different bank account, card account, or any other payment method.

Only funds that were taken via the original charge can be sent back to a card (via refund), i.e. refunding more money than was initially charged is not possible due to restrictions placed by the card issuing companies (this is not something that Technolutions or Stripe can adjust or circumvent).

Refunds must be equal to or less than the amount of the original charge amount. As such, partial refunds are possible. Enter the partial refund in the Refund Amount box in the Refund Payment Pop-up window as displayed above.