How to return the goods after swiping the card?

In early summer, Ms. Huang bought a pair of her favorite shoes from the shopping mall, and spent 560 yuan, which made her very distressed. However, what distressed her even more was that the shoes had cracked before wearing them for a month, so Ms. Huang went to the shopping mall to request repairs. After the overhaul, the manufacturer said that the shoes could not be repaired and could only be refunded after depreciation of five thousandths of the cost per day. "I refunded it, but when I got to the counter, the staff told me that because I was paying by card, I couldn't get cash on the same day, and I had to wait 14 working days before the funds could be returned to my card. Not advocating Do you pay by credit card? Why is there so much trouble when you pay by credit card?" Miss Huang was puzzled.

Inter-bank settlement extends the refund period

Buying shoes is still a small expense. If you encounter large consumer expenditures such as home appliances and furniture, the funds will be delayed for 14 working days before the account arrives, which will indeed bring a lot of trouble. . Not only does it occupy the credit limit of the credit card, but once a credit card repayment cycle is crossed, the cardholder may also need to repay the money first, and then patiently wait for the money to return to the account.

"What's more, everything sounds uneasy. I asked the mall, and the mall said it was the bank's problem, but which bank should I ask, one is the acquirer of the POS machine, and the other is my credit card. The card issuing bank, once the funds fail to reach the account, I don't even have a place to ask for an explanation." Miss Huang told reporters.

The reporter consulted the 95516 telephone service hotline of China UnionPay Shanghai Branch, and the answer was that if the refunded payment for a credit card consumption is to be returned to the cardholder's account, it needs to go through several merchants, acquirers, card issuers, etc. The institutional settlement process does take time, but the exact time varies from bank to bank.

In layman's terms, in order to successfully refund a sum of money to the credit card, it needs to go through the following process: First, the merchant must send an instruction to its settlement bank (acquiring bank). The money will be returned to the cardholder's card-issuing bank, and then the card-issuing bank will remit the money to the cardholder's credit card account. Of course, there is also a role in this process, that is, the organization that deploys the POS machine, usually a bank, of course, there are exceptions. With such twists and turns, even 2 weeks, it is not surprising.

What needs to be understood is that according to the agreement signed between the settlement bank and the merchant, when the merchant accepts the return, if the payment is in cash, the consumer can only receive the return payment in cash at the time of the return; For consumption by bank card, merchants are only allowed to return the money to the card, and cannot return cash on the spot. This regulation is implemented in shopping malls. In Yongle, Suning and other large home appliance retailers, the reporter also saw similar regulations. After swiping a card for consumption, if a return occurs, the refund must be returned to the card. Yongle said that the refund It takes 15 working days for the money to arrive, and the revelation posted on the Suning cashier informs the cardholder that it will take about 1 month for the refund to arrive.

UnionPay reminds cardholders that in case of disputes over returns, they need to ask the merchant to take back the original signed purchase order. If the purchase order has been settled through the bank, they should ask the merchant to Return the transaction through POS or pressing the card, flush the original account, and transfer the consumed funds back to the credit card account. Remember to ask the merchant for a return receipt as a certificate. Usually, the merchant will issue a settlement document to the cardholder. The cardholder should keep this document and pay more attention to the changes in their account. If you receive a refund, you can also consult the acquirer and the card issuer.

Refunds arrive at different times

If you return the goods on the same day, the cashier can immediately perform a reverse operation on the POS machine, which is equivalent to refunding the money to the cardholder's credit card. Why is this kind of refund? Quick and easy? This involves another stipulation of UnionPay. If the consumer returns the goods before the merchant settles on the same day as the consumer swipes the card, the merchant can immediately return the returned money to the consumer's bank card through the UnionPay system.

The bank's account also confirms this. A relevant person from Guangdong Development Bank told reporters that credit card returns are generally divided into two situations. One is the return of the merchant before the checkout on the same day, and the merchant's cashier directly cancels the transaction on the POS machine without involving the issue of fund transfer; the second is the merchant's return on the same day. Returns after checkout: After receiving the return funds from the acquirer, the bank will deposit the funds into the customer's account within the second working day, but when the return arrives at the card issuing bank depends on the merchant's POS machine The operation process and time of the acquirer.

Partial refunds are doomed to a lengthy billing process. Pudong Development Bank Credit Card Center explained to reporters that refunds are divided into online and offline transactions. Among them, the online transaction is to make a refund transaction directly on the POS machine, which is the same as the purchase, and the money will be refunded to the customer account within 2~3 days. However, such transactions can only be a full refund. The offline transaction is to complete the refund manually through the intermediate links of the transaction such as the merchant and the acquirer, which takes a long time, generally 2 to 3 weeks. Available for partial refunds.

For cardholders who purchase items on instalments, this operation will be more complicated, and the cardholder may also lose some processing fees. The credit card center of Shanghai Pudong Development Bank stated that there is no handling fee for the installment payment of the bank's credit card. After the return, the payment will be refunded to the customer's account at one time, but since the refund is done manually, it generally takes 2 to 3 weeks.

Guangdong Development Bank credit card implements "everything" instalment payment. The refund procedure and arrival time are the same as ordinary credit card consumption. After the customer has used the installment payment method, and then requests a return, the merchant will return the relevant fees to the cardholder's account, and if the cardholder proposes to the bank to terminate the installment payment early, the bank will charge an additional fee for one installment. For mail order installment payment, this service does not charge the customer a handling fee, so there is no problem of refunding the handling fee.

And the two banks also stated that no matter how long it takes for the refund to arrive in the account, the funds will always occupy the cardholder's credit limit, and the cardholder needs to repay the amount first, otherwise penalty interest will be incurred.

No handling fee for credit card returns

Based on this analysis, the return and refund procedure after credit card swipe consumption involves multiple agencies, but there is no unified agency to supervise each link, so the process of any agency may affect the specific interests of cardholders. At the same time, merchants play a key role in the return process. Cardholders need to specifically agree on the refund method when returning goods, and ask whether there will be other charges.

One of the experiences that Mr. Liu told was that he planned to return the goods for some reasons, and the unopened goods also met the conditions for return by the mall, but he was asked by the mall to pay a certain percentage of the handling fee, and argued that because it was a credit card consumption, the bank The side has already charged a handling fee to the mall, and this handling fee must be borne by consumers.

The reporter got the answer from the bank's credit card department that, according to the agreement between different banks and different shopping malls, when consumers swipe their cards for consumption, the bank charges various fees from the shopping malls. When a consumer returns a product, it will be deducted through bank procedures and a full refund will be given. There is no so-called "handling fee". Therefore, such a business is completely illegal. Of course, for automobile, wholesale and real estate merchants, the settlement bank may not refund the handling fee to the merchant, so it is reasonable for the merchant to ask for the handling fee to be deducted.