Slate Payments - Refunds
  • 22 Oct 2024
  • 8 minute read
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Slate Payments - Refunds

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Article summary

Introduction

đź””Important: This article only discusses refunding of payments made through Slate Payments

If you are using an external payment processor, refunds need to be initiated in that external processor's system. Notifications for those external refunds are not sent to Slate, so payment refund activities must be added manually.

Initiating and processing refunds right from inside Slate is one of the many conveniences and efficiencies of using Slate Payments. While refunds are usually handled seamlessly, the refunding process does have some intricacies and can sometimes lead to further inquiries from your customers. Many questions can be handled in a self-service fashion. Please review these more detailed sections carefully before reaching out to us.

đź“– Further reading

Please review Slate Payments - Account balances for a more detailed discussion on terminology and options.

Initiating a Refund

đź””Important: Simply adding a payment refund activity to a record does not initiate a refund!

In order to refund a payment, you must have the "Payment Refund" permission.

To refund a payment originally made through Slate Payments:

  1. Open the Payment Received activity or interaction on the person record. You will see a "Refund" link, which you can click to initiate a refund.

    Once a refund is initiated it cannot be cancelled.

    When a payment is refunded through Slate Payments, the transaction fee will also be refunded (by the payment processor). The payer will receive the total amount they paid, but your Slate Payments deposit account will only be debited for the net amount you originally received. In other words, when using 'Slate Payments,' you do not lose any money by accepting and then refunding a payment!

  2. When you click the 'refund' link, you will see the 'Refund Payment' pop-up window, where you will confirm your decision. You can refund any amount up to the original charge amount (never more than that).

Slate will display the currently available balance of the relevant Slate Payments deposit account. When initiating refunds, you will want that balance to be positive.

A red warning label will be displayed when this balance is negative. You may still be able to initiate the refund, but certain limitations may apply depending on your account setup and the volume and size of the refund activities (individually and in aggregate).

In general, we recommend adjusting the payout settings for your Slate Payments deposit account such that direct debits can be made directly from your external bank account to cover a negative balance (see two-way payout setting).

If you are planning to issue multiple refunds on a given day and the sum of all refunds will leave your account with a negative balance (even assuming you are still receiving new incoming funds), consider breaking up the refunds into batches and initiating them instead over the course of several days!

Frequently Asked Questions

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. If there are funds currently available 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 will become negative. Whenever an account balance is negative, regularly scheduled payouts are suspended (see more in Account Balances).

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 may 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.

If there are insufficient funds in your deposit account, a refund will generally be attempted and initiated anyway, and the balance in that deposit account will become negative. In many cases, especially if you have the (recommended) two-way payout setting enabled on your deposit account (and are not on a daily transfer schedule), the refund will ultimately be processed normally.

If you are issuing 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 sum of all initiated refunds (on a given day) might lead to such a large negative balance in your deposit account that it will trigger a 'fraud detection' threshold (on that specific deposit account - this is not per database/institution; each deposit account should be considered a separate and distinct record). In this case, all refunds are halted. The transactions affected by any of these scenarios will show as "Refund Pending" in the payment history.

What is the timing for receiving a refund?

Once you initiate a refund, the payment processor contacts your customer’s bank or card network/issuer to complete the refund requests. Your payer or applicant should see 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?

Generally, yes. An applicant or payer may contact you if they don’t immediately see the refund. First, remember all the timing guidelines from above. Make sure you are counting business days and account for bank holidays (for both your and the recipient’s jurisdiction).

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 line item 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 primary refund reference number corresponding to the refund. For card refunds, it can be an Acquirer Reference Number (ARN), System Trace Audit Number (STAN), or Retrieval Reference Number (RRN). An ARN, STAN, or RRN is a reference number assigned to a card transaction as it moves through the payment flow. Your applicant or payer can then take this reference ID to their bank (or card issuer), which can 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.

Refund reference IDs are available under the following conditions:

  1. They are only supported for some financial partners (e.g. Visa, Mastercard, AMEX card transactions).

  2. It can take up to 7 business days after initiating the refund for the processor (Stripe) to receive an ARN (or RRN, STAN) from downstream banking partners.

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

Slate is displaying the relevant refund reference ID in the payment detail popup of the refund, if (and as soon as) the information is available in the transaction details we receive from Stripe. You no longer have to reach out to us to help locate it.

Note: For Link payments we don't automatically receive ARNs or other tracing IDs. It doesn't (necessarily) mean they don't exist, it just means that it is more challenging and time consuming to track and retrieve them. We (Technolutions) will have to involve internal support teams at Stripe.

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

  • There is generally 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.


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