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I paid for a conference with a credit card (about 10 months in advance before the event). The amount was taken from my card in a few weeks. About 3 months later, I cancelled this credit card as I changed credit card companies (unrelated event). But then this conference was eventually cancelled 10 months later due to pandemic. Now after a year of emails, they have offered to refund the amount but only to the exact card that was used to pay for it. And of course I don't have this card anymore. Is there some workaround?

Edit: The card/bank is based in Sweden and the event paid for was in the US.

Update: I did contact the back and now 7 weeks later, I finally got my refund.

mindlessgreen
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4 Answers4

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This happened to me a few months ago. I received a statement in the mail from the bank who issued the card that showed a credit. They did not send a check to me proactively but after contacting them they did send a check for the amount of credit.

jwh20
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In the UK at least, one of two things will happen:

  1. The receiving bank will contact you and ask how you wish to receive the credit. Possibly less a small administration fee.

  2. If the bank has a reliable way of identifying a bank account that belongs to you, say a recent direct debit or another account that belongs to you with the same bank, they'll just deposit it there automatically.

ScottishTapWater
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5

Is there some workaround?

There is no need to. Let the event company refund via the credit card, and then contact the bank or credit card processor to receive the proceedings.

This is because:

  1. The event company may have no means to know if the person emailing them is the credit card owner. So the only safe way (for them) to process the refund is by using the same channel of payment: the credit card.

  2. There is a credit card account and (possibly many) credit cards numbers. When you "reissue" a new card, your account continues. The same applies here. The refund will pass through our canceled card number and be deposited in your card account.

Then contact the credit card company and inform them that you don't have that card anymore, that you will not create a new card, and ask for a check or transfer of the credit. In the remote possibility that the credit card company, in turn, gave you any headache, then inform you that you will pursue formal complaints with the Central Bank and the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (or the respective institutions in your country).

André LFS Bacci
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It helps if we know your country, and the issuer. I had a similar issue at Kinko's some years back. I also had a situation with a phone banking app developed in partnership with Vodafone and my bank. It allowed transfers to cancelled cards at times.

Such deposits and refunds can go into a suspense account if the card number has not been re-used. It may also suddenly trigger a statement. Otherwise the bank has a team for this. In my case the team was appropriately named for their role. It can be sorted. Changing cards or providers can complicate the matter as they would obviously prefer to sweep the balance to another account. If the reversal cannot be processed it is the Merchant's problem.

mckenzm
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