Missing refund to a closed credit card account

blandford_flyer

Hi, In February this year I was due a £50.09 refund from the AA for a Car insurance policy which I cancelled when I changed my car. The AA told me they could only process the refund to the House of Fraser credit card which I had used to pay for the policy some eight months earlier. I explained that it would not be possible to do this as I no longer had the credit card and my account with the card provider (Newday Card Services) had been closed for over 3 months. I asked if they could just send me a cheque. They insisted that it could only be done via this means in order to comply with Money Laundering regulations. I called Newday card Services to inform them that I should be receiving funds to a closed account relating to a card which I no longer own. They informed me that it was NOT possible for the AA to issue a credit under these circumstances.
So I called the AA again and explained this a second time. They still refused to send me a cheque but they assured me that any rejected payment would bounce back to them and only after this had happened would they agree to send me a cheque. This was 4 months ago and I have not received my refund from either company.
I wrote a formal letter to Nadia Hoosen - Chief Legal Officer & Company Secretary of the AA but they maintain that my refund was credited to Newday on February 15th 2019.
Newday maintain they have not received any refund from the AA and they are now asking for additional "Trace Details" such as ac no. paid from and ac no paid to, they say they cannot investigate the matter any further without these details.
They also suggest that the payment may have been rejected or placed in a holding account?? but they don't really know. I went back to the AA (on 5th June) and asked if they can provide any trace details. To date I have had no response.

This week I also received a "final resolution" letter from Newday which states that they will not uphold the complaint I made to them regarding this missing refund.
So my £50.09 refund vanished four months ago and I am unable to ascertain from either the AA or Newday where the money has gone.

I have contacted the Financial Ombudsman and they have sent me documentation to complete and return in support of my complaint. Before I complete all the paperwork and submit it to the Financial Ombudsman I was hoping for some advice on whether this needs to be pursued as 2 separate complaints against the AA and Newday, or whether it should be treated as one case. I feel as that I've been bounced back and forth between these two businesses and that there is no process in place for dealing with a situation like mine.

Surely it must be a reasonably frequent scenario where someone is due a refund to a card which they no longer own.
It is looking fairly certain that I am never going to see this £50.09 refund.
Has anyone else found themselves in this situation?Is the Financial Ombudsman the only / best route to pusue this?

jonesMUFCforever

You are owed money by the AA - I don't blame Newday for not being much help as you closed the account.
So IMO you complain about AA

[Deleted User]

Although the account is “closed” it can still receive refunds and the card provider should then send you a cheque.

A forum search will yield similar results

Terry_Towelling

If the AA has processed the refund and there is no evidence that it has been 'bounced' back to them by the card provider (which it may have been) then your complaint in the first instance should be aimed at the card provider. You've done that and I cannot fathom why they'd tell you the refund may have been rejected or placed in a holding account. Which one is it? Sounds like they're just guessing but why would they then issue a final response without seeming to have done any investigation?

If they are going to insist that they have returned it to the AA (which would have to have been done by a Refund Chargeback) then they should be able to locate both the incoming refund (on or shortly after 15/02/19) and their subsequent Chargeback of the refund. They've not done anything to confirm or deny this.

If they did tell you that either there was no refund or that they received it but bounced it back, then your complaint would have to revert to the AA - but they don't seem to have told you anything useful, just that they aren't going to do anything more for you - that's pretty shameful but then, some card issuers are rubbish and you need to give them a wide berth.

My gut feeling is that the refund will be sitting in an account somewhere in the card provider's records. No responsible card company should raise a Chargeback on a refund received for an account they once maintained given that refunds will always come in after their corresponding sales (sometimes many months later) and that card scheme rules also require refunds to go back to the same card as the sale.

Something that would help drive your case forward with the Ombudsman would be to get the 23-digit reference number of the refund transaction (the ARN - Acquirer Reference Number) from the AA and written confirmation that they have not had the refund bounced back to them. They may have to approach their Acquirer to get this information but it should be easy for them to get. If you can't get it, don't worry.

It's a shame that you now have to take the case to FOS because your card provider could actually resolve this issue with about 5 minutes of investigation.

Best of luck with FOS - you will get your money, it may just take a while.