Want refund from Ryanair for cancelled flight but bank account already closed

reallydismayed

I am asking this question on behalf of a friend who does not have a full command of English.
It is difficult to contact Ryanair at the moment, so I thought I would ask here first so as to be more prepared for a conversation with them.

A flight was booked with Ryanair and paid for with a bank card. Some time later Ryanair cancelled the flight due to Covid-19. She would like a refund (not a voucher). However since the original booking, the bank account has been closed down and presumably the bank card is no longer usable.

I understand that travel companies prefer to make refunds to the card used for purchase, in order to avoid fraud problems.

However that is not possible here. So my question is, what other options are there?

eskbanker

Ryanair will still need to try to refund to that account, and if closed, the payment will bounce back.  Once this has happened, they should be able and willing to make alternative repayment arrangements, although it'll probably be a lengthy and onerous process, so prepare to be persistent!

[Deleted User]

might not bounce back-anywhere. The payment could be held in a separate account until claimed by the rightful recipient.  Your friend would need to liaise with the bank in question with details of amount to be received and approximate date (if she knows approximately when).  Usual identity checks will be carried out. 

mattyprice4004

Some companies will only refund to original method of payment with no exceptions, and that's also perfectly legal.

CKhalvashi

mattyprice4004 said:

Some companies will only refund to original method of payment with no exceptions, and that's also perfectly legal.

We have no ability to do anything but without speaking to the merchant services provider, so it's not necessarily the fault of the business.

mattyprice4004

CKhalvashi said:

mattyprice4004 said:

Some companies will only refund to original method of payment with no exceptions, and that's also perfectly legal.

We have no ability to do anything but without speaking to the merchant services provider, so it's not necessarily the fault of the business.

It's not the fault of the business at all - I ran one for 7 years taking card payments, and had this issue many times.
At the end of the day by insisting a refund went on the original method I was protecting myself, so always refused to do otherwise.