Help with Partial Refund to Frozen Bank Account

BennyBoo43

Looking on here for any help going forward with this, i'm almost at my witts end!

I can go into more detail with proof, images, emails etc, but i'll start with the basics.

I booked a Holiday for an Anniversary using PayPal Credit, but Paid it off in full before any interest was applied.
Covid19 put a stop to the holiday year one, so we received a full refund to my original payment source.

Rebooked the same holiday with a different company for the following year, but a flight change (and the more impending doom of Covid19) made us decide to receive a full refund again, looking to book when we had a more clear future of holidays, due to Covid19.

In the middle of booking and deciding to receive the refund, Covid19 and unable to claim furlough ended in me unfortunatley writing my debts off under the government scheme.

This means all of my bank accounts/Payal being closed/frozen. Speaking with the debt solution company I was allowed to keep the refund as it was not part of any debt.

Rang the Holiday company to explain I would need to receive my refund to new bank details and all was ok, aslong as I provided proof or closed/frozen accounts.

New bank details and proof provided and a Partial refund (Hotel) was received, but the other half (flights) had been processed to refund to the original payment source..
A quick phone call and email to them and they assured me the notice was an error and they would request new banking details prior to the refund process.

10 minutes later I received an email stating I had a refund to the original payment source. A closed/frozen account I have no access to.

Many emails have been sent back and forth, them accepting the error, its under investigation etc, but after 2 weeks of nothing I have to email/ring again for an update, only to have to start the whole process again.

Where do I stand? I am having no replying emails to my queries now, but the ones I do get just state that the refund has been processed..

Thankyou

[Deleted User]

Speak to the bank where your account was held. It will be in a holding account, unless it has been offset against any outstanding debts with the bank.

Westin

Agree with zx81.

Other option might be to ask if they will reissue the refund by cheque.  Appreciate this might not be so easy if you have used an online or overseas based travel provider (you haven't mentioned).

mattyprice4004

Some companies can only issue to the original payment source - before I sold my business mine was the same. 

The software I used only allowed refunds to the original source, and my legal guidance advised this is all I had to offer. 

Refunding any other way would have created lots of paperwork etc so I just always refunded to the original method. 

I can’t see that you have any rights to anything different here, your banking situation is your own issue not theirs. 

Sandtree

Westin said:

Other option might be to ask if they will reissue the refund by cheque.  Appreciate this might not be so easy if you have used an online or overseas based travel provider (you haven't mentioned).

They've already refunded to source though, why'd they send a second refund and be out of pocket?

Speak to the bank and see whats happened, if you had outstanding debts its presumably been used as payment against those. Money going into suspense accounts (aka banks holding pen for money it doesnt know what it should be doing with) its much less common these days.

Also speak to whoever dealt with your IVA (or whatever write off mechanism you used) to get their advice if it has been used to clear debt.

Its basic anti-money laundering to always return to source, most wont consider another mechanism unless the bank bounce the payment. If its been taken to pay off a debt you didnt want to repay then the merchant wont consider that their problem.

BennyBoo43

Thankyou for all the advice received so far, but I feel I need to clear a few points..

The refund has been received into a PayPal account. Which is frozen, I have spoken with PayPal and they say as such.

I am to receive the refund, it was part of any debt owed to PayPal, but part of the IVA means I had to have all my accounts/credit frozen/closed.

Partial refund has been returned to a new account, so Nothing wrong with giving new account details to refund to.

The Holiday company has repeatedly admitted fault, but are now ignoring me.

BennyBoo43

Wasn't part of any debt*

mattyprice4004

It’ll be sat in the frozen PayPal account, they will have a procedure for accessing it but you’ll have to wait until you’re allowed to un-freeze it.

Theyre not going refund again while the money is in limbo with PayPal.