Missing card and ARN refund 12 December 2022 at 1:51PM in Budgeting & bank accounts 2 replies 163 views

hopeful12

Hi, I need some help or guidance if possible please.
Pre covid I bought flights with EasyJet, which where eventually turned into vouchers. The vouchers where used on a flight, which EasyJet have now cancelled. They have agreed to refund the money, due to it being so long and it being their fault this time and they have done this, however, they will only return to original payment, which is fair enough. The money was refunded to 2 cards within days, however, however, one of the other payments, is on another card that is no longer in use, I did explain this to them but they insisted, it could only go back to the original card whether in use or not. I called the card company and they asked me to request the ARN number so they could trace it and refund it to me through my bank. I got the ARN number from EasyJet and now the card company are saying there is no refund or any activity showing on the account. I have contacted EasyJet and told them this but they say they cant tell me what card it went back to for Data Protection, not even the last 4 numbers, even though a previous adviser had done this, only that it was a Mastercard, I feel like I am going round in circles, I simply want back my money, has anyone gone through this, or know what I can do next ? If it was just a couple of pounds I wouldn't care but it is a couple of hundred...Thanks, 

eskbanker

hopeful12 said:

I called the card company and they asked me to request the ARN number so they could trace it and refund it to me through my bank. I got the ARN number from EasyJet and now the card company are saying there is no refund or any activity showing on the account. I have contacted EasyJet and told them this but they say they cant tell me what card it went back to for Data Protection, not even the last 4 numbers, even though a previous adviser had done this, only that it was a Mastercard

I don't understand the significance of the card number - the ARN is a unique number that will allow identification of a payment, so the card number won't be needed on top of that, i.e. the card company needs to clarify the fate of the payment based solely on the ARN.  Having said that, I'm not sure what can actually be done when a card company denies receipt of the refund - what do they say happens if it had arrived, i.e. are they saying that they'd bounce it back to the sender or that it would go to some sort of holding account?

born_again

Can Op confirm that this is a debit or credit card given pre 2020 & Mastercard mentioned.

As while the ARN trace is the same. How it is worked at the banks end between Credit & Debit cards is totally different due to the systems involved.

If ARN says no payment, then either the number is wrong (very easy given length) or it has not been paid by easy jet.

As a guide.
Debit card payments, in this situation will go to a internal bank account. There will be a separate internal account for each sort code of the account the card is linked to.
So if OP knows the date the payment was sent & amount. There will be people able to trace it. Takes a while & they will not be on the front line. 
Credit card payments can be worse, depending on the reason for the card no longer being live. Expired are not bad, as account keeps scrolling along. They just sit on the side of the old card & will need moving over.
If it was stopped as lost/stolen. Then that creates a new account linked to the old one. This can often go wrong, when someone gets the stop card process wrong & the link ends up broken. So having the old card number in this case helps. As you can use that to find the account.

I love this stuff as it involves some real thinking about the processes, as can take a long time. But many hate it as you really need to fully understand the systems involved & how they work. Older staff do as it used to all be manual. Newer do not as it's all automated & they have not got a clue 🤷‍♀️