Unable to get a refund as my Credit card has since closed!

Leesez

We were due to go on holiday last week to Florida and hired a car through Alamo (booked in May 2023) We had to cancel the holiday, due to family member injury and so we cancelled the car hire. We are due a refund of £841 (emails confirming the refund would be made were received) However since booking we cancelled the credit card used to pay for the booking and Alamo now saying they can not refund to another card/account. Our credit card company have confirmed they reject refunds to closed accounts and therefore the refund is not being held by them. We are going around in circles and unable to get the money back we are owed. I am getting no where with Alamo.. Surely this cant be right? Is there a professional body I can contact about this?

DullGreyGuy

Do Alamo confirm the refunded sums have been returned to them?

Leesez

Alamo are saying that refund has been sent and are insisting CC company will be holding it. CC company (Santander)  saying they would reject it!

DullGreyGuy

Leesez said:

Alamo are saying that refund has been sent and are insisting CC company will be holding it. CC company (Santander)  saying they would reject it!

So Almo believe Santander has the money and Santander haven't really looked given they say they "would" reject it rather than "have" rejected it?

ComicGeek

I had a similar issue with LV and John Lewis after getting a refund after the card was cancelled. Spent ages on the phone with both parties, eventually managed to speak with someone at LV who knew the process and they posted me a cheque - really difficult to find anyone with authority to make payments that wasn't a card refund.

In my case it was definitely for LV to resolve rather than the CC company. 

Alderbank

My understanding is that for several reasons including money laundering risks and merchant fee management, refunds whether in UK or US are always back to the card used for the original payment.

Why would anyone choose a card to book a car hire then make sure to cancel that card before the hire date? An open tab on the credit card is a normal part of car hire. What you are doing looks like you are trying to fleece them out of paying for a tank of gas (at least).

I have hired cars in the USA for decades. I suspect that if you had tried to actually collect the car from Alamo using a cancelled card you would have had problems.

born_again

Ask Alamo for the ARN - acquirer reference number & date, Time & local amount as could be in USD?
Give that the bank & they should be able to find it. But you will need to get passed front line call center, who may not realise that payments can still be received to a closed car, as they go to the main holding account, before being sent to the actual card account.
If still being blocked after giving ARN to them, raise a complaint. Will make sure then, that someone physically goes through the account looking for the payment, which is why it needs time & date... There will be thousands+++ in there.

RefluentBeans

Yeah this sounds, as others have said, that they only refund back to the original payment method. That’s a fair and legal policy. Unsure how it stacks in USA. 

From what I understand, it’s unlikely that the credit card company would just auto decline any refund to an account that closed (unless it’s been closed for a long time). The money is probably in Santander’s account. It’s them you need to contact. I would find it very unlikely if the car rental place pays back on a different card/through cheque. The bank will be able to provide a cheque for you. Might just be worth pushing more with Santander and get it escalated to someone who has experience with international transfers. 

Leesez

Alderbank said:

My understanding is that for several reasons including money laundering risks and merchant fee management, refunds whether in UK or US are always back to the card used for the original payment.

Why would anyone choose a card to book a car hire then make sure to cancel that card before the hire date? An open tab on the credit card is a normal part of car hire. What you are doing looks like you are trying to fleece them out of paying for a tank of gas (at least).

I have hired cars in the USA for decades. I suspect that if you had tried to actually collect the car from Alamo using a cancelled card you would have had problems.

Yes in hindsight it wasn't a good move on our part. We were having many issues with the credit card and it was unreliable for online purchases getting refused intermittently and so we decided to change company. I said to my husband just the other day that we would have probably had problems when picking up the car as we no longer had the payment CC. That said, we cancelled within terms that meant we are due a full refund...now just need to track it down....