Order of allocation of payments for refunds

gwapenut

I have a Barclaycard with a Balance Transfer, which I am using for purchases, because Barclaycard charge no interest on purchases if they are paid off after the statement date and before the due date. Paying off the precise amount of purchases each month allows my BT to remain intact at the full amount.

Unfortunately I was double charged on a sizeable purchase this week. It has been rectified as a swift refund. The erroneous purchase has not yet been statemented. The refund has occurred a week before I was due to make my monthly payment.

Does anyone for sure know how this refund is allocated towards my order of payments? I do know that refunds reduce minimum payment amounts. But I do not know whether the refund will be allocated towards my previous statement's purchases like a normal payment would, whether it will reduce my balance transfer, or whether it will simply be allocated to reverse the erroneous purchase (I have never used that merchant before).

Mark_d

I can't speak for your particular Barclaycard but typically a refund works to reverse the original payment.  So the effective date of your refund should be backdated to the date of the original payment.

QrizB

As normally advised on this forum, it would be better to have a different credit card for purchases.

gwapenut

QrizB said:

As normally advised on this forum, it would be better to have a different credit card for purchases.

Not in the case of Barclaycard. Their rules differ from others. Using it for purchases keeps my £8k balance transfer at £8k with no interest on purchases, and the minimum payment going towards purchases rather than clearing the BT

northwalesd

gwapenut said:

QrizB said:

As normally advised on this forum, it would be better to have a different credit card for purchases.

Not in the case of Barclaycard. Their rules differ from others. Using it for purchases keeps my £8k balance transfer at £8k with no interest on purchases, and the minimum payment going towards purchases rather than clearing the BT

Except you then find yourself in the situation you're now in, which could have been avoided.

gwapenut

northwalesd said:

gwapenut said:

QrizB said:

As normally advised on this forum, it would be better to have a different credit card for purchases.

Not in the case of Barclaycard. Their rules differ from others. Using it for purchases keeps my £8k balance transfer at £8k with no interest on purchases, and the minimum payment going towards purchases rather than clearing the BT

Except you then find yourself in the situation you're now in, which could have been avoided.

I think you're missing the point. It's hardly a bad situation - i was just asking for advice in case someone new for sure. The worst case here is that I repay a bit more than I need to, which reduces the amount of my BT by a few hundred pounds.

If I hadn't chosen Barclaycard, or if I hadn't used my Barclaycard for spending, my minimum repayments would have put me into this "situation" of having repaid some of my BT by now already.

I'm also careful with what I put onto the Barclaycard, by not choosing items I am likely to want to refund. Never in my life before have I had two payments taken by a merchant instead of one, with a glitch meaning that no order was generated at all.

surreysaver

I am fairly certain, that a refund counts as a payment where Barclaycard are concerned. I'm not sure if a refund is different to a transaction being 'reversed', though