Refund to credit card / promotional bonus issue

Okell

DullGreyGuy said:

FTB_Dan said:

dumpster_fire2025 said:

FTB_Dan said:

Hi there. 

In short - I was refunded £1500 to my Amex, even though this was paid on another credit card. Amex are telling me I now need to spend an additional £1500 to get my promotional rewards (3k spend within a 3 month period). 

Is there anything I can do?

Additional context:

I recently took a car rental via Booking.com. This was paid for using my Amex (online - prior to the trip starting). 

At the rental collection, a 750 Chf holding charge is required in case of any damage. I was unable to pay this on my Amex, so did this on my Barclaycard. 

During the trip, there was some damage totalling £1500. I was able to claim this ok via Booking.com, however the money was refunded to the card I initially used to book the rental with not my Barclaycard (where the damage cost was charged to).

Amex have agreed to credit me this amount, so I can pay off my Barclaycard, however now because it's technically counted as a refund, I now have to spend an additional £1500 within a 3 month period to get the promotional bonus. 

Amex seems to be an innocent party in this. They had no control over what Booking.com did or didn't refund to.

As such all Amex can do is see a £1500 credit to your account which reduces your spend by the same amount. Thus you will need to spend that amount again to get the points.

You could, in theory, challenge this with Booking.com but you really have no basis for this, as others have said they refunded you to the only payment card they had on system. It could actually come back to bite them in a chargeback situation, but that's none of your concern.

Ultimately this is an unfortunate confluence of events that won't work out in your favour.

I think as you/others have said, no party has done anything wrong and followed the correct process they've outlined, unfortunately for me it's a case of things not working in my favour here.

Frustrating, but seems like I may have to accept it. Appreciate comments on this.

You may as well put a complaint into AmEx but your position is weakened if you cannot find the terms... you need to point out that the terms you have found explicitly state about a transaction being refunded which has not happened in this case or at worse only £250 of it can be considered a refund of a previously charged amount. 

I think that's the only argument worth trying.  Technically it wasn't an AMEX "transaction" that's been refunded

Okell

Out of curiosity everyone, what is the "restriction" that prevents a refund being paid to a different card from the one it was charged to?

I'm fairly sure I've asked for a refund to a different card in the past and it's been granted 

born_again

Okell said:

Out of curiosity everyone, what is the "restriction" that prevents a refund being paid to a different card from the one it was charged to?

I'm fairly sure I've asked for a refund to a different card in the past and it's been granted 

Money laundering.
Some retailer are more lax about it.

It could also be that someone has bought a item, passed the receipt to someone else, who has then lifted a item off the racks & gone for a refund 🤷‍♀️

FTB_Dan

Okell said:

DullGreyGuy said:

FTB_Dan said:

dumpster_fire2025 said:

FTB_Dan said:

Hi there. 

In short - I was refunded £1500 to my Amex, even though this was paid on another credit card. Amex are telling me I now need to spend an additional £1500 to get my promotional rewards (3k spend within a 3 month period). 

Is there anything I can do?

Additional context:

I recently took a car rental via Booking.com. This was paid for using my Amex (online - prior to the trip starting). 

At the rental collection, a 750 Chf holding charge is required in case of any damage. I was unable to pay this on my Amex, so did this on my Barclaycard. 

During the trip, there was some damage totalling £1500. I was able to claim this ok via Booking.com, however the money was refunded to the card I initially used to book the rental with not my Barclaycard (where the damage cost was charged to).

Amex have agreed to credit me this amount, so I can pay off my Barclaycard, however now because it's technically counted as a refund, I now have to spend an additional £1500 within a 3 month period to get the promotional bonus. 

Amex seems to be an innocent party in this. They had no control over what Booking.com did or didn't refund to.

As such all Amex can do is see a £1500 credit to your account which reduces your spend by the same amount. Thus you will need to spend that amount again to get the points.

You could, in theory, challenge this with Booking.com but you really have no basis for this, as others have said they refunded you to the only payment card they had on system. It could actually come back to bite them in a chargeback situation, but that's none of your concern.

Ultimately this is an unfortunate confluence of events that won't work out in your favour.

I think as you/others have said, no party has done anything wrong and followed the correct process they've outlined, unfortunately for me it's a case of things not working in my favour here.

Frustrating, but seems like I may have to accept it. Appreciate comments on this.

You may as well put a complaint into AmEx but your position is weakened if you cannot find the terms... you need to point out that the terms you have found explicitly state about a transaction being refunded which has not happened in this case or at worse only £250 of it can be considered a refund of a previously charged amount. 

I think that's the only argument worth trying.  Technically it wasn't an AMEX "transaction" that's been refunded

Yep, think that's the argument I'm going with! 

Wish me luck! Thanks everyone, will update if I hear back.