Refund from Bar

I spent 15 pounds last Wednesday in a bar and just got it refunded today (Tuesday).
What has been the issue there? I will definitely frequent that bar more often if that happens on a regular basis - lol.

That happened to me with some petrol. Here is the explanation from support:

Hi Andrew! :wave: - Let us help clarify this for you.
The transaction in question here is what is known as reversal or a ‘temporary refund’.
Transactions authorised (including ATM withdrawals) on Wednesday 12th would have normally been settled by Friday, or Monday at the latest. However due to the bank holiday weekend, the payment systems will likely have snoozed causing a slight delay :sleeping:
For more detail - on the Monzo card, authorised transactions expire after 5-6 days if the funds have not been collected by the merchant in that time. This is exactly what has happened here, leading to the initial hold on the funds being reversed (which you saw as a refund), after which the transaction settled or will settle as a delayed transaction :repeat:
If you haven’t already, you should eventually see three transactions in your feed: the original one, the refund and then the delayed transaction. As you will see, overall, you haven’t been left out of pocket and have only been charged once in total. :+1:
There is a chance that the location data of the reversal (credit) shown in the app is incorrect. Sorry about that :sweat:
It’s due to the incomplete location information we receive from merchants. Rest assured the transaction is safe :white_check_mark:
Let us know if you have any further questions or would like further clarity! Here to help :blush:

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thank you, andrew! :slight_smile:

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Out of interest, in this example when the delayed payment is refunded, what then happens if the balance on the card is reduced down to say £0 and then the “claim” for payment is made again? What would happen?

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Here’s what happens then -

Word for word the response I got about a refund today… Odd that Monzo release the funds back on to the card, rather than holding until a second attempt is made. Right now it looks like I had £70 of free food…

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I don’t think so - my understanding is that the balance is your account’s balance minus any authorised transactions. Since the authorisation’s been reversed, it’s no longer deducted from your balance as the merchant may never collect the payment, in which case the purchase was free :tada:

But the potentially pending payment makes me uncomfortable too & this looks like another good use case for a solution like this (although in retrospect, the solution I’m requesting is a bit ‘power usery’) -

Either way, I’m optimistic that Monzo will do something to help manage these unauthorised pending payments when the current accounts launch because it’s going to be even more important for users to know their ‘final’ balance in order to manage the overdrafts.

So - the big question is how many days do I need to wait until I can safely say the food was free*? Or will the amount 100% be debited again?

(*call the establishment to settle the bill because I’m too honest.)

Presentments for final authorisations (the kind you’d get in a restaurant) are meant to be sent by the acquirer no more than 7 days after the auth (but bank holidays can mess with things).

However, there is nothing to stop an acquirer from presenting late but:

  • if they do this too often Mastercard will fine them
  • if the account is closed then we can charge it back
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Thanks for the insight Daniel.

It presented again this morning - but came through under parent company name rather than outlet name.

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