Removing a charge on a credit card that has already cycled

January 9, 2022 12:40 PM

On Jan 3 I put a $2k down payment for a cosmetic procedure on a credit card that then cycled on the 7th. That down payment is about to be refunded by the merchant. If my credit card bill for this month contains the $2k, then the overall balance drops, what can I do to not have to pay the $2k? Can provide more info if needed.
posted by The Adventure Begins to Work & Money (20 answers total)

Just pay your minimum payment on time. You'll have to pay a bit of interest on the 2000 for one month.
posted by fritley at 12:45 PM on January 9, 2022 [3 favorites]

They might be able to reduce the minimum payment to $0 if you call, as a courtesy. (Assuming there was one.)
posted by chesty_a_arthur at 12:47 PM on January 9, 2022

Typically there are a couple of weeks between the closing of the billing period and when the payment is due. If the refund shows up during that time, then there's no problem; the refund will just be credited to your account as though you had sent them a check for that amount.
posted by Johnny Assay at 1:13 PM on January 9, 2022 [5 favorites]

Which is to say: I would wait until just before the due date for the payment and then check my account online to see if the refund had posted. If it doesn't post by that time, then I would pay the minimum amount (or the outstanding balance less $2k, if there were other charge on the credit card along with the deposit.)
posted by Johnny Assay at 1:16 PM on January 9, 2022 [3 favorites]

Definitely give the card issuer a call. They're often really nice and helpful about one-off things if you've otherwise always paid on time, and it won't make anything worse at least. It's entirely possible though that the refund will come through soon enough to automatically be handled like a partial payment and just deduct from what you owe, even though you won't get another statement showing it that way.
posted by teremala at 1:18 PM on January 9, 2022 [5 favorites]

The key question is here is probably whether you are carrying a balance on the card aside from the $2K. If you are not carrying a balance, then the refund comes in, cancels out that portion of the bill, you pay the rest and you continue to not have a balance by the end of the month.

If you are carrying a balance, though, then how much interest you pay on that charge will come down to the details of how your credit card processor handles payments and refunds and grace periods, and those things can differ from card to card.
posted by jacquilynne at 1:29 PM on January 9, 2022 [4 favorites]

This may depend on the policies of the credit card issuer. Call them!

There are a bunch of different possibilities. If the refund reduces your balance to less than $0, I'd assume you don't need to pay anything. But if you still owe a balance, does the refund count against as a payment against the bill you've already received or will it be counted against current charges as part of the next bill? Different banks may treat this differently.
posted by ssg at 2:23 PM on January 9, 2022 [2 favorites]

You can call your credit card company and ask them
to waive the interest, sometimes they will do that.
posted by nouvelle-personne at 3:18 PM on January 9, 2022

Response by poster: I have $1361 on the card (minus that $2k) that I do need to pay. The next closing date is Feb 4. Should I pay the $1361 now (which I can easily do) and then wait till the $2k refunds? This is all on a Chase Visa card.
posted by The Adventure Begins at 3:29 PM on January 9, 2022

Your due date for paying your previous bill may not be the same date as the closing date for your next bill. On one of my cards, for example, the grace period for paying the bill is only 21 days, not a full month. As long as the refund comes through before the due date, and you pay the rest of the bill, you should be fine.
posted by jacquilynne at 3:34 PM on January 9, 2022

Pay the $1361 before your due date. Even if your interest rate is 19.9%, that's like $50 if it takes 45 days for the refund to go through. You can call and request they refund the interest if it proves necessary.

If you have the extra $2000 and can live without it for a little while, you also have the option of just paying the entire balance and when the refund processes you can request they send you a check for the credit balance. Maybe they'd do it electronically these days. It's been a decade since I've had a credit card, but I never had trouble getting credit balances refunded back when I'd occasionally end up with one.
posted by wierdo at 4:22 PM on January 9, 2022 [1 favorite]

And just to be clear, if the refund does process before your due date, you only need to pay the remaining $1361. It should act the same as a payment unless Chase has changed their policy. The website will even reflect that your minimum payment due is zero. Of course, you'll want to make a payment anyway to avoid interest charges on the rest of your balance.
posted by wierdo at 4:26 PM on January 9, 2022 [1 favorite]

Are you sure that the $2000 down payment posted to your account before the closing date? If it didn't, both the charge and the credit should show up together on next month's bill and cancel each other out. While charges IME hit your account more quickly than credits do (other than payments on the account), it can still take a few days. And a purchase from a small business, which I assume this company is, can take longer to post than a charge from, say, Walmart. At any rate, you should be able to keep an eye on the account through Chase's website.
posted by DrGail at 6:31 PM on January 9, 2022

Response by poster: Yeah, my statement balance is for $3361. Thanks for the input, all. I'll report back if anything changes.
posted by The Adventure Begins at 10:33 AM on January 10, 2022

One thing that used to be true was that while there was no interest on purchases if the balance was paid in full every month, once you start carrying a balance, each new purchase started accruing interest immediately. This is obviously a privileged thing to say, but if I had the money to pay the nominal balance and let the refund come back the next month, I would prefer doing that to trying to get an exception from the card company and worrying about how long the refund takes to post vs. the statement.
posted by wnissen at 11:56 AM on January 10, 2022

Response by poster: Well, now the refund may not come at all because the merchant is being shady as fuck about it! That's another problem. :( I can pay the $2k, I just... Don't want to.
posted by The Adventure Begins at 4:09 PM on January 10, 2022

Response by poster: Yep, they are refusing to refund me despite no prior warning that the deposit was nonrefundable. Will make a follow up question for this one. :( :( :(
posted by The Adventure Begins at 5:06 PM on January 10, 2022

You might want to dispute the charge with the credit card company if it is clear that the company is not going to cooperate. (It will annoy the vendor so wait until it is clear they aren't cooperating) I've heard of lots of stories from small businesses about how biased the credit card company is toward consumers - even when there is a written agreement to pay plus documentation that the service was provided. Might not work for you but gives you time to figure it out before you have to pay.
posted by metahawk at 11:13 PM on January 10, 2022

You want to be careful with chargebacks, they are your best chance to get your money back from a shady merchant but it only really works once. You want to have a clear paper trail that you have requested the money back from the merchant and they are refusing in violation of whatever agreement you have with them. Then you politely ask the credit card company to enforce the merchant agreement on your behalf. The folks processing chargebacks are underpaid and overworked, any complicated situation likely to get decided in favor of the merchant.
posted by wnissen at 8:45 AM on January 11, 2022

FWIW - in my experience when a charge is refunded, any interest on the transaction is automatically refunded at the same time
posted by zibra at 7:33 AM on January 12, 2022