In some cases we may be able to enable the ability to manually process your own refunds via your dashboard.
Please note: this feature is only available to merchants on our Pro package and is reviewed on a case by case basis.
There are several requirements that must be met in order for us to consider enabling this feature and it should be noted that this is reviewed on a case by case basis as the Direct Debit system is not well suited to processing refunds.
Payments refunded through GoCardless are sent to the customer using the Faster Payment method. This will then create a negative balance on your account until these funds are balanced out against your collected payments.
Please note: as refunds are not processed through the Direct Debit scheme, customers are still able to chargeback these funds if they were to file an indemnity claim with their bank.
- Read first
- Requesting the refund button
- Processing refunds through the dashboard
- Reconciling refunds
- Refunds can only be processed once the payment has been confirmed.
- Refunds must be issued against specific payments.
- You can only refund an amount up to the total value of the payment being refunded against.
- We strongly recommend only refunding payments after the paid out date, as there are occasions where payments are reported as late failures from the bank.
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IMPORTANT Within the SEPA (Eurozone) Direct Debit scheme, late failures are more commonly found to occur several business days following the payment charge date. As such, we recommend allowing a minimum of 7 business days following confirmation of a payment being successfully charged, before processing a refund of said payment to your customer. |
To request the ability to process refunds yourself, please fill in this form with the details requested. Our team will then review your request and get back to you via email.
Refund Safety
GoCardless recommends that payments are not refunded within 7 days of being charged, this gives added protection against refunding unsettled payments. This means that any payment collected from your customers cannot be refunded until 7 days after the payment was charged, allowing sufficient time for the payment to settle into your account, prior to the refund request.
This period is imposed as default, however if you would like to opt-out of this safety feature, please email our support team at help@gocardless.com.
Processing refunds through the dashboard
If you do not have refunds enabled, you can still send us a request to refund a payment on your behalf. See here for more details.
1. Find the payment you would like to refund in your dashboard. You can do this in several ways:
a). Via the Payments page
b). By locating the customer, opening their individual overview page, and scrolling down to find the payment.
c). Searching for the payment ID via the search bar. Payment IDs begin PM000...
2. Click on the payment to open it
3. Click the Refund button in the top right
4. In the window that opens, enter the amount you would like to refund (cannot exceed payment amount) and a reference for your customer's bank statement
Note: The reference can be up to 18 characters long for GBP payments, 140 characters for EUR, and up to 25 characters for SEK.
5. The status of the payment will now show as Refunded
This is evident by the status dot now showing as a green outline and the payment details showing an Amount refunded field.
... with the timeline showing the date and amount that was refunded
6. Your customer will receive the funds back into their bank account within two working days
Refunds are reconciled against the payout the funds are balanced out against, and can be viewed in the Debits section of that day's payout breakdown in your dashboard.
You do not need to perform any manual processes within your GoCardless account to reconcile a refund. However, if you are using a third party accounting system alongside GoCardless, you may need to create a manual entry within their system to account for the refund.