Refunds to cancelled cards after sign up bonus has been received.

[woodyren]

I am a regular card churner. I also regularly cruise or travel and plan card application in oder to book cruises with my new card to quickly meet minimum spend, receive bonus points and churn.

All has been going well and we have managed to fly many times in J to reach or return from our cruises.

We have a large amount of current cruises booked in Asia in the next 8 months. Due to the impact of COVID-19 many of these cruises will almost certainly be cancelled and full refunds returned to the card they were purchased with.

I have used 4 or 5 different cards, all of which have been cancelled and bonus points received. Some over 12 months ago.

I assume that I will just have to contact each card issuer to chase up the refund.

Are they then likely to claw back points and bonus points as I would not have in theory met minimum spend.

 

[Brissy1]

Sorry I can't answer your question but to avoid getting into that situation, and athough the merchant may prefer to refund onto the original card, if you left them know it has subsequently been cancelled then I presume you'll be able to negotiate and alternative refund method (another card?). I've done this in past, albeit for small amounts.

 

[NoName]

Can you advise the cruise operator that the cards you paid with have been cancelled and that you will need the refund provided some other way?

 

[woodyren]

Can you advise the cruise operator that the cards you paid with have been cancelled and that you will need the refund provided some other way?

I will try but I have tried to do this with a Qantas award cancellation once and they said that they must return the tax component that I was due to the same card. I then had to contact Citibank (ugh) to finally get the money returned to me.

 

[Dr Ralph]

If you can't make an arrangement with the merchant directly, what will happen is that the refunded sum(s) will be returned to your original credit card. The provider of that cancelled credit card will either:

1) Send you a bank cheque with the refunded amount(s)
Or
2) Contact you and ask you for your EFT details so that the amount(s) can be refunded to you.

All of this will take many weeks to occur. It's a frustratingly slow process. Your best bet is to proactively contact the merchant and make a refund arrangement directly with them. This has worked for me with Qantas when others claimed repeatedly that it couldn't be done.

I have never seen an attempt to reverse the points.

 

[Kangol]

Incorrect information you've been given by Qantas Contact Centre

Something else that is important is consistently sending through positive feedback when people get things right, and demonstrate exemplary service, no matter which call centre they're from.

www.australianfrequentflyer.com.au

You generally don't have to chase it up.

If you have other accounts with the same issuer (eg transaction account), then you will be able to tell if logged in to internet banking.

Will be a good idea to find out from the merchant when the refund was processed on their end.

 

[chickenscraper]

I've had refunds processed to cancelled cards where the bank didn't notify me, but i've always been able to contact them and have the credit balance transferred to a bank account.