Refunds

When goods or services are purchased using a payment card and a refund is necessary, the refund must be credited to the same payment card account from which the purchase was made. Credit card transactions should be refunded to the original credit card. Under no circumstances is it permissible to issue a payment card refund with cash, check or wire transfer. A refund must never exceed the original payment amount. To process a refund, the procedure applicable to the technology used for processing (e.g., terminal, e-Commerce or online, point of sale system, etc.), must be followed.

If any portion of a payment is non-refundable, the unit merchant must declare this information to the customer before the transaction is processed in a written no refund or cancelation policy, and the customer must provide a means of acknowledgement (e.g., signature) that they understand and accept the terms of the payment.

Additional Resources

• Merchant Department Operational Overview, Policies and Procedures (PDF)
• Payment Card Handling Requirements (PDF)

Who to Contact

e-Commerce (online) transaction refunds are processed by OBFS-Merchant Card Services. Send payment card transaction requests to Merchant Card Services paycenterhelp@uillinois.edu. Please include in the email message:

• Transaction id or Reference id
• Reconciliation account, (ie, Department CFOAP)
• Amount to be refunded

Terminal or Point of Sale (POS) refunds are processed at the terminal or POS register by the merchant department.

If you have questions, please contact us and visit our Training Resources.

Last Updated: May 3, 2010