When a merchant refunds a purchase, the refund lands in your Account Balance and instantly frees up the Budget or card it came from. Most refunds land within 3-5 business days, giving you certainty over when your funds are available again so that your records stay accurate and complete.
How It Works
- Same transaction, updated status: Refunds update your original purchase instead of creating a new one, keeping its original date so your records stay accurate.
- Automatic Budget restoration: The spending capacity from the refunded purchase returns to the Budget or card immediately, so it's ready to use again straight away.
- Clear visual markers: Refunded transactions show a positive amount in green and are labelled "Refund" or "Pending Refund" while processing, so you can spot them at a glance.
- Approval notifications explained: A refund can trigger an approval notification in Weel. This is expected, and your Account Balance updates immediately regardless.
- Foreign currency awareness: Refunds on international purchases can be affected by exchange rate movement, so the credited amount may differ slightly from the original charge.
Good to know
- Refund timing is outside our control: Refunds are processed by the merchant and card network, not Weel, so timing varies. It's typically 3-5 business days, and up to 10 in some circumstances. Contact Weel support if it's been longer than 10 business days and the refund still hasn't appeared.
- A refund isn't the same as a dispute: If a transaction was unauthorised, or couldn't be resolved directly with the merchant, that's a dispute (chargeback), which follows a longer, separate timeline. See How do I dispute a transaction?
- A rare exception for already-reversed transactions: If a purchase was already reversed or cancelled before a refund came through (for example, an authorisation hold like a car rental or hotel deposit that was released before it settled), Weel records the refund as a new transaction that references the original, rather than updating it in place. This only applies to purchases reversed before the refund step, not a normal completed purchase being returned.