A refund is a transaction in which the merchant returns some or all of the funds from a previously settled payment back to the cardholder. Unlike a void, which cancels a transaction before settlement, a refund applies after the money has already been transferred to the merchant’s account. The refund creates a new transaction that flows back through the payment network — from the merchant’s acquiring bank, through the card network, to the cardholder’s issuing bank — and typically takes five to ten business days to appear on the customer’s statement, depending on the card network and issuing bank.
Refunds can be full or partial. A full refund returns the entire transaction amount, while a partial refund returns a portion — useful when a customer returns one item from a multi-item order or when a service was only partially delivered. From a processing standpoint, most acquirers charge the merchant a per-transaction fee on refunds, and the original interchange fees paid on the initial transaction are generally not returned (though some card networks have begun offering interchange refund credits for certain transaction types). This cost structure is why voiding is preferable when the transaction has not yet settled.
Refund policies and execution speed are a significant factor in customer satisfaction and brand trust. Customers expect to see their money returned promptly, and delays in processing refunds are a common trigger for chargebacks — cardholders who do not see a refund may escalate the dispute to their bank rather than waiting. For this reason, businesses benefit from automating refund workflows and providing customers with clear communication about expected timescales.
Shuttle Global enables platforms to process refunds through a single API regardless of which PSP handled the original transaction. For platforms using Embedded Payments, this means a consistent refund experience across all payment methods and processors — no need to build separate refund logic for each PSP integration. Payment Links transactions and Voice Checkout payments are handled the same way, with Shuttle routing the refund to the correct processor and returning status updates through its unified webhook system. This consistency is especially important for platforms managing refunds across multiple geographies and currencies, where each PSP may have different refund processing times, currency conversion rules, and fee structures.