Trace a refund

After you initiate a refund, Stripe submits refund requests to your customer’s bank or card issuer. Your customer sees the refund as a credit approximately 5-10 business days later, depending upon the bank. A customer might contact you if they don’t see the refund. A refund might not be visible to the customer for several reasons:

• Refunds issued shortly after the original charge appear in the form of a reversal instead of a refund. In the case of a reversal, the original charge drops off the customer’s statement, and a separate credit isn’t issued.
• Refunds can fail if the customer’s bank or card issuer has been unable to process it correctly. The bank returns the refunded amount to us and we add it back to your Stripe account balance. This process can take up to 30 days from requesting the refund.

If a customer is asking about a refund, it can be helpful to give them the primary reference number corresponding to the refund. For card refunds, it can be an Acquirer Reference Number (ARN), System Trace Audit Number (STAN), or Retrieval Reference Number (RRN). An ARN, STAN, or RRN is a reference number assigned to a card transaction as it moves through the payment flow. For local payment method refunds, it can be a reference number generated by Stripe or our financial partners which is propagated to the beneficiary banks or institutions. Your customer can then take this reference to their bank, which can provide more information about when the refund is available. Having a reference number can also increase your customer’s confidence that the refund has been initiated.