A company that charged me for a premium rate service has offered to refund the amount. How will the refund be made?
Important! It is outside the remit of the Telecom Advisors to handle questions regarding refunds, and therefore we have not set up any rules for how it should be done. However, we can see that many companies offering premium rate services use the method of refunding directly to the complainant’s bank account. We have handled many cases where complainants have received refunds in this way, and we have not received any complaints afterwards about any problems arising from this.
It is the service provider, i.e., the company delivering the service to you, that decides if a refund should occur. Refunds can either be made on an upcoming invoice or by deposit into your bank account. It is common for you to choose which method you prefer.
When refunding on an upcoming invoice, the operator will credit the amount on this. Note that it may take several months before the amount benefits you, depending on the operator’s billing process. You need to pay the incorrect invoice unless you agree with your operator that you only need to pay part of it. The advantage of choosing credit on an upcoming invoice is that you do not need to share your bank details with the company.
When depositing into your bank account, you must share your bank details with the company. If you do not feel comfortable with this, you can create a new bank account specifically for this purpose. If this account does not contain any other money, you should be able to safely provide this account number. You can also consult your bank about this. The advantage of this method is that you should receive the money within a few banking days, and you can then pay the entire original invoice to your operator.