Locating the Acquirer Reference Number for a refund
Last updated: November 2, 2021
As we all know, in some cases refunds can take longer than expected to reach an end customer’s account. In some cases, the refund will appear successful in FareHarbor and the client is confused as to why their customer has yet to receive their refund.
In this situation, we can provide the end customer/client the Acquirer Reference Number. The end customer can then provide this number to their bank and their bank should be able to locate the refund.
ARNs are available under the following conditions:
- They’re only supported for Visa and MasterCard transactions.
- It takes 1-3 business days after initiating the refund to receive the ARN
- An ARN isn’t available in the case of a reversal, since the original charge isn’t processed.
Where available, Stripe shows the ARN corresponding to a refund in the Dashboard on the payment detail page of the refunded payment. Find more info here on Stripe.
Steps to obtain the Acquirer Reference Number:
- Find booking for end user.
Locate refund in the activity log at the bottom.
Click on “(ID)” and copy ID.
Open up Stripe and search with the copied ID. Once you open the refunded charge, you will see the ARN near the top in the timeline.
Additional info
With the post date, acquirer reference number, and credit card details, an end customer should be able to enquire with their bank on the status of their refund (but it’s not a guarantee).
Refunds in the acknowledged state are those that the bank has recognized, but hasn’t actually delivered to the cardholder yet. (Example: if I processed a refund this morning it will be in the “acknowledged” state until about 5-10 business days later when the refund actually hits the cardholder’s account.)
Refunds in the settled state are those that the bank has recognized, and has delivered to the cardholder.
A bank can take up to 5-10 business days to have a refund hit their cardholder’s account. Read more about refunds on Stripe’s website.