Refund a payment
Send all or part of a payment back to the member's card or bank account, choose whether to refund the processing fee, and know what happens to the balance and your payout.
A refund sends money a member paid through MyGreek back to the card or bank account they paid with. Only chapter admins can issue refunds, on the web or by asking the MyGreek Assistant. To lower what a member owes without sending money back, use a credit or adjustment instead. See Fix a member's balance.
Before you start
- You can only refund a payment that shows Succeeded. A bank payment still Pending can't be refunded until it succeeds.
- Cash, check, Venmo and Zelle payments recorded as credits can't be refunded through MyGreek, because no money went through MyGreek.
- If the charge type pays out to a separate merchant account, you need manager access to that account. Otherwise you'll see "You don't have access to manage [name] bills".
Steps
- Open Payments (or the member's Payments tab) and select the payment.
- In Payment Details, under Refunds, select Issue Refund.
- For each charge the payment covered, enter how much to refund. Each charge shows the amount remaining that you can still refund.
- If the member paid a convenience fee, choose whether to check Also refund processing fees (paid from your chapter account). See Refunding the processing fee.
- Check the summary: Total Refund, Includes processing fees and Remaining after refund.
- Optionally add a Reason (optional), up to 500 characters. The member sees it in their refund email.
- Select Issue Refund.
A message tells you whether the refund succeeded, is pending, or failed. The refund then shows under Refunds in the payment's details.
Full and partial refunds
- Full refund: enter the full remaining amount on every charge.
- Partial refund: enter less, or refund only some of the charges. You can refund the same payment again later, up to what's left on each charge.
Refunding the processing fee
The checkbox Also refund processing fees (paid from your chapter account) only appears when the member paid a convenience fee on top of the charge. It's checked by default.
| Choice | What the member gets back |
|---|---|
| Checked, full refund | Everything they paid, including the whole convenience fee. |
| Checked, partial refund | The refund amount plus the same share of the fee. Refunding half the charge returns half the fee. |
| Unchecked | Only the amount you entered. The refund shows Processing fees not refunded. |
For example, a member paid $104.48 by card for a $100.00 charge. A full refund with the box checked returns $104.48. A $50.00 refund with the box checked returns $52.24. With the box unchecked it returns $50.00.
As the checkbox says, your chapter pays for any fee you refund.
When you uncheck the box, the dialog warns "Fees withheld on this refund can't be refunded later." Each later refund only returns its own share of the fee, so you can't send the withheld part back through MyGreek afterwards.
See Choose who pays processing fees.
What happens next
- The charge is owed again. A refund adds the refunded amount back to what the member owes on that charge. If the member shouldn't owe it anymore, also adjust or archive the charge. See Fix a member's balance.
- Archived charges stay off the balance. Refunding a charge you already archived, for example for a member who dropped, doesn't add anything to what they owe. The amount is owed again only if you unarchive the charge.
- Your payout is lower. The refund comes out of your next payout and shows in the payout's Refunds section. Refunded convenience fees show as Convenience fees refunded. If refunds are bigger than what members paid in that payout, the difference is withdrawn from your bank account. See See what's in a payout.
- The member is emailed once. They get Refund Processing, with the amounts and your reason. If the refund is declined later, they also get Refund Declined. If a parent or other payer made the payment, both the payer and the member are emailed. Refunds typically arrive within 5-10 business days, depending on the bank.
Refund with the MyGreek Assistant
Ask the assistant to refund a payment, for example "Refund everything Alex paid on September 26 except the $155 national fees." It shows what each charge on the payment can still be refunded. When you give a total and the payment covered several charges, it asks which charges keep the part you're not refunding. It then shows a card with the amount for each charge, the processing fees included and whether the member will owe anything again. Nothing is refunded until you select Refund on the card. The member gets the same refund email, and a refund can't be undone.
To refund many payments at once, for example when an event is cancelled, ask "Refund everyone who paid for Parents Cocktail." The assistant shows one card with a row for each payment, refunding only what each payment paid toward that charge type, and the total. Say whether to keep the processing fees, and the card shows how much is withheld. You can untick payments you don't want to refund. Each payment is refunded on its own, so if one fails the card says which and why, and the rest still go through. Each payer gets their refund email.
Refunding a bank payment
A refund to a bank account starts as Pending. When it finishes, the refund shows Succeeded. The member isn't emailed again: their Refund Processing email already covers it. The amount is owed again on the charge only once the refund succeeds. Card refunds usually succeed right away.
When the processor doesn't confirm a refund
Now and then the payment processor doesn't answer in time. The message then says "Our processor has not confirmed this refund yet. It's recorded as pending and will update on its own. Don't issue it again." The refund shows as pending and still counts against what's left to refund, so the same money can't be refunded twice. It changes to Succeeded or Failed once the processor confirms it, usually within minutes, and the member gets Refund Processing (or Refund Declined) then.
If the page lost its connection before you saw any message, select Issue Refund again with the same amounts. MyGreek recognizes the same refund and shows where it stands instead of sending a second one.
When a refund is declined
Sometimes the payment processor or the member's bank declines a refund. The refund shows Failed with the reason, nothing is sent back, and the member's balance stays as it was. The member is emailed: Refund Failed if it's declined right away, or Refund Declined if a pending refund is declined later. If a pending refund is declined later, chapter admins also get a Refund Declined email and a push notification (turned on with ACH Returns under Settings → Admin Notifications). Email support@mygreek.us if you need to get the money to the member another way.
Common questions
I reversed a late fee. Does the member get their money back?
Not to their card. The part of the fee they had already paid becomes account credit automatically, which pays their other open charges first. Don't also add credit (that counts it twice) or refund the payment (a refund puts the amount back on the charge as owed). To send it back to their card instead, contact support@mygreek.us. See Late fee removed: credit or refund?.
Can I refund in the mobile app?
No. Refunds are only on the web.
Can I refund more than the member paid?
No. You can refund up to what's left of the payment on each charge. To give a member extra money back, contact support@mygreek.us.
Related
Overview
See who paid, what's pending and what's still owed on the Payments page, and how card and bank payments, receipts, refunds and returns show up.
Returns & disputes
What happens when a member's bank sends back a bank payment (an ACH return) or a member disputes a card payment, what it costs your chapter, and what to do.