GWR holds credit card details

[sw15]

A few days ago I obtained a full refund on a pair of tickets that I'd purchased from the ticket office at Paddington earlier that day (the reasons that I couldn't use the tickets are not relevant here). In the morning, I paid for the tickets with a credit card. In the afternoon when I handed the tickets back for the refund I expected to insert my card into the reader to re-supply the details. I was slightly surprised that the fare was refunded to my card (yes, I was given a receipt!) without me providing any card details - which implies that the GWR booking system had kept a record of those details. When I use a card for any purchase on the internet I'm normally careful to leave the "remember card details" tick-box unchecked as I don't particularly want those details stored on a server somewhere "in the cloud". Does the GWR (or any) back-end system keep credit-card details indefinitely? Is there a way to remove those details?

 

[transmanche]

It may not be GWR that has the card details, but their card payment processor.

For example, I remember that using SagePay (a popular card payment processor) a 'merchant' would log into the 'console' application, select a transaction and process a refund. But at no point would the 'merchant' see any of the card details. It would be a case of find transaction XYZ123, select it and process refund.

This ensured that the refund was processed back to the card it was originally taken from.

 

[ForTheLoveOf]

A few days ago I obtained a full refund on a pair of tickets that I'd purchased from the ticket office at Paddington earlier that day (the reasons that I couldn't use the tickets are not relevant here). In the morning, I paid for the tickets with a credit card. In the afternoon when I handed the tickets back for the refund I expected to insert my card into the reader to re-supply the details. I was slightly surprised that the fare was refunded to my card (yes, I was given a receipt!) without me providing any card details - which implies that the GWR booking system had kept a record of those details. When I use a card for any purchase on the internet I'm normally careful to leave the "remember card details" tick-box unchecked as I don't particularly want those details stored on a server somewhere "in the cloud". Does the GWR (or any) back-end system keep credit-card details indefinitely? Is there a way to remove those details?

It's possible the refund didn't involve GWR storing your payment details. GWR's payment processor or bank would obviously have to hold the details in order to debit the amount in question. So it's possible GWR simply issued an instruction to the card processor to say that they should issue a refund to the card used for [transaction ID].

 

[FQTV]

If it was processed same-day, then it may not technically have been a 'refund' but what's known as a 'reversal', as that day's end-of-day batch processing wouldn't have taken place.

They'd probably just take their own transaction ID, reverse it, and the payment might not even have progressed beyond 'pending' on the credit card account.

Even without the card details, a merchant can sometimes pick up the 'phone to their merchant account provider, pass security, quote their transaction ID or batch process ID and request a reversal/refund.

 

[sw15]

If it was processed same-day, then it may not technically have been a 'refund' but what's known as a 'reversal', as that day's end-of-day batch processing wouldn't have taken place.

They'd probably just take their own transaction ID, reverse it, and the payment might not even have progressed beyond 'pending' on the credit card account.

Even without the card details, a merchant can sometimes pick up the 'phone to their merchant account provider, pass security, quote their transaction ID or batch process ID and request a reversal/refund.

Yes, thanks - that makes sense. I must admit I was impressed with the efficiency of it all. I know that ticket office staff and their systems sometimes get a "bad press" and disparaging comments on this forum but I've had good service from both GWR and Virgin Trains recently.

 

[ForTheLoveOf]

Yes, thanks - that makes sense. I must admit I was impressed with the efficiency of it all. I know that ticket office staff and their systems sometimes get a "bad press" and disparaging comments on this forum but I've had good service from both GWR and Virgin Trains recently.

I suspect that depends very much on the individual member of staff in question, and whether the thing you want them to do is something they are trained to do normally, or whether you are asking for them to do something they aren't trained how to do, or are trained not to do.

 

[Haywain]

The version of Tribute which was being rolled out to LNER when I left is able to do refunds in this way. As I understand it, the TIS retains a link to the card details held by the Payment Service Provider (rather than the card details themselves) and allows the refund to be made directly once the appropriate set of details have been input to the system and the refund approved. It is fully compliant with PCI/DSS and more secure than previous methods of giving refunds which could not guarantee the money going back to the same account. I believe it also allows for the refund to be carried out a considerable time after the original sale, as might be required for tickets with longer validity periods such as seasons.

 

[father_jack]

There is a new refund system in GWR called "Automated Settlement" which remembers the transaction from any GWR sale location (bar web at present) through the Fujitsu STAR terminal and securely refunds to the payment card. All covered by the PCI/DPSS regualtions so GWR never see your card details. Better than the old 1996 forms that are still in circulation that required your full card number to be filled in and which then went to HQ and then to a clearing house in Brighton IIRC and took weeks to get your money back.

 

[Wallsendmag]

As the two posters above have said it’s the card provider that holds the details not the TOC