Refunds
Returning money to a customer through Ozow.
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- Refund a paymentEverything needed to refund a completed payment through One API, in full or in part, and to handle the statuses a refund moves through.
A refund returns money to a customer for a payment they made you through Ozow.
You can refund from the Ozow Dashboard with no development work, or through the API if you refund regularly or in volume. Either way the money goes back to the account the customer paid from; you don't need to ask them for banking details.
Refunds are not the same as payouts. A refund is tied to a specific transaction that came in through Ozow. A payoutPayout Money sent from a merchant to a bank account. Unlike a refund, a payout is not tied to a payment anyone made you, so you can pay anyone with a bank account. Payouts draw on your float rather than on your incoming payments, and they are not self-service: they need approval from Ozow and testing in staging first. is money sent to anyone, unconnected to any payment.
How a refund works
- You find the transaction and submit a refund, in the Dashboard, or through the API.
- Ozow checks that your floatFloat The balance held with Ozow that payouts and refunds are paid out of. Both draw on it, and neither will process while it is empty. Payins do not need one, so if you only take payments you never meet it. has enough to cover it.
- Ozow returns the money to the account the customer originally paid from.
- The refund status updates as it moves through processing.
Enabling refunds
Speak to your account manager to have refunds enabled on your account.
You'll also need a funded float. The money your customer paid you has already been settled to your bank account. When you refund them, Ozow pays that money back out of your float, not out of the original transaction. If your float is empty, refunds won't process.
Top up ahead of when you need it, clearingClearing Moving funds between two banks so the recipient can rely on them. It is a separate step from a payment being approved: a payment can succeed and the money still be in transit. Real-Time Clearing is the immediate version. takes time, and a customer waiting on a refund is not a customer who waits patiently. See Float top-up.
Payments from your customers don't fund your float.
When a customer pays you, that money is settled to your bank account. Your float is separate, and you fund it yourself by transferring money to Ozow. A busy sales day doesn't give you more capacity to refund or pay out; only a top-up does.
Need a different arrangement? Speak to your account manager if you'd like your incoming payments to flow into your float rather than being settled to your bank account. Ozow approves these at its discretion based on your use case; approval isn't guaranteed.
Things to know
Refunds come out of your float. Not out of the original payment, and not out of your next settlementSettlement Ozow paying the money you have collected into your bank account. Payins arrive at Ozow first and are settled to you on a schedule, so what a customer paid you today and what has been settled to you today are different amounts..
A refunded transaction isn't marked as refunded. The original transaction keeps its Complete
status. If you need to know whether something has been refunded, check your refund records rather
than the transaction status.
A refund is not a chargebackChargeback A completed card payment reversed by the customer's bank after a successful dispute. The funds come back out, and the process runs between the banks rather than through Ozow, so it is not something you can approve or refuse. Your transaction records and delivery confirmations are what it is decided on.. A refund is something you choose to do. A chargeback is raised by the customer through their bank and follows a disputeDispute A customer challenging a completed card payment through their own bank. A successful dispute becomes a chargeback and reverses the funds. Distinct from a refund, which you initiate and control. process you don't control. If you receive a chargeback notification, contact Ozow Support: don't process a refund on top of it. See Card.
Refunds can be returned. If the account the customer paid from has since closed, the refund comes back. You'll need to contact the customer and arrange another way to pay them.
The Dashboard handles one refund at a time. There's no bulk upload for refunds the way there is for payouts. If you need to refund in volume, use the API.
Refunds have their own statuses, and they're returned as numbers rather than text. See Statuses.
Integrating refunds
From the Dashboard: find the transaction, refund it. No development required, one refund at a time. → Refunds from the Dashboard
API: refund a single transaction or submit a batch, list your refunds, and receive webhooks when a refund completes. Supports idempotencyIdempotency A request is idempotent when sending it twice has the same effect as sending it once. It matters most where a retry after a timeout could otherwise take a payment twice.IETF draft keys, so a retried request won't refund twice. → Refund a payment
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