How do I refund a payment?

The PayFast Merchant Refunds feature allows you to refund your customers credit card and Instant EFT payments directly via the PayFast dashboard. In the future, you’ll be able to also refund your customers via our other supported payment methods.

To refund your customer’s credit card or Instant EFT payment, do the following:

1. Log into the PayFast dashboard and from the Transactions drop-down menu select ‘History’. 
2. Locate the purchase transaction to be refunded.
3. Select the refund icon in the far right column.
4. On the refund transaction screen, select if the refund type is a full or partial refund of the original transaction amount.
5. Enter the amount of the refund.
6. Enter the reason for the refund. This reason will be communicated to the buyer via the refund email confirmation.
7. Optional: Select the checkbox to send yourself a copy of the confirmation email.
8. Click the Refund button to complete the refund process. A completion status notification will reflect on the screen.

For an Instant EFT refund, the process is almost identical to a credit card refund but on the refund transaction screen you are required to add the account holder’s name and select the account type. 

Please note the following:

• Refunds are not allowed on debit cards. If attempted you will receive the bank response code 62.
• Credit and cheque card refunds can take up to 7 and 10 business days, and Instant EFT refunds between 2 and 3 business days, to reflect in your customer’s account due to risk checks that are performed by banks.
• The refund will come directly out of your PayFast wallet, so refunds can only be processed if you have sufficient funds available. 
• From 1 October 2020 each refund will have a processing fee of R2 (excluding VAT).
• When a refund is processed, only the original purchase amount is refunded and not the transaction fee. For more information on this visit this page.
• A split payment can only be refunded in full, no partial refunds are allowed at this point.
• Some refunds might reflect as a debit on the account holder’s bank statement. For more information on this visit this page. 
• A refund is final and non-reversible. 
• If there is a pending payout on the buyer account it will block the processing of a new refund. If assistance is required to cancel a pending payout, please contact support.

For refunds on all other payment methods, please continue to email merchantsupport@payfast.co.za the relevant payment details.

If you are a buyer and would like to request a refund on a payment you have made, read more here.