If you bought the item with a credit card, you'll get reimbursed in the form of a credit card refund. A credit card refund happens when you return a product you purchased using a credit card and get a credit to your account.
Overpaying your credit card bill by a small sum will often result in a negative balance on your account. However, overpaying by a significant amount may be a fraud trigger for your issuer. Sometimes overpayment of large sums can be the result of mistakenly adding an extra zero to your payment.
Send a written refund request to your bank or credit card company. Tell them how you want the refund paid (e.g., cash, check, money order, or credited to a deposit account). Once the written request is received, the bank must refund the money within seven business days.
If a credit card refund results in a negative account balance, the issuer will either wire the money back to your checking account or send you a check.
Even though the merchant has been paid, you aren't billed by the credit card company until later. So what if you end up returning the item you purchased for a refund? Since you didn't pay the retailer directly, it won't refund you directly, either. Rather, the retailer will issue a refund to your credit card account.
Simply call your card issuer and let them know that you would like the negative balance to be converted. A benefit to having your negative balance converted to a deposit is that you won't have to worry about interest being applied when you spend it.
Ultimately, nothing really happens if you have a negative credit card balance. It doesn't hurt you. But still, you want to check in on your account regularly to make sure you don't wind up with a negative balance.
If you have paid your card down to a zero balance and then receive your refund, you will have a negative balance on your credit account. Any future purchases will be applied to the negative balance first.
According to the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB), experts recommend keeping your credit utilization below 30% of your total available credit. If a high utilization rate is hurting your scores, you may see your scores increase once a lower balance or higher credit limit is reported.
Truth: Overpaying has no more impact on your credit score than paying the full balance does. Paying down your credit card to a balance of zero is good for your credit score, but you won't see an extra boost by purposefully overpaying, because it will still show up as a zero balance on your credit report.
If you have a negative balance on your credit card account, the simplest way to bring your balance back to $0 is to make new purchases. For instance, if you have a -$50 balance, you can simply apply it to future purchases.
By completing the return before your credit card company reports a high balance to the credit bureaus, you'll avoid a change to your credit scores. If you don't make your returns before your credit is reported, the purchases you plan to return will be included in your balance and raise your credit utilization ratio.
Although ranges vary depending on the credit scoring model, generally credit scores from 580 to 669 are considered fair; 670 to 739 are considered good; 740 to 799 are considered very good; and 800 and up are considered excellent.
Adam McCann, Financial Writer
A Credit One credit balance refund is a reimbursement for paying more than the total balance owed on a Credit One credit card. For example, a cardholder who has a balance of $300 but pays $500 can get a credit balance refund of the $200 that they overpaid.
It's Best to Pay Your Credit Card Balance in Full Each Month
Leaving a balance will not help your credit scores—it will just cost you money in the form of interest. Carrying a high balance on your credit cards has a negative impact on scores because it increases your credit utilization ratio.
It's better to pay off your credit card than to keep a balance. It's best to pay a credit card balance in full because credit card companies charge interest when you don't pay your bill in full every month.
A good guideline is the 30% rule: Use no more than 30% of your credit limit to keep your debt-to-credit ratio strong. Staying under 10% is even better. In a real-life budget, the 30% rule works like this: If you have a card with a $1,000 credit limit, it's best not to have more than a $300 balance at any time.
To keep your scores healthy, a rule of thumb is to use no more than 30% of your credit card's limit at all times. On a card with a $200 limit, for example, that would mean keeping your balance below $60.
The credit limit you can get with a 750 credit score is likely in the $1,000-$15,000 range, but a higher limit is possible. The reason for the big range is that credit limits aren't solely determined by your credit score.
It's important to put at least some of your spending on a card from time to time, but spending more will not benefit your score. Aim to use no more than 30% of your credit limit on any of your cards, and less is better.
A high-limit credit card typically comes with a credit line between $5,000 to $10,000 (and some even go beyond $10,000). You're more likely to have a higher credit limit if you have good or excellent credit.
The average credit card limit for a 25-year-old is around $3,000. To get to that number, it's important to know that the average credit score in that age bracket is 650, which is fair credit.