Part refund for UK visa from 2019

[Mister Fixit]

A few days ago, I received the attached email saying I was due a partial refund of my wife's UK visa fee in 2019.  Has anyone heard of this happening or had a similar email?

 

I have a problem because I made the payment on my FairFx US dollar pre-payment card and that has now been closed.  I also had a FairFx Euro card and that was also closed when they integrated all their cards into one multi-currency card.  So it looks like I may have problems getting the refund.  The fee was $128 so I can't imagine the refund could be for more than a couple of dollars.  

 

But also note the timeframe to respond - they say - 'We aim to respond to queries within 10 working days. This mailbox will be available until 28 February 2021.'

 

However, they sent the email on 10 February but it went into my ISP's spam folder and I didn't see it until 13th February.  I have emailed them today to explain about the closed accounts, but they have not given people much time to sort things out, less than three weeks.  They say they aim to respond within 10 days so they are cutting it fine.  Sounds fairly typical of UKVI.

 

EDIT - just as I posted this, I received this auto-response from them.

 

I'd be interested to know if this has ever happened to anyone on here before.  

 

Edited February 15, 2021 by Mister Fixit

[Surelynot]

Now that is interesting....never crossed my mind we might get a refund....or possibly have the visa dates amended!

[foreverlomsak]

At first glance I would have said it was a scam, trying to get bank details from you that could be used to debit your account.

I'm still not convinced it's real, but all the email addresses look good.

It's a refund due to them charging an incorrect exchange rate in your transactions, and yes I've heard of this being done previously.

As it's probably going to be for a small amount I would have the tendency to say it was spent 2 years ago, and ain't worth all the hassle to get it (along with the risk that it could still be a scam).

Hope it sorts itself out satisfactorily.

 

[Surelynot]

Just now, foreverlomsak said:

At first glance I would have said it was a scam, trying to get bank details from you that could be used to debit your account.

Mmmmm...would have to agree...shame.

[Mister Fixit]

33 minutes ago, foreverlomsak said:

At first glance I would have said it was a scam, trying to get bank details from you that could be used to debit your account.

I'm still not convinced it's real, but all the email addresses look good.

It's a refund due to them charging an incorrect exchange rate in your transactions, and yes I've heard of this being done previously.

As it's probably going to be for a small amount I would have the tendency to say it was spent 2 years ago, and ain't worth all the hassle to get it (along with the risk that it could still be a scam).

Hope it sorts itself out satisfactorily.

 

 

I also thought it might be a scam and so did my ISP which didn't download it to my PC and left it in their spam folder.  I only saw it because I did my weekly check of their junk folder.

I looked at the email headers before I even opened it and they checked out fine.

Also, if you read the message again, they don't ask for any card or bank details.  What they say is 'The refund will be paid back automatically to the payment method that you used to pay for your visa application fee'  and of course, they quoted the correct visa application reference number, which no one else could possibly know.

Furthermore, I received an auto response and I doubt any scammers would do that.  

I agree that the amount will be nominal and even if the error was 10% of the initial $128, it still only be $12.80 refund, and I wouldn't cry about not receiving that.

I was just intrigued by the email and wondered if it was a commonplace thing.

 

Edited February 15, 2021 by Mister Fixit

[Mister Fixit]

32 minutes ago, Surelynot said:

Mmmmm...would have to agree...shame.

Except it isn't.  See below.

[Surelynot]

2 minutes ago, Mister Fixit said:

Except it isn't.  See below.

Interesting.....I live near to the Trendy building....might pop over and see if anything is doing.

[GroveHillWanderer]

I received the same email. I looked carefully at the characteristics of the email, including the header information, language used and the fact that they didn't request any information or require any action from the recipient. I doesn't seem to meet the normal parameters for a scam, as far as I can see.

[Mister Fixit]

1 hour ago, GroveHillWanderer said:

I received the same email. I looked carefully at the characteristics of the email, including the header information, language used and the fact that they didn't request any information or require any action from the recipient. I doesn't seem to meet the normal parameters for a scam, as far as I can see.

Have you received anything back yet?

[theoldgit]

It certainly doesn't look like a scam, as you say it advises that the excess will be paid automatically and to only contact if you don't receive it, the email address looks pukka.

 

Do let us know how much you get back, every little helps.

[Binger]

Hi yeah yes i got same letter it was for 10 year visa for the wife my refund was £18.33p i still have my uk bank accounts & cards so they paid straight in bank.you might have to phone them with new bank account information or if it was only a 6 month visa might be less hassle just to forget about it 

[DaLa]

Always a puzzle for me why they only accept payment in US dollars in the first place. 

[theoldgit]

24 minutes ago, DaLa said:

Always a puzzle for me why they only accept payment in US dollars in the first place. 

It’s a question that’s been asked many times over the years, with some members going as far as instigating a FOI request and receiving a waffled response in return, which basically said “because we can”.

[sandyf]

21 hours ago, theoldgit said:

It certainly doesn't look like a scam, as you say it advises that the excess will be paid automatically and to only contact if you don't receive it, the email address looks pukka.

 

Do let us know how much you get back, every little helps.

The obvious cross check is the visa transaction number but all a bit strange.

The payment has to be made in USD and as the OP said he used a US dollar prepayment card there would not have been any exchange rate involved in the payment.

There could be the possibility that UKVI misquoted the price in USD as that originates in GBP, but again I feel that is a bit unlikely.

My wife went to the UK in May 2019 and visa fee was 127 USD, application was made in March 2019. Her next application was in Feb 2020 and the fee then was 128 USD. The base rate went from £93 to £95 on 29th March 2019, no change since. The UKVI obviously has a conversion rate but it seems to be fairly constant, the fee was 127 USD in March 2018. 

 

My wife's last 2 applications should have been £93 and £95 but I paid £101.23 and £101.40, absolutely scandalous, and even more so that the latter was lost to covid, no refunds there.

[Paul DS]

?

Edited February 16, 2021 by Paul DS

[theoldgit]

It's worth noting that UK Visa Applications from Thailand can be made in THB from 18 February.

 

I'm grateful for @Tony Mfor the heads up

 

https://forum.thaivisa.com/topic/1206288-payment-for-uk-visas-now-in-thb/

[Mister Fixit]

4 hours ago, sandyf said:

The obvious cross check is the visa transaction number but all a bit strange.

The payment has to be made in USD and as the OP said he used a US dollar prepayment card there would not have been any exchange rate involved in the payment.

There could be the possibility that UKVI misquoted the price in USD as that originates in GBP, but again I feel that is a bit unlikely.

 

Nope, the last few visas I applied for 2016, 2017 and 2019 were all paid for in US $.  They started doing this, for some reason, some years ago IIRC.  

Yes, I used a dollar card but at some stage those dollars had to be changed to GB pounds and it's there where the error is.

You've confused yourself!  There was no misquote. 

The price for a UK visa is something like £90 or £95 or so and the $128 dollars is about right, depending on the exchange rate at the time.

Edited February 16, 2021 by Mister Fixit

[sandyf]

19 hours ago, Mister Fixit said:

Nope, the last few visas I applied for 2016, 2017 and 2019 were all paid for in US $.  They started doing this, for some reason, some years ago IIRC.  

Yes, I used a dollar card but at some stage those dollars had to be changed to GB pounds and it's there where the error is.

You've confused yourself!  There was no misquote. 

The price for a UK visa is something like £90 or £95 or so and the $128 dollars is about right, depending on the exchange rate at the time.

Obviously you failed to read my post correctly and have distorted what I said.

The UK government sets the price of the visa and as I said on 29th March 2019 that was increased from £93 to £95. Where you live in the world determines what you pay for the visa, if you applied in China you would pay in Yuan and if you applied in Gibraltar you would pay the £95 GBP. Here in Thailand, as other lower level currencies, the fee is paid in USD rather than Thai baht.

Obviously there is a conversion between the £95 fee and the USD payment, my words were -

"There could be the possibility that UKVI misquoted the price in USD as that originates in GBP, "

 

We used to pay the fee in Thai Baht to the embassy and they published the conversion, and it only changed if there was a significant change between the GBP and THB.

However with the change to the online payment processor it may be that the fee was more closely tied to the prevailing exchange rate. In March 2019 my wife was 127 USD for the £93 fee and I have had a look at the chart and the rate at that time was about 1.32 as opposed to 1.347 on her visa. I could see from the chart that between the end of April and the start of August there was a significant drop from the 1.32 mark to about 1.20. There is the possibility that the UKVI were a bit slow to respond and refunds are due. It would be a question of timing, early May would be next to nothing but end of July could be around 10 USD. 

 

 

[Mister Fixit]

Obviously YOU perceived my post content incorrectly and so because of that, incorrectly assumed I had twisted it.

 

For a start, there is never a quote for the price of a visa which is paid in dollars.  People are give the price for a visa, whatever it is in, but in this case dollars.

What you seem to have failed to realise is that even though I paid the fee in dollars it makes no difference what card I paid it on.  I could have used my UK credit card but then I would have had to pay an international transaction fee AND been given a rubbish exchange rate.

Having a grain of common sense, I used my pre-paid dollar card, but only for my convenience.

Eventually, the UK Government is going to have a shedload of US dollars it wants to turn into pounds and it is then that the exchange rate kicks in.  They won't be doing each conversion individually.

Although, as has been mentioned, why on earth Government in the UK wants paying in US dollars escapes me.  If they had done it that way from day one, they would be going to the expense of making umpteen repayments a few dollars and cents.

 

[theoldgit]

30 minutes ago, Mister Fixit said:

For a start, there is never a quote for the price of a visa which is paid in dollars.  

When the UK Government set the price for the processing a visa application it is set in GBP.

The UKVI use various companies to collect the fee and the fee is often collected in the local currency and more than often in USD.

The UKVI agree an exchange rate with their processors, it’s never on the side of the applicant.

Can we please stop this bickering now please?

[theoldgit]

Troll post removed.

[GroveHillWanderer]

On 2/15/2021 at 2:21 PM, Mister Fixit said:

Have you received anything back yet?

Not that I've noticed. I can't remember now, how I paid but I haven't seen any unexplained payments coming in to any of my accounts recently.

 

However if I paid with the one Visa card that I think I might have done, that card was discontinued when I changed banks and I'm not sure what would have happened if they tried to reimburse that one.

[Mister Fixit]

7 hours ago, GroveHillWanderer said:

Not that I've noticed. I can't remember now, how I paid but I haven't seen any unexplained payments coming in to any of my accounts recently.

 

However if I paid with the one Visa card that I think I might have done, that card was discontinued when I changed banks and I'm not sure what would have happened if they tried to reimburse that one.

 

Yes, I paid with a now defunct FairFX US dollar card which has been integrated with an all currencies card so I don't know what will happen.

I emailed the visa people but all I have had is an auto-response saying they will respond within 10 working days.  I am not holding out much hope.

[Mister Fixit]

I had a reply to my enquiry yesterday.  Typically long and in civil service speak, I am due the princely sum of THREE, yes, 3 whole US dollars.  

I shan't bother chasing it up, I have better things to do with my life.

 

It also begs the question of how much it has cost the UK Government to process all these other incorrect payments just to refund such a tiny amount.

___________________________________________________________________

I am writing in response to your email regarding the partial refund issued to you as a result of the incorrect application of the exchange rate in 2019.

Unfortunately, we are unable to consider your alternative refund method for the above reference. Refunds must always be made back to the original card / bank account that was used to make the initial payment as the bank may still be able to reimburse the recipient through other means, such as an alternative account or via a cheque.

 We will only consider an alternative method of refund if the transaction is returned to us as ‘failed’ by the bank. 

Upon checking our payment records on Worldpay, I can confirm that we refunded the payment onto the original card that the payment was made from on 12/Feb/2021 as follows: -

 

Name on Card Mr XXXXXXXX

Card type ECMC

Amount USD 3.00

 

If your bank is unable to locate the funds, you can use the following reference or Acquirer Reference Number (ARN) to help track the money.  The ARN for this transaction is: 0527244104191000201XXXX  which should be used when speaking to your bank / card issuer.

 The bank/ card issuer can use the ARN to locate the funds and allocate them accordingly. We suggest that you speak directly to your bank / card issuer’s refund department or fraud department, as the frontline staff may not be able to help as they can normally only see the funds already in the account or about to be credited.

 Kind regards,

 Anu

 Transactional Services

Cross Cutting Operations, Visas and Citizenship
UK Visas and Immigration

Home Office
OUR V&C Our People Our Operations Our Customers

 

Edited February 21, 2021 by Mister Fixit
Mr Forgetful