Refund are reversal transactions wherein complete or partial money is moved back to customer’s source account (account from which actual payment was made). A refund can only be created for a successful or settled transaction. Use case for a refund arises in the following scenarios:
Customer initiated refund (returns/cancellation) - Customer has changed his mind about the consumption of product pre/post order delivery
Merchant initiated refund - Refund can be initiated by the merchant in the following scenarios:
Product/service is out of stock
Merchant works on a prepaid model wherein the initial amount was higher than the final billed amount (prepaid service model)
Mismatch in transaction status between Paytm and merchant wherein transaction is failed state at merchant's end but is successful at Paytm's end.
You can initiate partial or complete refunds to your customer’s source account. A refund request usually takes 7-14 business days to reflect in customer’s account depending on the bank used for payment.
Ways to initiate refunds
Paytm provides two ways by which you can initiate refunds:
You can also initiate a refund via theRefund API. The identifier of a transaction against which refund has to be made is order ID (unique parameter for order in your system) and transaction ID (unique parameter for your order with Paytm passed in transaction response).
Postman Collection - Refund
The postman collection for Refund solutionlets you quickly understand the flow integration. Click the button below to download and import the APIs collection in the postman. This would also help you test the APIs on the integration environment.
Run in Postman
To set up the environment for using the Postman Collection, clickhere.
Steps for Refund API
Initiate refund from your backend using ourRefund API.
Paytm validates the refund against the original order. These are basic validations like a cumulative refund on this order < order value, the order is not more than a year old etc.
Sync confirmation after validation of refund is provided in response to theRefund APIrequest.
Once the refund is validated at Paytm's end, Paytm deducts the refund amount from your pending settlement amount.
On successful deduction, Paytm sends anAccept Refund Webhookto the merchant.
Post successful deduction Paytm initiates the refund to the bank. Apart from net banking refunds, this is instant in nature. Most of the net banking refunds are file-based and hence are sent to the bank on the next working day.
Once the bank accepts the refund, Paytm sends aSuccess Refund Webhookto the merchant. This webhook depicts that refund has been initiated and contains the latest date by which money will be credited into the user's account.
At any point of time, the detailed information of refund can be fetched using theRefund Status API.
Refund Turn Around Time
Paytm processes ~80% of refunds instantly to your customers without any extra service cost for your business. This unique proposition ensures a delightful post-sale experience and improves your customer retention. The average refund time for various payment options is mentioned below:
| Payment Option | Refund Turn Around Time | Refund Eligibility from the Date of Transaction |
|---|---|---|
| Paytm Wallet | Instant | Up to 1 year |
| Paytm NB | Instant | Up to 1 year |
| Paytm Postpaid | Instant | Up to 1 year |
| UPI | Instant | Up to 6 months |
| Debit Cards | 2-3 Days | Up to 6 months |
| Credit Cards | 2-3 Days | Up to 6 months |
| NB (API Integration Banks) | 2-3 Days | Up to 6 months |
| NB (Offline Integration Banks) | 5-7 Days | 1-3 months |
Note: The above TAT is applicable for 99.9% of the refunds but can get extended under exceptional circ*mstances where the customer's bank infra is down, the customer's account is closed or frozen, the processing bank infra is down, etc. Kindly reach out to your KAM or Paytm Payments Helpdesk to seek a resolution for your pending refunds.
Constraints on refunds
Once the refund is requested against a transaction, it cannot be cancelled by the merchant.
Refund request will always be credited to customer source account with which the transaction was done initially.
Refunds can be requested for a successful, settled, or partially refunded orders.
Total refund initiated in a day has to be lower than total outstanding payable amount with Paytm. In case it is more, the refunds are not accepted.
Total 6 partial refunds are allowed on a single transaction done using the Rupay card network.
For wallet transaction where the Paytm cashback (CB) has been processed successfully, the customer will receive a refund after deduction of CB.
Refunds are currently not supported on eNACH/Bank Mandate. Merchants have to handle such refunds at their end.
