# Refund a customer’s wallet balance Pay back unused wallet money and check what to do when a card refund fails. Canonical URL: https://www.naayya.com/help-center/refund-a-customer-wallet-balance Category: customer-management Last updated: 2026-11-08T00:00:00Z # Refund a customer’s wallet balance Use this when a customer wants back money they paid in and did not spend, for example when they move away. Only money the customer paid in can go back: their top-ups and a balance carried over from your previous system. Course credit given back after a cancellation stays credit and cannot be paid out. Gift cards are not refunded here. Staff who can manage payments, which by default means owners and managers, can refund a balance. A refund in cash or by bank transfer also needs a role that can record payments, which owners and managers have too. Nothing can be refunded while the customer owes your business anything: their account, a course instalment, or a membership whose payment failed. Settle what they owe first. 1. Open [Customer Details](/help-center/customer-details#open-customer-details) and select the **Wallet** tab. 2. Select **Refund balance**. 3. Under **Refund to**, choose where the money goes. Each choice shows the most it can refund: - **Card top-up** of an amount on a date: money the customer added online goes back to the card they paid with. - **Cash** or **Bank transfer**: money they paid at your desk, or carried over. These show only while your business has **Record payments taken outside Naayya** switched on under **Admin > Settings > Payments**. 4. Check the **Amount**. It starts at the most that choice can refund. You can lower it. 5. For a bank transfer, add the **Reference** of the transfer you made, and record it once the money has left your account. For cash, a **Reference** is optional. You can also add a **Note**. 6. Select **Refund**. What happens: - The amount leaves the customer's account balance at once, so it cannot also be spent. - Money spent from the account counts as spent from the oldest money first. A card top-up can refund only what is still unused of that top-up. - A card refund goes back to the card the top-up was paid with, and the customer gets a refund confirmation email when it succeeds. Until Stripe confirms it, **Activity** shows **Refund to card in progress**. If the card refund does not go through, even after Stripe first reported it done, the money goes back to the customer's account balance. - If Stripe has not confirmed a card refund, the money stays held and **Refund balance** lists the refund with **Try again**. Try again sends the same refund again, so it is never made twice. It works for about a day after the first try. After that, check the refund in Stripe: the money stays held until Stripe answers. Once Stripe has the refund and is completing it, there is nothing to try again. - Naayya also checks with Stripe by itself. A refund that was never sent to Stripe goes back to the account. One that was sent but has no answer from Stripe stays held, and after an hour your **Inbox** shows it. - Cash and bank transfer refunds are records: Naayya does not move the money. Each keeps who recorded it and when. - A top-up is not a sale, so a refund of one has no credit note and does not change your revenue or VAT figures. - The refund shows in the wallet's **Activity** as **Refunded to card**, **Refunded in cash**, or **Refunded by bank transfer**. A card refund also shows on the top-up in **Admin > Payments**. - If the top-up's payment is disputed, or refunded in Stripe, while a card refund of it is on its way and that refund then fails, the money stays held: it does not become spendable. If the refund fails to save, try again: the same refund is never made twice. ## When a card refund does not go through Sometimes Stripe cannot put a refund back on the customer's card, for example because the card was closed. When that happens, the amount comes back to your Stripe balance and Naayya adds it to the customer's wallet at your business: - The wallet's **Activity** shows **Refund added to wallet**, with what the payment was for. - In **Admin > Payments**, the payment shows **Refunded to wallet**. It counts as refunded in your reports, and what the payment bought stays removed. - The customer gets an email saying the refund went to their wallet. Owners get an email too. The customer can spend the money on bookings at your business. To pay it out instead, select **Refund balance** in the **Wallet** tab and choose cash or bank transfer. This needs **Record payments taken outside Naayya**, which the owner turns on in **Admin > Settings > Payments**. It cannot go back to a card, and the payment cannot be refunded to the card again. Until the amount is back in your Stripe balance, the payment shows **Refund failed**. Do not refund it again: Naayya adds it to the wallet as soon as it is back. Naayya does not add it to the wallet when the payment has no customer account, or when the customer has disputed the charge with their bank, because the bank may already have paid them back. The payment then keeps showing **Refund failed**: check what the customer is still owed and pay them back another way, such as a bank transfer.