Many travelers ask us if we can refund their VAT directly to their credit card. While this sounds simple in theory, in practice, sending money straight back to a credit card number is technically complex, costly, and not guaranteed to work for every card or bank.
Why is it so complicated?
Globally, banking systems and card networks (Visa, Mastercard, etc.) are not fully harmonized. Some banks accept direct refund transactions to cards, others don’t — and unfortunately, there’s no universal way to check in advance whether it will work for a specific card.
How does it work with Skiptax?
We work with a trusted payment provider who can process refunds back to many Visa and Mastercard cards. However, this does not cover 100% of cards worldwide, and we cannot know in advance if your specific card will accept the refund.
If the direct card refund fails, there is unfortunately no technical workaround on our side to force it through.
What to do if it fails?
If your card refund fails, you have two options:
Try a different credit card (this sometimes works, but not always).
Recommended: Switch to a bank transfer or PayPal refund instead. These methods are often faster and more reliable because they don’t rely on the card networks’ variable acceptance.
Why do other companies succeed sometimes?
Some companies might have different payment partners or might refund from their own bank in a way that works with your card. That’s great for them — but unfortunately, with our system and provider, we cannot guarantee the same result for every card.
👉 Tip: For the smoothest and fastest refund, we strongly recommend using bank transfer or PayPal whenever possible.