We're Moving Forward
Joist Payments will no longer work with WePay as of June 1, 2024
To keep using Joist Payments, click here to switch to our new payment processing partner, Stripe.
Switching takes just a few minutes and ensures no disruption of service. Plus, you'll get new payment methods like Apple Pay and Google Pay.
Note: Below information is the legacy article for WePay and does not apply to Stripe. We'll have new help center articles for Stripe coming soon.
Situations where your client wants their money back after paying you can be difficult to navigate. In some cases you may agree with them, while in others you may not.
In either case, it's important to avoid having your client initiate a chargeback through their bank or credit card provider.
Here's why:
Chargebacks cost you money
Our payments processor charges a $15 fee any time a chargeback is put through on your account. This is to cover the overhead involved in processing this type of a reverse transaction, which is much more complicated than a refund.
Chargebacks tie up your other payments
Because the issuing bank or credit card has all the power in chargeback situations, when a chargeback is issued our payments processor must return the funds to them immediately. If the funds were already paid out to your bank account, a recovery process must take place, which can prevent further payments from being transferred to your bank account for up to 10 days.
Chargebacks take a long time to resolve
If you choose to dispute a chargeback, our payments processor can help you fight it. But this process can take a long time. In some cases, a dispute can take 45-90 days to resolve, and in the end there's no guarantee your dispute will be successful.
Chargebacks hurt your reputation
Because of the time and cost involved in processing chargebacks, payments processors try to avoid them as much as possible. In some cases this can mean denying someone access to payments processing if they have a history of chargebacks with their clients. This can result in your payments account being closed, and being turned down by other payments processors in the future.
Refunds are an easier alternative
You can issue a refund in one of two easy ways:
If the funds have yet to be sent to your bank account, you can issue a refund through the Joist app and the full amount will be returned to the payer with no fees charged to you.
If the funds have already been sent to you bank account, consider returning the funds to the client by cash or check since issuing a refund through the app would require us to recover the funds from your bank account, which may tie up other payments at that time.
In either case, with a refund you avoid the costly and time-consuming problems associated with chargebacks.
For more on how you can protect yourself against chargebacks, check out: