Revolut has reportedly cancelled a large number of recent card transactions in Hungary, returning the money to customers, but the refunded amounts may not be theirs to spend.
Revolut users receive unexpected notifications
Several Revolut users in Hungary woke up on Thursday morning to find that some of their recent card purchases had been cancelled and the money they had paid had been returned to their accounts.
Many of those affected received notifications between around 7 and 8 AM, according to reports shared by users in the Hungarian-language Revolut Community Facebook group and reported by Hungarian financial news site RevB.
The affected payments appear to include a wide range of everyday purchases, from smaller transactions to larger shopping bills. Users have reported cancellations involving retailers including Penny, Rossmann, Lidl and dm, as well as transactions at National Tobacco Shops.
Both Visa and Mastercard transactions have reportedly been affected, with Maestro cards also mentioned among users’ reports. So far, the reports concern domestic Hungarian transactions.
Money returned after earlier purchases
The unusual notifications initially caused some users to worry that someone had attempted to use their cards.
One user, for example, reported receiving a notification about a failed KFC payment worth HUF 1,890, despite saying they had not been to KFC for two weeks and still had their physical card.
However, the transaction was not a new attempted payment. Other users pointed out that the notification related to an earlier purchase being cancelled, meaning the money was being returned rather than a new charge being made.
The incident seems to be a system error rather than evidence that customers’ cards have been compromised.
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Don’t spend the unexpected refund
Customers who have received money back from cancelled transactions should not assume that the refunds are permanent.
The cancelled payments are expected to be charged again once the underlying issue is fixed. In other words, the money currently showing in an affected customer’s Revolut account may simply be temporarily available because of the error.
RevB reported that Revolut’s status page showed its systems as operating normally, while customers of other banks had not reported a similar issue. The exact cause of the problem has not yet been confirmed.
Revolut is expected to correct the issue and reprocess the affected payments. The company has been contacted for information about the incident, and further details are expected if it responds.
