Why can't my payout be withdrawn after a customer refund?

[Topo4GPS]

Hi there, I recently refunded a customer purchase as they'd been having some troubles and it just seemed the simplest thing to do. It seems rather than deduct the refund from the several other payouts yet to be received Shopify needs to withdraw that from my business bank account. However, my bank (Wise) understandably must have rejected Shopify's attempt to withdraw from my account. It's not a savings accounts, but the message received is:

"Your payout couldn’t be withdrawn because your bank account doesn’t allow withdrawals. Alternatively, you can update your bank account details to a checking account. Your payouts will be on hold until you resolve this issue."

If Shopify can give me bank details and a reference to use I'd be happy to make the payment, or of course feel free to deduct it from the other payments still owed to me, but I'm not changing banks for my business account just for this!

[Ugurcan]

I am not sure if this is applicable but in US, you can enable Shopify Balance which in fact acts like your bank account where you can deposit and withdraw anytime.

[Topo4GPS]

Thanks for the reply. While that sounds like it would make a lot of sense, unfortunately it seems you must "be a store based in the United States or Puerto Rico" in order to enable that 🤔

[Topo4GPS]

I'm baffled why Shopify doesn't just charge the credit card I pay for my annual subscription with.

Making this even more difficult is all attempts at contacting support - from multiple devices and  several different networks results in a failure page such as this:

[Topo4GPS · Accepted solution]

The Help Centre issue seemed to be resolved by completing additional info on my account, so was finally able to speak to someone via the mildly infuriating chat-bot. It seems that the only option is to speak to my bank...so here's hoping they're a bit more flexible than Shopify!

And confirmed that Shopify Balance is only available to US territories and in Puerto Rico only, but (from the chat with their support... "rest assured Shopify is not stopping to expand our scope of support for Shopify payments including Shopify Balance. Rest assured that you are heard by our Developers and me as a support advisor is looking forward to have it available in your country soon.".

[mopica]

So, how did you solve it then? Direct debit authorization from the bank? As we are having the same issue, but bank claims shopify needs to provide the form for this.

Also seems strange they cannot deduct from balance or credit card as those two options are always available.

[Topo4GPS]

I ended up changing to my personal bank account to allow the refund through, then changing back to my business account after it had gone through successfully.

I've also changed my Shopify payouts to monthly - as (in theory!) I shouldn't have to be paying more refunds out than payments received, so the nett amount should always be in my credit.

It was a thoroughly infuriating workaround to have to do, but hopefully not something I have to repeat!