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Prepaid hosting and deposits that can't be refunded
I’ve never liked or understood this. If a host wants me to pay upfront instead of billing every month, that’s okay with me. But I can’t accept when they won’t give back the unused credit if I decide to stop using the service.
Right now, I have 71e in prepaid credit with a provider, but I don’t want to keep using their service. They’re saying they won’t refund the remaining amount.
Do you think that’s fair?
This discussion has been closed.
Comments
Never prepay credits period.
I definitely won't do this anymore and will stick to providers with regular billing.
I find the whole thing dubious tbh. Im sure their payment provider would probably agree.
this happened to me after i canceled a dedi that crashed regularly with mevspace months ago. they only offered to give me account credit and account credit cant be refunded. now i have 30e stuck there
Illegal. At least in Europe you can't load money to account and keep it indefinitely. Loaded money has expiration date, as hosting provider is not a bank and can't "keep" money. That's a licensed activity. Most, if not all, payment gateways forbid such "loading funds" activity or purchase so called "virtual credits". Initiate charge back swiftly with your bank for unused amount.
What should I do then? The provider is 24fire.de. I think their handle here is @24fire
Editing my post, upon some more research it seems they can legally keep your prepaid money in your account and don't have to offer you a refund and this is legal under EU rules. Sorry for misguiding you.
What does the terms say?
Did you prepay for a year and try to cancel after 6 months or something like that, or is it just a "preloaded" account where you put money and they bill on a monthly basis?
In the first scenario the provider has a point, in the second I'm on your side.
Was it pre-paid on a contract.
It's just preloaded account, yes. I add credit, and they take the credit for the service each month.
Prepaid. The provider is 24fire.de.
Then they have no right to hold the account balance.
Id contact them again with the option of refunding the balance or you contact the payment provider.
i never encountered a provider who gives back money. Credits only.
best you check terms. If support said they won't refund then you can ask again and be prepared for loss.
According to cgpt lawyer in Germany:
In the terms there is only this that I could find, translated in English:
What law gives them the right to hold my balance hostage? Is it enough for them to just say in the terms that they won't refund the credits? Shouldn't there be a law that regulates these things and says if what they are doing is legal?
The money is gone. You are free to test your anger in German court. Buy server for that sum, sell it on bargain here and swallow the loss.
Do not pre-pay. Even if it is known provider. Never give money in advance.
Apparently, that rule is enough and legal for them to keep your money in their account as credit. Legally, you can file a complaint but nothing is illegal here apparently.
They said that it's because of "money laundering regulations". Does it make any sense to you?
Lesson learned I guess.
Ok, I won't bother. But it still hurts that they can just say in the terms that they won't refund unused credits and that's it. I don't think it's fair or right.
i think it would be fair for said provider to refund less applicable fees.
I would be fine with that. But they say that it's because of money laundering regulations that they cannot refund unused credits. Smells like bs to me.
Perhaps, next time they post here if someone is interested in their offer they pay you and 24fire transfers your credits to them.
Basically, find someone to purchase your credit balance.
I have asked if I can transfer the balance to someone else. Let's see what they say.
Nope, you can’t as this action requires license.
Hi,
this is actually not handled like money that you have on an account ( even it might look like this ).
This is actually handled like a coupon.
By transferring money to them you essentially bought a coupon ( valid for up to 3 years -- please read their TOS that might state otherwise ). And coupons again are of course not refundable, most people will naturally assume that its not refundable.
Aside of the question if this is good behavior of the company or nice or what ever, a big problem nowadays are money laundry laws that getting, thanks to the crypto stuff, more and more heavy an a bureaucratic nightmare.
Imagine someone pays through what ever to you ( creditcard, bank, crypto, what ever ) and then 1 year later ask you to pay it out, or even a portion of it.
You would be automatically like a bank. But you are no bank, you dont have a bank license and you dont want to be a bank actually. Thats one problem.
Another problem will come up because the customer creditcard/bank/crypto/what ever might have changed already. So you wont pay back to the original funding source but paying somewhere else. Doing like this you are fully in classic money laundry.
I can fully understand that most providers will like to avoid this whole evil topic and simply define: What ever comes to us, stay with us. The only question is to proper communicate it.
Hi,
i am not sure if this is correct in this case.
As customer A will actually sell a right ( coupon/funds/right to buy services for up to X EUR ) to customer B.
This does not even need to be the same amount of money. ( Selling 70 EUR right for 50 EUR ).
You can also sell your virtual servers... there you also sell a (usage) right. That should be actually possible. Another question is, if the provider will have some handling fee's for this.
But at least this topic is not covered by bank license or similar stuff. ( Afaik )
Thanks for the explanation @layer7 .
They said they cannot allow transferring balance to someone else either.
happens to me regularly and does not bother me, usually it's 1 months payment or so
i just keep the account and if they go out of business i lost some cash, if i order again it's fine
some provides are super crazy about paying on time (and had instances where autopay would fail and they would suspend my server)
for some providers i ask to write information not to delete if unpaid, so far never actually seen how it works, if they respect it.
Get a service, then transfer(sell) it to someone else....