Can you recapture a refund in Adyen?

This is a crucial question for any business, especially those in the hospitality industry, managing payments. The straightforward answer is: No, you generally cannot recapture a payment that has been successfully refunded in Adyen.

Once a payment has been captured (meaning the funds have moved from the customer's bank to your merchant account) and then refunded, the funds are returned to the customer's account. This is a final action for that specific transaction.

Attempting to "recapture" a refunded payment is not a valid operation because the original funds have already been released back to the cardholder. You would effectively be trying to pull funds from an account that has already received them back, which can lead to complications, including the risk of double-refunding the customer.

The solution: initiate a new payment request

If your business (e.g., a hotel) needs to re-charge a guest for a service that was previously refunded, you must initiate a completely new payment request.

For situations where a new payment is required from a guest, we strongly recommend using Adyen's Pay by Link (PBL) feature also available in the Online Payment Studio.