The difference between a points return and a card refund

A return and a refund are different

inlink uses the two words differently.

• Return: a reward that was held for a campaign or proposal comes back to your points balance. Deposits from applicants who were not selected, cancelled selections, cancelled campaigns and declined proposals all work this way.
• Refund: the actual payment by card or transfer is itself cancelled.

Even when you topped up by card and then spent it on a campaign, a cancellation does not cancel the card payment — as a rule the money is returned to your points balance. Keeping the two words apart makes the payment history screen easier to read.

Returns when a campaign, proposal or Market order is cancelled

The reward you held when publishing a campaign is returned as points in the following cases.

1. The participation deposit of an applicant who applied but was not selected
2. The reward for the people involved when a selection is cancelled
3. The remaining held reward when the campaign itself is cancelled
4. When a direct proposal is declined or withdrawn, the held reward (if any) and the sending fee

Even for an amount you topped up by card, these situations are handled as a points return, not a card cancellation. Returned points can be spent again on another campaign or proposal exactly as before.

When you need a card refund

To cancel a top-up request before you transfer the money, go to Points & payments (/biz/payments), find the request still sitting at "awaiting payment" and tap [cancel request] next to it. A "cancel top-up request" window opens; tap [cancel request] again to confirm and it is cancelled immediately.

If a payment has already gone through (transfer received or card approved) and you need the money itself back in cash or on the card — a real refund rather than a return — that is not handled on screen, so please ask the inlink team in chat.

Checking returned points

Every return and refund appears in the payment history table on Points & payments (/biz/payments).

• The type filter at the top narrows it to top-up, campaign, proposal, gift, Market, other and so on.
• Rows where a reward was returned show the specific reason where it is known, such as "selection cancelled" or "recruitment cancelled". Migrated data whose individual reason was never established shows "reward returned" instead; tap the information icon beside it to read "this is a record of a reward you had held for a campaign being returned".
• The table also shows the amount actually paid by card or transfer (including VAT, excluding anything covered by points or coupons).