Why is my refund less than I paid? PKR bookings and card exchange rates

Why is my refund less than what I paid? On a Pakistan booking priced in rupees, the short answer is usually this: the rupee amount came back in full, but your card turned those rupees into pounds, dirhams, riyals or dollars on two different days, at two different rates, and any foreign-transaction fee your bank took on the way out may not come back with the refund. Nobody kept part of your money. The gap sits between the refund record and your statement, not inside it. There are two other explanations worth ruling out first: a cancellation fee applied because you cancelled late, or a refund that has not finished posting yet. This guide shows how each one looks on paper, gives worked examples for GBP, AED, SAR and USD cards, and tells you exactly what to send if the numbers still do not add up.

Three causes, and how to tell them apart in two minutes

Put the refund email and your card statement side by side. The pattern of the difference usually names the cause.

Most “short” refunds on rupee-priced bookings are the first two rows combined. The rest of this article explains why, using the way iDrive records and returns a payment.

The PKR base price is the figure that is refunded

Every iDrive journey has one price of record, and it is in Pakistani rupees. Clause 4.2 of the iDrive Terms of Hire names the rupee as the operating currency and says prices are set and shown in PKR.

One caveat before the detail. Both the Terms of Hire and the iDrive refund policy are currently published as drafts for legal review and are marked on the page as not in force, so read what follows as the intended approach rather than a binding promise. The terms shown for your booking when you paid are what count. As drafted, the refund policy says:

• a refund is made in the currency you were charged in, for the amount that was charged (section 3.2.1);
• refund percentages are applied to what you actually paid, in the currency you actually paid in (section 2.2);
• the money goes back through Stripe, the payment processor, to the same card or payment method you used, never to a different card or account (section 3.1.1);
• your own bank’s exchange rate or foreign-transaction charge on the way back is outside iDrive’s control and cannot be refunded by iDrive (section 3.2.2).

So if you were charged Rs 40,000 and the full amount is due, the refund record says Rs 40,000. What your bank does with those rupees when they land is a separate transaction. Stripe’s refund documentation adds that a refund cannot exceed the original charge, so the ceiling is the rupee amount, whatever it buys in pounds on the day.

Display currency vs charge currency: what the pound figure on screen means

The iDrive header carries a “Rs / £” switch labelled “Show GBP estimates”. It changes the numbers you look at, not what you are charged or what comes back. The distinction that matters on a refund is display currency vs charge currency:

• Display currency is a reading aid. It is recalculated as rates move and has no contractual weight.
• Charge currency is what the payment processor actually presents to your card. Stripe calls this the presentment currency in its guide to presentment and settlement currencies.
• Price of record stays in PKR throughout, whichever of the other two you picked.

A common source of confusion is comparing the refund with a pound estimate you saw while browsing, perhaps weeks before you paid. That estimate was never the charge. Compare the refund with the charged amount on your statement instead.

The two charge routes at checkout

Draft clause 4.2 says the iDrive secure checkout offers a range of major currencies, including pounds sterling, US dollars and euros, as an alternative to paying in rupees. If you choose one, iDrive converts the rupee price using a reference rate checked against two independent sources, adds a small conversion margin, shows you both, and fixes them at the moment you pay. Clause 4.6 adds that this conversion is done by iDrive before the payment is taken. Which currencies appear depends on what the checkout lists on the day, so check the list rather than assuming your home currency is there.

That gives two very different refund behaviours:

1. Charged in PKR. The refund is a rupee amount. Your card issuer converts it at the rate that applies when the refund is processed. Your statement credit floats.
2. Charged in your own currency. The refund is the same pound, dollar or euro amount you were charged, because it reverses the payment as made. The conversion margin you paid was part of the charge, so it comes back with a full refund. The rupee may have moved since, but that no longer touches you.

So a PKR booking refunded in pounds happens only in the sense that your bank converts the rupee credit for you. A pound-for-pound refund needs a pound charge.

Charge day versus refund day: how card rates create the gap

When a card pays in a foreign currency, the conversion is not done once and remembered. The payment and the refund are two separate transactions, and your card issuer converts each one when it is processed. The draft refund policy says as much from the merchant side: on the way back, your own bank or card issuer may apply its own exchange rate, which iDrive neither sets nor sees.

A refund is a credit moving the other way on a later date, so it gets that later date’s rate. For a GBP to PKR card payment, if the rupee has weakened against the pound in between, the same rupees buy fewer pounds on the way back; if it has strengthened, you get slightly more. Over weeks, normal for weddings booked well ahead, the move can be noticeable.

Why the timing can stretch

Stripe says a refund normally shows as a credit roughly 5 to 10 business days after it is initiated, depending on the bank. The draft iDrive policy describes two stages: iDrive releases the refund, then your bank posts it. The draft deliberately leaves iDrive’s own release time as a placeholder, because no figure has yet been set. Each extra day is another day for the rate to move.

There is one case where no rate applies at all. Stripe notes that some refunds issued shortly after the original charge are processed as a reversal: the original charge simply drops off your statement and no separate credit appears. If that happened, there is no second conversion and no gap to explain.

Checking where the rupee stood

If you want to see whether the rupee moved, the State Bank of Pakistan publishes a daily interbank M2M revaluation rate and weighted average bid and offer rates for the US dollar. It is a wholesale benchmark, not a card rate, but comparing the figure on your charge date with the figure on your refund date tells you the direction and rough size of the move. For the exact rate applied to your own card, look at the transaction detail in your banking app, which often shows the original PKR amount beside the converted one.

The currency conversion fee on refund: what usually does not come back

The second part of the gap can be larger than the first. Many cards add a percentage fee to any payment that is not in the card’s own currency, and sometimes a fixed charge too. Stripe’s currency guide makes two points worth knowing: if the charge currency differs from your card’s currency, your bank may charge you a foreign exchange fee, and your bank may also charge a fee when the card and the business are in different countries, regardless of the currency used.

Whether that fee is returned when the payment is refunded is a decision for your card issuer, not for the merchant. iDrive never received it, so iDrive cannot send it back; the draft refund policy says as much. Issuers set their own rules here, and they differ. Your card’s fee schedule or account terms will say whether a refunded foreign-currency payment also refunds the fee.

To keep the pieces straight:

• iDrive’s conversion margin, if you chose to pay in your own currency, was part of the amount charged and is returned with a full refund.
• Your bank’s foreign-transaction or cross-border fee was taken by your bank and is returned only if your bank’s terms say so.
• Exchange-rate movement on a rupee charge is nobody’s fee; it is simply the rate on a different day.
• A cancellation fee, where one applies, is shown in the refund figure itself before the refund is sent.

When a cancellation fee is the real reason

The draft refund policy summarises the intended terms as: cancel more than 48 hours before pick-up and 100% of what you paid is refunded; cancel 48 hours or less before pick-up and a 10% fee applies, so 90% comes back; if iDrive cancels, for any reason, 100% is refunded; after the pick-up time or on a no-show, nothing is refunded. Wedding convoy and security bookings have a 72-hour window in the proposed Terms of Hire. These are drafts, so the terms shown for your booking when you paid take priority. If the refund email itself shows a lower figure than your payment, the cause is here, not in the exchange rate.

Worked examples for GBP, AED, SAR and USD cardholders

All figures below are hypothetical, chosen to make the arithmetic easy to follow. They are not current exchange rates, iDrive fares, iDrive margins or any bank’s actual fees. Replace them with the numbers on your own statement.

Example 1: UK card, paid in rupees, full refund

• Airport pickup booked at Rs 40,000, charged in PKR to a UK debit card that adds a 3% non-sterling fee.
• Charge day network rate: Rs 370 to £1. Converted amount £108.11, plus a £3.24 fee. Total debited: £111.35.
• Cancelled more than 48 hours ahead. Refund record: Rs 40,000.
• Refund day network rate: Rs 380 to £1. Credit: £105.26. Suppose this bank does not return the fee.
• Difference: £6.09. Of that, £2.85 is the rupee weakening and £3.24 is the unreturned fee.

The refund was complete. More than half of the missing money is the bank’s fee.

Example 2: UAE card, paid in rupees, rupee weaker

• Intercity journey at Rs 25,000, charged in PKR to a UAE-issued card with a 2% foreign-currency fee.
• Charge day rate: Rs 76.0 to AED 1. Converted AED 328.95, plus AED 6.58 fee. Debited AED 335.53.
• Full refund of Rs 25,000 processed when the rate is Rs 77.0 to AED 1. Credit: AED 324.68.
• Difference: AED 10.85, split between the rate move (AED 4.27) and the fee (AED 6.58).

Example 3: Saudi card, late cancellation, rupee stronger

• A day with a driver at Rs 60,000, charged in PKR to a Saudi-issued card. Charge day rate: Rs 74.0 to SAR 1, so SAR 810.81 before any bank fee.
• Cancelled 30 hours before pick-up. Under the draft terms, 90% is refunded: Rs 54,000.
• Refund day rate: Rs 73.5 to SAR 1. Credit: SAR 734.69.
• For comparison, 90% of the original SAR figure would have been SAR 729.73. The rupee strengthening worked in the cardholder’s favour by about SAR 4.96; the 10% fee is the whole story here.

Example 4: US card, paid in dollars at checkout

• Airport transfer charged at $140.00 after choosing US dollars at checkout, with the rate and margin shown and fixed at payment.
• Cancelled more than 48 hours ahead. Refund: $140.00, exactly the amount charged. The rupee’s movement since does not enter into it.
• If the card issuer added a cross-border fee because the business is outside the US, that fee may or may not be reversed. That is the only possible gap.

The pattern across all four: when the charge is in your own currency, the refund is predictable to the cent; when it is in rupees, the refund is exact in rupees and approximate in everything else.

When to query the difference, and what to send

Not every gap is worth a message. A few pounds that match the rate move plus your bank’s fee is the system working as designed. Query it when the numbers point to something else.

Send it to iDrive when

• the refund email shows less than you paid and you believe you cancelled outside the fee window;
• iDrive or a partner cancelled, and the refund is not the full amount;
• you were told a refund was released and nothing, not even a pending line, has appeared after about ten business days;
• the refund figure is in a different currency from the one you were charged in.

The draft policy says the route is the “ask us to look again” link in the refund email, or a reply to that email quoting your booking reference, and that a person reviews it. The contact address shown on the policy page is salaam@idrive.pk. The draft also asks customers to contact iDrive before raising a chargeback, which is usually the quicker way to settle a genuine error anyway.

Send it to your bank when

• the refund record and the rupee or charged amount match exactly, but the fee on the original payment was not reversed and you think your terms say it should be;
• the credit posted at a rate far from the network’s published rate for that day;
• you cannot find the credit at all, even with a reference number from iDrive.

What to include, whoever you contact

1. Your booking reference.
2. The original charge: date, amount and currency exactly as they appear in your transaction detail. If your bank shows an “original amount” in PKR alongside the converted figure, include both.
3. Any fee line your bank added to that charge.
4. The refund email, showing the refund amount and currency.
5. The refund credit on your statement: date, amount and, where shown, the original PKR amount and rate.
6. For a missing refund, ask for a refund trace reference. Stripe explains that for card refunds this can be an Acquirer Reference Number (ARN), or a STAN or RRN, that it can take up to 7 business days after the refund is started for that reference to become available, and that there is no ARN for a reversal. Your bank can use it to find the credit.

Keeping the gap small on your next booking

You cannot stop the rupee moving, but you can choose which risk you carry. If your plans are firm, paying in rupees on a card with no foreign-transaction fee keeps the cost down and the refund question may never arise. If dates are still soft, for example a wedding convoy waiting on a hall booking or a family arrival tied to a visa appointment, paying in your own currency at checkout, where offered, makes any refund predictable to the penny, at the cost of the disclosed margin.

Gulf-based families booking for relatives at home face the same choice in dirhams or riyals, and the notes for booking Pakistan transport from Dubai, Saudi Arabia and Qatar cover timings and passenger details. If you are still weighing up an itinerary and have not paid anything yet, our sister service Pakistan Taxi has a short guide to changing or cancelling an itinerary before you pay, where no refund is involved at all. Travellers heading on to Umrah will meet the same card questions in riyals; our sister company Jeddah Cabs explains paying for a Jeddah airport taxi in pounds, riyals or another currency.

When you are ready to price a journey, the iDrive booking page shows the rupee figure first, with the currency choice at checkout. Under the draft terms, a booking stays provisional until you receive a confirmation showing the assigned partner’s details.

Questions people ask

Why is my refund less than what I paid if the booking was refunded in full?

On a rupee charge, the full rupee amount comes back, but your card converts it at the refund-day rate, and your bank’s foreign-transaction fee on the original payment may not be returned. Both sit outside the refund record.

Is iDrive’s currency conversion margin refunded?

If you paid in your own currency at checkout, the margin was part of the amount charged. The draft refund policy returns the amount charged in the currency charged, so a full refund includes it.

Can a PKR booking be refunded in pounds?

Only through your bank’s conversion of the rupee credit. A refund reverses the payment in the currency it was made in; to get the same pounds back, the original charge needs to have been in pounds.