Can I get a refund from AT&T?

If you’ve had an issue with AT&T you might deserve a refund. Maybe they overcharged you, maybe they added hidden fees that don’t apply to your situation, or maybe they just made a mistake. So what does their refund policy entail? Can you actually get a refund from AT&T?

Does AT&T give refunds?

There are plenty of situations where AT&T terms of agreement say that they do give refunds. You can get a refund if you made an overpayment or there was a surplus on your account. You might get a credit or an adjustment to your account for a mistake that was made or a promotional deal or discount which AT&T says can take up to 2 months to appear on your bill. If you have a security deposit and you have returned whatever device is associated with that deposit, it will be refunded to your account balance or sent to your address. 

So how do you choose which refund option applies to you? 

Active Accounts

If you are a current AT&T customer and you have an active account, you can request a refund for a credit balance by contacting AT&T customer service or going to an AT&T store. How you receive your refund is based entirely on the method of payment you used when you paid your account.

For example: 

• If you sent a payment with a credit card or debit card the refund will be processed back to whatever card you used to make your original payment.
• If you use online bill pay regularly, then the refund can be electronically sent back to the bank account that you use for your auto pay. But for that you need to make sure you have online bill pay already set up and that you provide AT&T with your bank account information so they can issue the refund. Alternatively they can issue a refund check to your name and address.
• If you sent AT&T a payment method via check or electronic bank draft, they can issue the refund through the same method.

Note: One very important piece of information is that whether you use online bill pay or an electronic Bank draft or check, AT&T will place a 14-day hold before they issue a refund. You also have to send a letter on bank letterhead or send a bank statement showing that the transaction was cleared. 

Account balance refunds from AT&T

Assuming that you get charged too much, and you bring it to their attention, and AT&T decides to credit you for that extra charge, you have to reach out to AT&T in order to change how that refund is applied.

If you have a credit balance because of an overpayment it will automatically apply to your next bill unless you opt to have that overpayment refunded to you.

Canceled Accounts

If you have canceled your account with AT&T and a refund is scheduled to be processed, AT&T says that it will automatically be refunded 45 days after your account has been canceled. However, you should wait 60 days after your account was canceled for the refund to arrive. If it doesn’t by that time AT&T says to contact them here.

What happens if AT&T refuses to issue the refund I deserve?

Still, there are situations where AT&T doesn’t get back to you in a timely fashion, or you reach out to them and contact customer service in an attempt to dispute the charge but they don’t resolve the issue.

If they don’t issue the refund that you deserve, something that is eligible under their contracts, you can try consumer arbitration. With our service, you get help reaching out to AT&T and exploring your remaining options for a refund.

What is the best option at this point? Consumer arbitration, which is a legal option you have laid out in your user agreement and it gives you a way to have an independent party look at the situation and potentially force AT&T to fix the problem and issue the refund you deserve. We can help.