How to ask for a car shipping deposit back
Ask for a car shipping deposit back in writing, and ask for the credit to post to the same card. The contract's cancellation line is the rule you can quote. If the credit does not post, call the card issuer and ask which dispute applies. A promise on the phone is not a refund. This page does not guarantee you will get the money.
Key facts
- Start with the contract
- The refund, if you have one, is the cancellation sentence you signed. A spoken "fully refundable" does not replace that sentence.
- Card dispute clock
- CFPB says a written billing-error notice must be sent within 60 calendar days after the charge appeared on the statement. The issuer has 30 days to acknowledge it unless the dispute is already finished. A defective service may use a different process.
- Source: CFPB, last reviewed April 15, 2024
- Watch the amount
- FMCSA's February 10, 2015 advisory says to monitor card payments and confirm that only the authorized amount is taken.
- Source: FMCSA consumer advisory
- Who cannot refund it
- RideShipper does not take deposits, so it cannot refund one. The company that charged the card is the company you ask.
The sources are listed on this page.
To ask for a car shipping deposit back, quote the cancellation line, demand the credit on the same card, and keep every reply. Do this in writing the day you decide the shipment is off. A phone promise is not a refund. Nothing on this page guarantees the money returns. This is general information, not legal advice.
RideShipper did not take the deposit. It cannot send it back. Ask the company whose name is on the card charge.
Step 1. Read what you actually signed
Find three sentences.
- When you may cancel, and when they may cancel.
- What happens to the deposit in each case. Returned, forfeited, or turned into a credit.
- How the money moves. Same card, check, or something else.
If the contract says the deposit is kept once a carrier is assigned, and a carrier was assigned, your ask is weaker. You can still ask. You should not tell yourself the word refundable appeared if it did not. If the contract says the deposit returns when they fail to book a carrier by a date, and that date passed, quote that sentence and the date.
Customers often lose this step because a salesperson said "fully refundable" and the contract said something shorter. The email is the record. If the spoken promise is not in the contract, write it into an email now and ask them to confirm it. If they will not, you are arguing from memory.
Step 2. Ask once, in writing, for a card credit
Send one email to the address in the contract. Use a subject line that includes the word deposit, your last name, and the pickup date. Include:
- The amount, the date of the charge, and the last four digits of the card.
- The contract sentence you rely on, copied, not paraphrased.
- What happened, with dates. No pickup. You canceled inside the window. They changed the price and you rejected it.
- A direct request. Credit the same card. Name a date seven to ten days out so you have a deadline to show the issuer later. The contract's own deadline controls if it states one.
- A line that says you are not agreeing to a future-shipment credit unless they credit the card.
Attach the contract and the charge receipt. Save the sent mail. If they reply with a new excuse, do not start a new negotiation thread that drops the original request. Reply on the same chain.
FMCSA's February 10, 2015 advisory tells you to watch the card and confirm that only the authorized amount posts. While you wait, check the account. A second charge is a new problem. Call the issuer about that charge the day you see it.
Step 3. If the credit does not post, call the card issuer
Call the number on the card. Say you paid a transport deposit, the service was not provided or the contract allows a refund, and the merchant has not credited the card. Ask whether your case is a billing error or a dispute about a service. Do not guess. The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau's page, last reviewed April 15, 2024, separates them.
For a billing error, the CFPB says you must send a written notice within 60 calendar days after the charge appeared on your statement. After the issuer receives it, the issuer has 30 days to send a letter confirming receipt, unless it has already finished the required resolution steps. If you already paid the charge, you can still dispute it. The money does not have to come back before the issuer decides. If the issuer says you are wrong, it must tell you why in writing, how much you owe, and when payment is due.
The same page notes that a different process may apply when you used a credit card for goods or services that turn out to be defective. A deposit for a truck that never came may be that kind of problem rather than a billing error. Ask the issuer which notice they need, and send the one they name before their deadline. Keep copies. Write down the dates of the calls.
A debit card is not the same product as the CFPB page. Ask the bank what dispute it offers, and do not assume the 60-day billing-error letter applies.
Step 4. If you did not pay by card
The BBB alert of July 21, 2023 says digital-wallet payments are essentially cash, and it warns against wires and prepaid debit cards. If that is how the deposit left, call the bank, the wire service, or the app the same day and ask what can still be recalled. Report the pattern to BBB Scam Tracker if the company vanished or was not on the USDOT lookup. The steps for those payment types are on Zelle, wire, and gift-card requests. A recall is not a promise.
What not to do while you wait
Do not pay a second fee to "process the refund." That is a new deposit. Do not send photos of your card. Do not sign a release that waives the claim in exchange for a credit you have not seen post. Do not file a new quote form with your phone number just to pressure them. That sells the number again. The spam page explains why.
If the price went up and they say the deposit applies only if you accept the new price, read the price jumped after the deposit before you pay the difference. Paying the new price because you are out of time is how people lose both the deposit argument and the extra money.
A complaint to FMCSA at the number in the 2015 advisory, 1-888-368-7238, reports a transporter or broker. It is not a refund desk. A complaint to RideShipper about a charge we did not take will get the same answer. Use contact only if our name was misused. The short definition of the fee is the deposit glossary.
Questions
They said the deposit was refundable and then offered a credit on a future shipment. Is that a refund?
Not unless your contract says a future credit is the refund. Ask, in writing, for a credit to the original card by a date you name. Keep their offer of a future credit as a record that they acknowledged the money, not as the outcome you have to accept.
The carrier canceled, not me. Do I still follow the cancellation line?
Yes. Read what the contract says when they cancel or when they cannot find a carrier. Many disputes start because the customer canceled in their own mind while the company said the customer missed a window. Quote the sentence that fits the facts you can prove with emails and dates.
I paid by Zelle or wire. Does the 60-day letter apply?
The CFPB page cited here is about a credit-card billing error. A wire, a gift card, or a wallet transfer may not be that product. Call the bank or the app the same day and ask what recall exists. Do not wait out a 60-day letter that does not cover the payment you actually sent.
Can RideShipper force the refund?
No. RideShipper did not charge you and is not a party to the transport contract. We can tell you how the records work. We cannot order the company to pay.