Many users are still complaining about delays in the payment of the State Cashback refund of the first semester of 2021 and believe that the problem is the PostePay Evolution card. Here's how things stand.
Although the time has already expired, still not all those entitled to the refund up to 150 euros provided by the State Cashback program have received the transfer, despite the fact that they are sure to have made at least 50 valid transactions. In the discussion groups dedicated to the program, many of the users who complain about delays in payments are PostePay Evolution card holders.
Some of them are beginning to fear that they will never receive the amount due, others complain that it is no longer possible to make a complaint to Consap because the time has expired. Others still fear that they have indicated an incorrect IBAN and, finally, others still fear that the error is due to the fact that they registered for the Cashback program through the PostePay app and not through the Government's IO app. A lot of confusion, then, and a mix of misinformation despite the fact that for almost 10 months the rules of Cashback, those on complaints and those on the crediting of refunds are clearly written in regulations, decrees and FAQs. Let's (again) clarify.
Cashback and PostePay: have I got the wrong IBAN?
If the user has participated in the Cashback program with a PostePay Evolution card and has joined through the Poste Italiane app, then it is impossible that he has got the wrong IBAN. Simply because he never had to enter it: Evolution cards have an IBAN, which is automatically entered by the app as the bank details to receive the refund.
Cashback and PostePay: should I have signed up with IO?
If the user has a classic PostePay card, he could not sign up for the State Cashback through the PostePay app, because the card has no IBAN. In this case, he had to use the IO app.
If, on the other hand, he used a PostePay Evolution card, there was no difference between enrolling with the PostePay app or the government app (or both at the same time). In each of these cases the enrollment is valid, although in case of enrollment through IO the user could have mistaken the IBAN, because he had to enter it manually. In this case it is good to check this data.
Cashback and PostePay: the Consap complaint
Consap has nothing to do with delays in Cashback payments: the only complaint that could be made to the public company of the Ministry of Finance concerned the wrong counting of transactions (or reversed transactions, or transactions counted but with wrong amount).
Cashback and PostePay: when the money arrives
Poste Italiane has not published any press release, nor any message on its social channels, to explain why some of its users have not yet received the transfer from the Government.
Predictable decision, since the most likely reason for this situation is the simple overload of the payment systems due to the huge amount of refunds to be issued. The money, therefore, if it has not arrived yet, will arrive in the next days and we just have to wait.
We must remember, in fact, that the users who are entitled to a refund are 6.119.307 in total. The fact that in Italy there are 8.1 million PostePay Evolution cards explains with just one number why many of the users who have not received a refund are holders of this card: it's the law of large numbers, since PostePay Evolution is one of the most popular cards in Italy it is much more likely that it is also one of those with which there are more delays.