Payment Policy

Four card networks are accepted, together with PayPal.

Visa, Mastercard and Discover are accepted as credit or debit cards. American Express is accepted as a credit card. PayPal may be funded from a balance or from a card held in the PayPal account.

Cash on delivery, bank transfer, cheque, cryptocurrency and payment on account are not accepted. Each of those either cannot be reconciled automatically or leaves the order unsecured.

A question that comes up regularly: can another method be arranged? Write to [email protected] before ordering and a definite answer will be given rather than leaving the attempt to fail at the payment step.

All five methods are processed through the same payment provider, so the security position described in section 4 applies equally to each of them.

Payments are processed by Stripe, a provider certified to PCI-DSS Level 1, the most stringent standard in the industry.

Card details are entered on the processor's hosted page and pass directly to it. Party Table receives only the result of the transaction, the card brand and the last four digits, which is enough to reconcile a payment against an order and nothing more.

PayPal works differently: the customer is taken to PayPal's own site, authorises the payment there, and returns with a confirmation. Party Table never receives the PayPal password or the linked card number.

A question that comes up regularly: does Party Table see card numbers? No. The card number is held by the processor, and no member of staff is able to view or retrieve it.

A card is authorised when the order is placed and captured in full when the order is dispatched.

A pending authorisation may appear on the statement straight away. It is a hold rather than a completed charge, and it is released if the order is cancelled before dispatch.

The amount confirmed at checkout is the amount charged. Sales tax is calculated from the delivery address and is already included in the figure shown before confirmation.

A question that comes up regularly: is there a surcharge for card payment? There is not. Party Table adds no handling fee, no card surcharge and no currency conversion charge.

Where an order is amended before dispatch, any difference in the amount is refunded or charged before the parcel leaves the warehouse.

All traffic to the site is encrypted in transit, and the payment step is served by the processor over its own secure connection.

Full card numbers, security codes and PayPal credentials are never stored by Party Table and never appear in its logs. Card payments may be subject to 3-D Secure verification, which is why a bank may ask for a payment to be approved in its own application.

No member of staff will ever ask for a full card number by email. Any message that appears to do so should be treated as fraudulent and reported to [email protected].

A question that comes up regularly: is it safe to save a card at checkout? The site does not offer stored cards. Each order is paid for individually, and no card is retained between orders.

A decline usually means the issuing bank has blocked the transaction, the billing address does not match the bank's records, or the card limit has been reached.

Nothing is charged when a payment is declined, and another card or PayPal may be used immediately.

A pending authorisation created by a failed attempt is released by the bank, normally within a few working days. That release cannot be expedited by Party Table, because the hold sits with the issuer rather than with the merchant.

A question that comes up regularly: why was a payment declined when the card works elsewhere? The most common cause is a mismatch between the billing address entered and the one the bank holds, and correcting it usually resolves the decline.

Party Table issues the refund to the original payment method within seven calendar days of the returned item arriving and passing inspection. The bank's posting time follows afterwards and sits outside that period.

A card payment is refunded to the same card and a PayPal payment to the same PayPal account. Refunds cannot be made to a different card, a different account or in cash.

Where the original card has since been closed, write to [email protected] once the bank confirms this, and an alternative arrangement will be made.

A question that comes up regularly: can a refund be split across two cards? It cannot, because the reversal follows the original transaction. Where an order was partly paid with store credit, the refund is apportioned in the same proportions.

Questions about a charge, including an unexpected amount or a transaction that does not look familiar, should go to [email protected] with the order reference.

Include the date and amount where they are to hand. Enquiries are answered within one working day, Monday to Friday, and the outcome is confirmed in writing.

Where a charge is not recognised at all, the issuing bank should be contacted as well as Party Table, so the card can be monitored while the transaction is investigated.

A question that comes up regularly: should a chargeback be raised straight away? A short email usually resolves the matter faster. Party Table would prefer to hear from the customer first, and a chargeback can take considerably longer.