We have a merchant account, and even if we put through a refund the day after a charge was made, it is often a week or more before the customer sees the refund. Charges go through almost instantly, it seems. Our merchant account is charged very quickly, but the delay until the customer's account is finally reimbursed is excessively lengthy, IMO. It seems to be especially bad with debit cards, and Visa/Mastercards. Amex refunds seem to go through very quickly in contrast.

Anyway, it may not be Continental's holdup. On one particular transaction I remember, the customer's bank finally made the refund available to the customer six business days after we had authorized the refund. I spent quite a bit of time with our credit card processor on the phone trying to figure out what was going on, and ultimately I got the explanation that refunds don't follow the same processing as charges do, and that the bank that issued the customer's credit/debit card has to authorize the acceptance of the refund, which they do in batches, often days after they get them.