Paying on Steam from the UK: methods, the wallet and the two-hour refund

Ways to pay

The Steam Wallet

The Wallet holds money for Steam purchases, added from your account page or by redeeming a gift card or code. Steam spends it first at checkout. Wallet money cannot be paid back out or moved to another account, and Valve limits the balance plus a day's spending to roughly US$2,000. Unspent top-ups made on Steam are refundable for a fortnight.

Your Wallet currency is fixed by your address when you first add money, so a UK account always pays in pounds. If your card is in another currency, your bank may add a conversion fee.

Refunds

Almost any game is refundable through Steam's help site, for any reason, if you bought it no more than a fortnight ago and have logged under two hours. An add-on is judged the same way, with the clock starting on the day you bought the add-on itself. For items bought inside Valve's own titles the window is two days, provided the item is untouched; in other studios' games the developer decides, and the checkout tells you.

A pre-purchase can be cancelled for a refund right up to launch day; after that the usual fortnight-and-two-hours test runs from release. Money can take a week to come back. Using your bank to reverse a Steam payment instead locks the account until the dispute is settled, so use the refund form first.

Pre-orders

Steam takes payment when you pre-purchase, and you can cancel for a refund at any time before release.

Family controls

Steam Families groups up to six accounts. A child can ask for a game, and the request lands with an adult, who pays for it in the Steam app or from an email. Adults can also hide parts of the store from a child's account. Steam Guard codes protect the account at sign-in.

Which of our games it sells

Sources