Charge not debited after 5 months

tonymaull

Hi, i paid for a holiday over the phone with a credit card, and paid the amount off the card the following month. However, they havent actually charged the card, as 5 months down the line there is a credit in the account. I have a comfirmation email saying the card has been debited, but this obviously isnt the case.
How actions would anyone recommend? They have all my contact details. I could really do with the money, as other cards have high debts.
What length of time is reasonable for them to collect?

Reaper

There is always the possibility (likelyhood even) that they will spot their mistake and charge you. For this reason you should not put the money anywhere where you can not get it back. I suspect that if you use it to reduce your other debts it would be hard to recover it later.

I suggest you take the money out and put it in a savings account so you earn interest on it until they ask for it. e.g. Egg savings are offering a good interest rate for 6 months while still giving instant access.

Suzz_2

A similar thing happened to me (well, sort of...). I opended a BS account with a cheque for £100 by post. They sent me the passbook but never actually cashed the cheque - this was about 3 years ago.

Another time I uses a CC abroad. The shop had one of those old stamping machines. I remember noticing at the time that the card number hadn't come out cleary. CC was never charged.

With a CC errror as you describe though, I suspect someone elses card had been charged (especially if you quoted your card no. over the phone). That person is likely to notice the unknown payment & query it.

Good advice not to spend the cash & wait & see :-/

Martinslovechild

I can certainly vouch for the above comments.

A payment was recently requested from me a mere 13 months after it should have been taken!!

It's a good job I kept the money on-hand.