Hotel HASN'T charged my card

MartinSpoon

Hi all,

A quick question for the smart people of MSE.

I regularly travel for work, and usually stay in the same hotel. We have corporate charge cards, which work like a credit card. I pay for the stay on the card, I then claim back the expenses from my employer, and then I pay off the corporate charge card when I receive the statement (once again, much like a credit card).

About 8 weeks ago, I stayed in the hotel and the expense didn't appear on my statement straight away - I gave it a week or two and it didn't appear, so I spoke to the hotel about it. They looked into and said it was a problem with the bank, but they're going to sort it now and complete the transaction.

Many weeks later, and it's still not appeared on my CC! I mentioned it again last week, but I just got the same story.


Now ordinarily not being charged for things could be worse..(!), but due to the way we claim our expenses, this is a pain. The longer it goes on, the odder it looks when I claim expenses for something form months ago (although I have been keeping my boss informed of this, so it should be ok). Alternatively, I claim the expense back from my employer now, but I don't like the idea of asking for the expenses before I know I'm definitely going to be charged for the transaction.

SO! Here's the question - is there anything I can do in this situation? Is there limit on how long the hotel/bank has to raise the charge before I can refuse it? I can't think of anything else I can do to correct the situation other than to talk to the hotel!

Many thanks :-)

Fruit_and_Nut_Case

MartinSpoon wrote: »

Is there limit on how long the hotel/bank has to raise the charge before I can refuse it?

I think someone gave the answer of 6 years to a previous poster who asked a similar question. My memory could be wrong, though.

MartinSpoon

Fruit_and_Nut_Case wrote: »

I think someone gave the answer of 6 years to a previous poster who asked a similar question. My memory could be wrong, though.

Hmm, thanks for the reply. I think I'd like to sort this out sooner than that!!!

Any other ideas?

McKneff

Yes, it is 6 years, but I think after a certain amount of time they have to inform you that they are indeed going to take it from your account. Sorry, cant remember the time scale, but I'm sure someone will be along who knows.

Just keep reminding your boss (ask someone in HR to put a note in your personnel file) and then they wont accuse you of trying to fiddle it if you claim it in the future.

You really cant do anything about it till the transaction comes through

moonrakerz

The hotel can charge it to your card after 6 months without any reference to you. They can pursue you for the debt for another five and a half years after that.

You cannot "refuse" the debt - you ran it up, you must pay it.

I actually had something happen very similar a few years ago. But in my case I wasn't aware that I hadn't been charged for a hotel stay until the head office put it on my account 4 months later.
I didn't have quite the same problem as you had in paying/claiming expenses as my company paid my credit card bill direct and my "claim" was just to account for each item on the statement every month.

If your management has been made aware of this, I wouldn't worry about it too much !

TheTruthMachine

I don't think he is refusing to pay, he is more bothered about getting it charged to get it paid (quite rare!)

moonrakerz

TheTruthMachine wrote: »

I don't think he is refusing to pay, he is more bothered about getting it charged to get it paid (quite rare!)

MartinSpoon wrote: »

Is there limit on how long the hotel/bank has to raise the charge before I can refuse it?

................................

I_was_just_wondering

moonrakerz - I think you may have misinterpreted what the OP meant about "refusing the debt".

I think his question is "How long do I need to have this problem hanging over my head for - before I can forget about it?".

I can fully sympathise with the OP's dilema. My employer imposes penalties if I claim expenses late - I had to agree to this as part of my employment t&cs. For example, if I claim expenses for a trip more than 6 months after it finishes, they reseve the right to reduce my claim by 50%. (Because it screws up all their expense budgeting.)

So if a hotel was more than 6 months late charging me, I may have to fight with my accounts dept to get 100% reimbursement.

TBH, in this circumstance, I would just claim using the bill the hotel gave gave me at check out.

But I think the OP is worried that he may end up receiving reimbursement from his employer for a bill that never ends up getting charged to his card.

Ben8282

MartinSpoon wrote: »

Hi all,

A quick question for the smart people of MSE.

I regularly travel for work, and usually stay in the same hotel. We have corporate charge cards, which work like a credit card. I pay for the stay on the card, I then claim back the expenses from my employer, and then I pay off the corporate charge card when I receive the statement (once again, much like a credit card).

About 8 weeks ago, I stayed in the hotel and the expense didn't appear on my statement straight away - I gave it a week or two and it didn't appear, so I spoke to the hotel about it. They looked into and said it was a problem with the bank, but they're going to sort it now and complete the transaction.

Many weeks later, and it's still not appeared on my CC! I mentioned it again last week, but I just got the same story.


Now ordinarily not being charged for things could be worse..(!), but due to the way we claim our expenses, this is a pain. The longer it goes on, the odder it looks when I claim expenses for something form months ago (although I have been keeping my boss informed of this, so it should be ok). Alternatively, I claim the expense back from my employer now, but I don't like the idea of asking for the expenses before I know I'm definitely going to be charged for the transaction.

SO! Here's the question - is there anything I can do in this situation? Is there limit on how long the hotel/bank has to raise the charge before I can refuse it? I can't think of anything else I can do to correct the situation other than to talk to the hotel!

Many thanks :-)

Corporate charge cards are usually billed directly to the company, not left to individual staff members to pay. Imagine the consequences to the company's credit rating if even one of their employees should pay late.

I_was_just_wondering

Ben8282 wrote: »

Corporate charge cards are usually billed directly to the company, not left to individual staff members to pay. Imagine the consequences to the company's credit rating if even one of their employees should pay late.

No - there are two types of corporate charge card / credit card: those billed to the company, and those paid by employees.

Credit ratings agencies like Standard & Poors, Dunn & Bradstreet and Moody's will not be interested in how much employees owe on charge cards, when giving companies credit ratings. It's more to do with their Balance Sheet etc.

It doesn't work like consumer credit reference agencies - Standard and Poors didn't downgrade the US government from AAA to AA+ because government employees were late paying their charge cards.

opinions4u

MartinSpoon wrote: »

Hmm, thanks for the reply. I think I'd like to sort this out sooner than that!!!

Any other ideas?

If you want to resolve it, talk to the hotel.

If you want to try and get away with it, make the claim against the receipt and pretend you never noticed the lack of entry on the bill.

Your call.

It's not difficult.