If I cancel my credit card can money still be charged against it ?

naepace

Hi, I have encountered a problem & hope you guys can help me out. I had booked a hotel through the trav.com website paying a 10% deposit. Unfortunately I can no longer go. The terms & conditions of the hotel state that the booking can be cancelled up to 48 hours before arrival, if however, you do not cancel & do not turn up they will charge the full amount to your card. Fair enough. However, I have sent three emails to the hotel in question, to cancel my reservations, all without reply & hence no confirmation of my cancellation. I telephoned my credit card company (Halifax) to inform them of the situation & asked if they could stop any attemp from the hotel taking payment. They said they can't & that they could only try to recoup the money if it is taken by the hotel.
My question is, if I cancel the card today, would the hotel be able to still charge a card that has been cancelled ?
Cheers in advance.

thesaint

Yes the hotel can still request a payment on a closed account.

Have you phoned the hotel in question?
Alternatively fax them and get a confirmation receipt and send a copy to the Halifax to pre-empt the hotel charging it to you.

Astaroth

Send a letter by recorded delivery and then you have proof they received it.

All credit cards I have seen have clauses they will reopen an account to make a payment. This is as much for consumer protection as if they declined it there is an argument that you as a customer have obtained goods/ services with no intent to pay (aka theft/ fraud)

naepace

thesaint wrote:

Yes the hotel can still request a payment on a closed account.

Have you phoned the hotel in question?
Alternatively fax them and get a confirmation receipt and send a copy to the Halifax to pre-empt the hotel charging it to you.

The hotel is in Barcelona, I tried to call them but the person I spoke to had such poor english & I don't speak any spanish, that we got absolutely nowhere.

jaws77

Use this free translation service and sent them an email in Spanish, you may make more progress that way.

http://babelfish.altavista.com/

naepace

Good idea jaws. Although they were quick enough to understand 'Ingles' when they were taking the booking !!

jonesMUFCforever

That's a shop in Barcelona ''el cortes ingles''.
Probably that's why they understood that name!!

The_Boss

Yeah, El Corte Ingles is a department store chain - there's one in every Spanish city I have been to. Clothes are a bit dodgy, but good food halls.

jamalfatty

Astaroth wrote:

All credit cards I have seen have clauses they will reopen an account to make a payment.

It is not clauses set by the CC companies that causes this to happen (although it might have something in the T&C), Visa and Mastercard set down regulations that state the transaction must be approved even on a closed account

Astaroth

jamalfatty wrote:

It is not clauses set by the CC companies that causes this to happen (although it might have something in the T&C), Visa and Mastercard set down regulations that state the transaction must be approved even on a closed account

Would love to see the source for that after we have had long discussions with our payment processors and legal experts who all say differently to you - about 80% of card issuers will not authorise a transaction on a closed card these days.

Of cause if the retailer does not use the authorisation process then it is a different matter but there are very few companies left that dont given the discount they receive on merchant fees for using authorisation rather than going straight to collection.

inmypocketnottheirs

If the OP sends me a message with a telephone number to contact them on I will call the hotel and cancel the reservation. I speak fluent Spanish.