Worried about an unknown transaction

stclair

dalesrider wrote: »

In case you don't turn up....
No matter what they only take the money once.

Hotels & Car Hire will always hold a certain amount, that often can be more than the booking.

stclair

The authorisation will show who the retailer is. So a call to the bank and talking to the people who know, will resolve the issue.


Given the OP knew their avaiable balance was £85 down, then it was showing on the banks systems.

If what your saying is true why are account transactions not real time if the information is available to the bank instantly.

Canary_Wundaboy

stclair wrote: »

If what your saying is true why are account transactions not real time if the information is available to the bank instantly.

As someone who works in the payments industry, it's not down to the banks, it's the retailers and the payment processors. Although the bank get an indication of the transaction that's been made, the actual money isnt claimed until the bank receive the 'settlement file' of transactions, which is then batch run overnight and processed the next day.

Agricolae

It is very common for hotels to perform a "pre-authorisation", then amend the amount later at checkout to whatever your bill is, and complete the transaction.

Why do they do it this way? First you need to know that Visa debit card payments are guaranteed once authorised. The bank cannot refuse to pay an authorised transaction when the retailer claims it.

So, you phone up the hotel or walk in and they take your card details. They will then start a transaction on your debit card for a kind of "deposit" amount. Assuming the bank authorises the amount, the hotel saves the approval/authorisation code they receive, and leaves the transaction pending until you check out.

At this stage there is no way the customer can "do a runner" because the hotel will be able to complete the transaction, and because it was already authorised the customer's bank must honour it.

When the customer checks out the hotel will amend the amount of the transaction down to whatever the customer actually spent, then complete the transaction. Note that they can't increase the amount afterwards without obtaining further authorisation from the bank.

To summarise:
Hotels preauthorise a certain amount on guests' cards so they can't get away without paying, and to ensure that they are "good" for the money prior to them arriving.

Edit:
Any authorised transaction will show on the bank's systems, but sometimes these systems are not available to frontline staff which can lead to confusion.

In the case of Natwest there is a team that frontline staff can ring through to in order to obtain details if they are not available on their own systems. 99 times out of 100 they will have the answers.

dalesrider

stclair wrote: »

If what your saying is true why are account transactions not real time if the information is available to the bank instantly.

Because a authorisation is just that a request by a retailer for X amount.
But they may not debit for that amount. They may debit for more of less.
But untill they fully request the funds. It can't be shown on your account.....
It would scare customers to death.

If you check your avaiable funds after you have used a retailer you will see it drop.

Agricolae

Occasionally transactions at unattended terminals (Cardholder Activated Terminals - CAT) in European countries don't show up on the bank's records until somewhat later. I suppose the same is for "offline" terminals in the UK.

However they don't affect the customer's funds until they are officially claimed so the point is somewhat moot. It's just that sometimes a customer will make a transaction and it will appear "out of nowhere" later on.