An Unusual One...

OfficeFairy

Hi All,

So this last weekend I stayed at a hotel in Liverpool. Upon arrival the receptionist stated that they would hold the amount for the room £145.00 on my card and then, at the end of the stay, the transaction would be verified along with any other charges (mini bar, food etc).

I entered my PIN in the card machine to authorise the holding of the money.

I checked my online banking and saw that £145.00 was frozen in my available balance and went onto to enjoy my weekend.

We ate in the restaurant that night and had the meals put on the room.

Upon checking out the receptionist (the same as check in) stated that the full balance would be £182.00 and I again entered my PIN to authorise the payment.

There was roughly £200 in my current account (I transfer money from my online savings as and when I need it).

Today I transferred some money and my balance was showing as zero. I saw the money I had transferred but my available balance remained at zero.

I called my bank (Halifax) who were very helpful and told me that there was a £145.00 charge pending to the hotel!

So, they have effectively debited over £300 from my card - which has caused me to go overdrawn.

Whether or not the £145 pending will be reversed or not I have no idea.

I assumed that the holding amount would be debited along with the meals and not £145 pending and then the entire amount charged.

Where do I stand with regards to them actioning two payments and in particular how it has made me go overdrawn.

Has anyone else experienced similar issue?

Thanks in advance

marlewuk

account hasnt yet gone overdrawn yet - it'll take around 2-3 working days for the debit card payment to reflect onto the actual account balance. It sounds like the company will only request for the latter payment and the other will just drop off after 5 working days. but if you need the funds sooner - i believe halifax have an authorisations department. If you speak to halifax customer services, they can give you a fax number for the company to send instruction to them to remove that transaction. Request should be on headed paper and include things like account details, card number, authorisation code and transaction details etc...


this situation crops up alot - car rental companies like doing that too

OfficeFairy

marlewuk wrote: »

account hasnt yet gone overdrawn yet - it'll take around 2-3 working days for the debit card payment to reflect onto the actual account balance. It sounds like the company will only request for the latter payment and the other will just drop off after 5 working days. but if you need the funds sooner - i believe halifax have an authorisations department. If you speak to halifax customer services, they can give you a fax number for the company to send instruction to them to remove that transaction. Request should be on headed paper and include things like account details, card number, authorisation code and transaction details etc...


this situation crops up alot - car rental companies like doing that too

Thanks for the reply.

The last at Halifax said my account will go overdrawn tomorrow if fund are not in place.

I just think its very cheeky to put it mildly. They have no idea what problems this could have caused including causing other payments to bounce.

stclair

The pre authorisation will drop off within a few days.

Never use a debit card to pay for a hotel as they clog up your available funds.

OfficeFairy

stclair wrote: »

The pre authorisation will drop off within a few days.

Never use a debit card pay for hotel as they clog up your available funds.

I don't have a credit card so there wasn't another option. Next time I'll pay cash.

reclusive46

OfficeFairy wrote: »

I don't have a credit card so there wasn't another option. Next time I'll pay cash.

Remember you'll need an even bigger deposit as hotels can often charge over the pre-authorised amount, which they obviously can't with cash.

pqrdef

Write to the hotel company's head office and tell them why you won't be using their hotels again. If everybody does it, they might get the message.

Obviously, if you skipped off without calling at the desk, they would try to take your money using the card details that they've saved, and if that failed owing tio insufficient funds, they would have a process for claiming their money against the authorisation code they've already got. That's what they got it for. Then this problem wouldn't arise. But that's a bit of a faff, so they can't be arsed.

The FCA will probably put a stop to this practice eventually. But they're so slow.

al25

If the cashier had completed the initial pre- authorisation using the same code, It would have been just one transaction. I guess the staff member didn't know this or didn't bother.

The funds will become available in a week or so, but if you speak to the accounts department and ask them to release the blocked funds, it may be quicker

reclusive46

al25 wrote: »

If the cashier had completed the initial pre- authorisation using the same code, It would have been just one transaction. I guess the staff member didn't know this or didn't bother.

The funds will become available in a week or so, but if you speak to the accounts department and ask them to release the blocked funds, it may be quicker

They can only do this if the final amount is within a percentage of the original pre-authorisation (Can't remember what it is) so if it was above this then they would have had to do a whole other authorisation.

Hooloovoo

I disagree with the thread title ... this is not "an unusual one". In fact, this is perfectly standard practice for all hotels I've ever stayed at, and also car rental agencies too.

Everything becomes very simple if you just use a credit card for all this sort of stuff. Why anyone wouldn't have at least one credit card (assuming appropriate credit history) is completely beyond me. It's not like they cost anything, and in many cases actually make things cheaper - cashback etc.

The only thing I use my debit card for is obtaining cash from an ATM, and for paying at the very occasional stores that charge extra for credit cards.

If you try to pay in cash at a hotel, you'll have to make sure you've got a hefty amount in your wallet to cover the massive deposit they will require - as reclusive46 said. Also, if you ever wanted to rent a car they more than likely will refuse rental if you can't give them a credit card - cash is not an option.

OfficeFairy

Thanks for the replies.

I wasn't aware that it was obligatory to have a credit card. I've managed without one all these years including renting cars.

I was brought up by the motto that you don't spend what you don't have and so I've never felt the need to have unnecessary credit.

Debit cards and cash are perfectly legal and acceptable forms of payment.

The hotel have today confirmed that what has happened bis not their ususl procedure - only one payment should have gone through.