Hotel 'holds' debit card payment at check-in

simspa

Hi all

I wonder if anyone has any advice about this situation.

Last Sunday (16th Feb 2014), I checked into a hotel for three nights. They told me that they were putting a 'hold' on my debit card for £147. This was a fine by me at the time.

I checked out on the 19th February and paid a bill of £158.38. This went through fine and is showing up on my statement. I said to the member of staff that their colleague had put a hold on my card for £147 and they said that would be lifted.

However, I tried to get some money out yesterday (21st February) at an ATM and was told I had insufficient funds. This shouldn't have been the case as I knew I had around £100 available to me if the 'hold' had been released.

I spoke to my Building Society on the 21st Feb who said that the holding payment was still in the system which was taking my account into a debit situation and that I should speak to the hotel. I phoned the hotel who said that they had released the 'hold' when I paid my bill - they gave me a code to give to my building society - the building society said they couldn't accept this from me.

I then went to and fro between the building society and the hotel - the upshot of it is that the building society believe visa have it in their system and it can't be released for a few more days.

In the meantime, I have no money! I don't have an overdraft, and even if I wanted one, that would take two working days to come into effect....

Has anyone else experienced this? Does anyone know if there is a process holder I can complain to? I am not sure if it is the hotel's fault or visa's! Goodness know how I complain to visa directly if it is their fault!

In the meantime, I shall make sure I don't allow a hotel to put a hold on my debit card in future!

Any advice gratefully received....

Thanks

Simon

Hazzanet

Unfortunately this is what happens at times with pre-authorisations. While they should release the hold when the final bill is paid, it's not always instant.

It's a reasonably decent idea to get a credit card for these types of situation or pre-pay your hotels. Even with pre-payment, some hotels may want to take a card-swipe and pre-auth some funds at check in just in case of 'extras' (minibar).

In the meantime it's a waiting game until the authorisation drops off.

simspa

Thanks for your thoughts, Hazzanet - it just seems unbelievable to me that this money is in the ether and:

1] I have no access to it
2] I am not earning any interest on it

It has definitely been a painful learning experience!

Hazzanet

simspa wrote: »

2] I am not earning any interest on it

You'll still be earning interest on it until it's taken; as it'll never be taken interest won't be affected at all.

Do you have no other accounts with a bit of cash in that you can lay your hands on?

simspa

Hi Hazzanet
Sadly not....my wife and I have both used our buffers this month on some unexpected bills...came across some club card vouchers, so we have used those to get some food...
This is why it is frustrating...!
Simon

Carnival789

This is pretty poor isn't it? Would you mind posting when the money gets released back on your card, I'd be interested to know how long the process takes - could be quite useful.

Thank god for clubcard vouchers eh?

Toe-Jam

It really will depend on your Bank. If an auth is not claimed it falls back into the account after a certain amount of days. With RBS/Natwest its 4 days, with Halifax/Lloyds its 10 days.

premiere

I have never stayed in a hotel that hasn't put a hold on my card.

In my experience I've had a 'hold' removed at checkout and the funds available by the time I got home and on others its taken 2 weeks from the time the pre-authorisation was made.

I believe if memory serves me right, most Credit Card companies (not sure if it's Visa or Mastercard themselves or the actual card company) automatically remove a hold after 2 weeks

missymish

This has happened to me many times, once a holding deposit took a month to come back to our current account! This was a rare situation.

Usually it gets refunded within 3 days but sometimes hotels have to release it so in my experience I have always found if you pester the hotel enough they sort it out.

Because of these experiences I always pay on credit card now as the procedure just plays havoc on your current account.

I feel for you, you have a nice trip away and then you get all this! Puts you off going away

pmduk

If it's any help, Barclays holds the authorisation for 7 days in these circumstances. I've just had a similar situation with three.

Hooloovoo

simspa wrote: »

I shall make sure I don't allow a hotel to put a hold on my debit card in future!

Which basically means you'll never be able to stay at any hotel ever again.

As missymish says you really need a credit card for these sorts of things. Car rental is similarly a minefield that can result in hundreds of pounds pre-auth on your card and the funds unavailable for two weeks or more.

For that reason it's also important to have a credit limit that is way higher than you ever expect to actually need.

As a seasoned business traveller, paying out thousands on expenses that can take up to two months to be repaid, I've eventually got used to these sorts of games and have learnt to work around the problems.