pre pay master card problem

roadrat12

I recently obtained a pre-pay master card from"cashplus" on the recommendation of this site. It works for most things well . I use a lot of hotels in my work and most ask for a card for what they call"Authorisation" in case of things like room service or bar bills after hours. I very rarely use there and usually on check out the "authorisation " is lifted and nothing taken from the account. Cashplus mastercard however keep the money out of your account for 28 days unless you get the hotel to email them !! i'm sure this isn't legal. Can anyone shed some light? i've just spent 5 days trying to get my money back.

keyser666

Yep can take upto 30 days, normally 15 with mastercard but quicker if the company cancels it.

hcb42

yup pre auth processes are at the mercy of the banks which is why some hotels refuse debit card pre auths (even if you as the cardholder are happy to offer these as pre auth - or more likely dont understand the implication of a preauth

Never preauth a card at a hotel and then not complete your checkout transaction with the same card though. That will cause problems potentially

sheramber

If the hotel use the pre authorisation for the final bill then it is brought into charge. As it is a pre authorisation charge to secure payment that is what they should do.

However, if they raise a new charge then the pre authorisation charge will stay as 'pending' until it automatically cancels after a set number of days.

Up until then the money may still be used by the hotel. The card company do not know that it is no longer needed.

So, it is up to the hotel to correctly process your charge.

hcb42

if the preauth transaction is used at checkout these things drop off quicker but hotel cannot control (other than use the preauth code, which would be normal practice)

yorkilad

I had a similar experience 2 days ago when I used a "pay pump"at my local Morrisons supermarket. Although I only topped up by £20,when I happened to check my Cashplus account later that day I was shocked to discover £99 had been taken from my available balance! Cashplus informed me this was standard practice by Mastercard,and there was nothing they could do about it! They said the balance of £79 would eventually returned to my card after 7 days!! Needless to say I shall not be paying at the pump ever again!!!