Charged 59 Days After Transaction?!?

lee111s

lisyloo wrote: »

As it happens I've booked hotels for 7 months time (really) and not been charged., both abroad.
One said you don't pay till checkout, the other said they reserve the right to charge anytime between booking and departure.
What happens in this case? Does the authorisation stop after 6 months?

No the authorisation won't stop as you've agreed that they can charge you at any time up to arrival.

Karnage

So on google...

In the terms of a hotel its a preauthorisation so you are in fact agreeing to a transaction on a future agreed date.

lisyloo

Thanks.
so post #3 shouldn't be interpreted to mean there is a hard and fast 6 months limit?

SuperHan

Karnage wrote: »

Nope.

I did pay for the service at the point of sale, I had no reason to question not paying for it as it was a self service train ticket machine. Which doesn't even print a receipt unless you press an on screen button.

I have no idea how many card transactions you do within in a month, however for me its in the hundreds. And I expect a merchant that I have "paid" to claim their funds within 14 days. I personally see no reason why they would need longer.

Any financial organisation is expected to treat customers fairly. I don't find the idea of having funds claimed 59 days later to be fair.

It's also hundreds for me.

And because of that, I know that they may not all hit my statement immediately. So instead, I check what's there and check that I made the transaction. I don't really question when I made the transaction, and if I did get charged months later, I'd just go back and check the previous statements to make sure it wasn't a double charge.

Maybe the train company's payment to the card processing company failed that month and the card company refused to process transactions until they received payment from the train company. Maybe it failed because the card processor changed their payment details and the letter they sent to the train company got lost in the post and so the train company didn't even know about it. They realised when the overdue letter came two weeks later. They then put the letter in their pile of post. It took them a few days to get round to reading it. It then took a few days to get to the finance team. Three people have got to authorise a change of payment details, and one of them was one leave for a day. We're now over 3 weeks since you made your payment. They make a BACS payment to the card processing company. It takes a few days to get there. It takes a few days for the card payment company to reconcile that payment to the train company. They are now happy to release the payments, but they now have to process them. That can take a few days, and there are hundreds that have been waiting in this period, so it's going to take a bit longer. It's now 59 days.

There's once scenario which may be why it's delayed in this day and age.

Although, I'm starting to call troll.

Anyone involved in financial software should know that there can be issues for whatever reason that may result in delays.

Karnage

I got a reply from amex.

Card authorisations are valid for up to 90 days. However, after 30 days are no longer a guarantee of payment. International authorisations are 30 days. Case closed, I have my answer.

Stevie_Palimo

Karnage wrote: »

I got a reply from amex.

Card authorisations are valid for up to 90 days. However, after 30 days are no longer a guarantee of payment. International authorisations are 30 days. Case closed, I have my answer.

SuperAllyB

GC

Deadbeat wrote: »

I don't know about anyone else here but if a charge hadn't shown up more than 3 days after the purchase I'd be chasing it up with the merchant.

8 weeks seems rather a long time.

I've had a Barclaycard transaction "missing" for about three and a half months and I have no intention whatsoever of chasing the merchant up. If they claim it there is money to cover it, if not I'm £75 up.

lee111s

SuperAllyB wrote: »

GC

I've had a Barclaycard transaction "missing" for about three and a half months and I have no intention whatsoever of chasing the merchant up. If they claim it there is money to cover it, if not I'm £75 up.

Karma works in funny ways.

SuperAllyB

The payment was authorised, a receipt was e-mailed to me, and the pending payment showed on my account for several days before disappearing. Why should it be up to me to draw their attention to the fact that the transaction has failed somewhere along the line?

Ben8282

In the days of manual charge forms this type of delay was not uncommon especially with Amex/Diners where the charge forms had to be sent off to Amex/Diners and not paid-in in a manner similar to cheques at a bank branch. Some retailers would sit on such charge forms for ages before sending them off!
This is becoming much much less common now that transactions are processed electronically.
As far as I am aware a credit card charge form is valid for 6 months same as a cheque. Can't prove this but I have long known it to be so.
The validity of the charge form is not the same as the authorisation. The authorisation will drop off after the normal period. This will not however effect the retailers ability to submit the charge. Remember there is no requirement as such for an authorisation. The risk to the retailer of submitting a delayed or unauthorised charge above it's floor limit is that the charge may be declined if the credit card account is over limit, closed etc., much the same risk as accepting a cheque.
As to what has happened to you, I appreciate tht you may feel that you have suffered some minor inconvenience but don't forget all those extra days of interest free credit that you have benefited from. You have nothing to complain about really.