Hotel Pre-authorisation holds

Yvieblue

Hi. I was wondering if anyone that works in banking could tell me if there's a set amount of time before a pre-authorisation "drops off"?
I've never had the problem before, as whenever Ive checked out of a hotel, the final bill has always seemingly been matched against the pre-auth.
However, 7 working days after Ive checked out of this particular hotel, the hold placed on the full amount for the stay is still in place, although the actual payment was processed within a couple of days.
I've emailed them and they say the funds should be released back to my account within a few days, but does anyone know what the time scales should be?
(And yes, I've learned a valuable lesson - won't be using debit card in future!)

Westie983

its normally 7 working days since the pending amount was applied, but could be 10 working days, but average is 7 working days.

Westie983

System

Simply put - they are supposed to cancel to hold when processing the final bill.

Yvieblue

Thank you both, for your replies. I think they definitely didn't do whatever they're meant to do on checkout to cancel the hold - although they've since confirmed this has been done. It's been 7 days, so I'll check again on day 10! Thanks again.

Shakin_Steve

It should be seven working days which, of course can be as long as eleven days if the first day falls on a Friday. If the retailer hasn't requested the money by that time, it should disappear and your running balance should increase by that amount. The (hotel, in this case) can't just keep someone waiting indefinitely, they either request the money or it goes from pending payments.
I find this particularly annoying with cancelled orders on Amazon.

Yvieblue

Thanks, Steve..
I am a bit annoyed, if I'm honest, and a bit worried! Though I suppose the funds will have to be released eventually . I get why Hotels do this, but I think there should be really tight controls in place to make sure they complete the transaction properly on checkout so as not to leave customers potentially out of pocket for too long afterwards.

System

Yvieblue wrote: »

Thanks, Steve..
I am a bit annoyed, if I'm honest, and a bit worried! Though I suppose the funds will have to be released eventually . I get why Hotels do this, but I think there should be really tight controls in place to make sure they complete the transaction properly on checkout so as not to leave customers potentially out of pocket for too long afterwards.

Most guests will likely be using a credit/charge card - so the hold will only affect their available spend rather than actually ring-fencing 'real' funds.

zerog

I've had a hold for 30 days though it was with an Australian debit card, not a UK card, and the T&Cs of the bank say that preauths can last for 30 days.

With a UK card it has always been max 7 working days (I usually pay in cash outside the UK, so the preauths don't drop off immediately on checking out)

Chalkius

When I worked for a bank it was normally a working week (so if you authorised it Monday, it'll expire midnight the Mon/Tues following week.

Sometimes was 2 working weeks, but rarely. That was with Barclays though. Your bank should be able to tell you when it will be returned to you.

takman

Yvieblue wrote: »

Thanks, Steve..
I am a bit annoyed, if I'm honest, and a bit worried! Though I suppose the funds will have to be released eventually . I get why Hotels do this, but I think there should be really tight controls in place to make sure they complete the transaction properly on checkout so as not to leave customers potentially out of pocket for too long afterwards.

For future reference some banks will release the funds immediately if you get the company holding the funds to send the bank a fax with the authorisation code stating they will not be collecting the money and giving permission for the funds to be released.

But i have never tried this myself. It was something i was told by halifax a few years ago when i had £50 pre-authorised on a debit card and wanted to check the payment wasn't actually due to come out my account because it had already been paid.

Yvieblue

Thanks everyone.
I've never had the problem before but will definitely be using CC in future.
Still not back in my account a full 8 working days after check out. It's not that I'm in a rush for the funds, thankfully - it's more than I'm getting a bit jittery in case it's held indefinitely! I certainly don't believe that the hotel released the hold when they said they did.
I'll give it up to the two week point, then prepare myself for a round of phone calls if it's still frozen.