Hotel Pre-authorisation holds

Yvieblue

Just in case anyone else is searching for an answer to a similar question in future; the funds have now been released, 10 working days after the pre authorisation hold was made.
Thanks again to everyone who responded.

CL_Mallory

Hi, seems people are "in the know" on this thread so im wondering if anyone can help. Last year we went on a cruise and stay package holiday, on boarding the ship we were asked for our card details to secure payment and advised the money would be collected on the day we disembarked. We settled up, left the ship and went on for our second week on land. Immediately realised something was wrong when we couldn't withdraw any money from the account..... insufficient funds! Turns out over £4000 had been pre-authorised against our card over the course of the week and when they took the final payment of £1350 they left £2880 still pending. This left us with an available balance of MINUS £1750 meaning we had not a penny for the entire last week of our holiday. We begged them to close them out but we were ignored. I obviously complained but have since been told that the pre authorisation process was fully explained to me, and i had accepted them by boarding the ship, so tough. But aside from being given any information what so ever, how can it be possible to pre-authorise nearly three times the actual costs without consent. The daily pre auth they submitted ranged for a few hundred pound to a few thousand pound and not one of them match the amounts shown on my final itemised bill. Are they allowed to pre authorise such randon excessive amounts? Should the customer be told how much will be pre authorised? And shouldn't the customer have to agree to it? Sorry its so long winded but im getting no joy with the travel company (who are refusing to provide me with a copy of the T&C's). Many thanks

eskbanker

CL_Mallory wrote: »

The daily pre auth they submitted ranged for a few hundred pound to a few thousand pound and not one of them match the amounts shown on my final itemised bill. Are they allowed to pre authorise such randon excessive amounts?

Surely the whole principle of pre-authorisation is that it's gaining advance cover for amounts that are (at that stage) unknown?

CL_Mallory wrote: »

Should the customer be told how much will be pre authorised?

That would seem appropriate but I'm not sure exactly what the card scheme rules are.

CL_Mallory wrote: »

And shouldn't the customer have to agree to it?

It's not really a negotiation, so I'd expect it to be 'take it or leave it', i.e. if you weren't prepared to accept their pre-authorisation charge on your card you'd have to stump up in another way. When I checked into a hotel recently, I was given the option of opening an account for the room (requiring card pre-authorisation) or pay-as-you-go per transaction, but this may not be a viable approach on a cruise.

CL_Mallory wrote: »

im getting no joy with the travel company (who are refusing to provide me with a copy of the T&C's).

Surely you must have been provided with a copy of the Ts & Cs when booking? Do you have a link in an email or are they published to all online?

jonnygee2

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"?

There is no actual limit, they are, technically, indefinite, until the originator actively reverses it.

However most banks will automatically reverse them at some point if the original provider forgets to do it. The time frame for this varies for each bank, and may also vary at the same bank depending on the amount. Even after the bank reverses it, the orginator can still present (charge) against the original authorisation, though.

But aside from being given any information what so ever, how can it be possible to pre-authorise nearly three times the actual costs without consent. The daily pre auth they submitted ranged for a few hundred pound to a few thousand pound and not one of them match the amounts shown on my final itemised bill. Are they allowed to pre authorise such randon excessive amounts? Should the customer be told how much will be pre authorised? And shouldn't the customer have to agree to it? Sorry its so long winded but im getting no joy with the travel company (who are refusing to provide me with a copy of the T&C's). Many thanks

Yes, you'd need to have agreed to it in some way, most probably at the point you handed your card details over.

However, during a pre-auth no money actually leaves your account, the regulation is a little bit messy. If you have problems its normally better to go to your bank and ask them to release the money.

nyermen

Huge bugbear of mine as a regular travel. My only recommendations really are:
1) Pay the main bill upfront. That means the hold is just for incidentals (otherwise they sometimes don't release the auth, and then take the whole bill separately).
2) Assume 30 days. My experience is it can be this (HSBC UK CC)
3) Your bank can tell you who hasn't released the preauth so you can grump at them
4) Talk to your bank, they'll sometimes extend your limit on the basis of this, eg. if the bill has clearly been paid separately to the pre-auth.

Sorry there's not much more than that, it's annoying and a bit silly really because they can charge your card any time they feel like anyway. (I recently had a BP bill go through 2 months after I paid for the fuel. As a YNAB'er I was expecting it (even told the manager that their payments system had a problem) but its still a reminder that they can do it up to 6 years...