Wrong charge puts me overdrawn ...

LobsterMemory

For those who seem to have never used booking.com, after booking the room, you get to the final part of the process where it says

When do you want to pay?

Pay at the Property
Your card won't be charged – we only need your card details to guarantee your booking.

Pay Now
Pay for your entire booking now and enjoy your trip stress free. You'll receive a full refund if you change your mind before August 12, 2019


so booking.com and the hotel have details of the card, that part of the "mystery" is solved

HappyMike

!!! wrote: »

10 times the amount?
Are you sure?

Yes - 10 time the amount. In addition to the correct payment.

They usually pre-authorise the charges and also take an amount to cover room services and such which are kept as held/pending transactions on your account

They do. On this occasion, though, I asked them not to pre-authorise and additional charges with the intention of paying cash at the bar should I decided t go there for a drink.

But this wasn't a pre-auth transaction. When I called the hotel they could see the transaction and immediately recognised it as a mistake and started the process of refunding the money.

Thanks for your answer.

Regards,

Mike

HappyMike

Terry_Towelling wrote: »

Did this really happen?

Yes it did! And this is the second time by the same hotel.


Guess my answer to this question: will I be staying there again?

Regards,

Mike

Socajam

LobsterMemory wrote: »

For those who seem to have never used booking.com, after booking the room, you get to the final part of the process where it says

When do you want to pay?

Pay at the Property
Your card won't be charged – we only need your card details to guarantee your booking.

Pay Now
Pay for your entire booking now and enjoy your trip stress free. You'll receive a full refund if you change your mind before August 12, 2019
hso booking.com and the hotel have details of the card, that part of the "mystery" is solved

The room is always cheaper if you choose Pay now and it tells you that the first night is non refundable
This is what gets a lot of people.
I always choose pay later, even if this make the room more expensive.

HappyMike

Ben8282 wrote: »

You say that you booked a hotel through booking.com and was due to settle the bill at the property, rather than pay booking.com.
Did you provide your debit card details to booking.com?
Have you actually completed your stay at the hotel?

Booking.com have my card details ... it is not the first time I have used them. Interestingly, if I pay through booking.com - an option that wasn't ofered to me for this stay - they ask for the CCV number of my card.

Yes I had completed my stay ... I stayed on a Friday, the unauthorised debit appear on my banking app early on the monday.

Thanks,

Mike

HappyMike

spadoosh wrote: »

Youre probably going to find in both sets of terms and conditions (the bank and the hotel) that theyre allowed to do this.

The hotel will argue something about a holding amount etc etc.

It wasn't a holding amount ... it was a proper full on debit.

The hotel very quickly admitted to making an error and started the refund process.

Regards,

Mike

HappyMike

Deleted_User wrote: »

Transactions can be done as cardholder not present (CNP).

Yes, but shouldn't they need the 3 digit code like online retailers use for CNP transactions.

It would seem strange for booking.com to retain that and pass that on to the hotel - kind of defeats the purpose of it.

Thanks for your replay.

regards,

Mike

Terry_Towelling

HappyMike wrote: »

Yes, but shouldn't they need the 3 digit code like online retailers use for CNP transactions.

It would seem strange for booking.com to retain that and pass that on to the hotel - kind of defeats the purpose of it.

Thanks for your replay.

regards,

Mike

Things may have changed since I was in cards but you don't actually need the CVV2 to put a transaction through. All that happens (in theory) if you don't include it is the liability for fraud may shift to the retailer.

In practice, however, most retailer systems are designed to prevent the transaction from proceeding without a CVV2 value, and some issuers, on receipt of an authorisation request without a CVV2 (in the card-not-present environment), might well decline the transaction.

On the subject of retaining the CVV2 value, that is not permitted. It is intended for use in the transaction for which it has been provided.

What you have described sounds like, either the value was never included in the transaction and, perhaps, the transaction was never 'authorised', or someone has kept a record of the value (plus other card details) and they have been accessed to make the erroneous debit.

Something that still hasn't been answered is how you paid your bill at check-out. You say you didn't volunteer this card but you must have tried to pay them somehow. If not, did you have some expectation that they would use card details provided at booking (if that's what you did)?

Takmon

HappyMike wrote: »

Yes it did! And this is the second time by the same hotel.


Guess my answer to this question: will I be staying there again?

Regards,

Mike

If this happened before then why did you again used a Debit Card when you stayed there again? Surely it is common sense to use a Credit Card when paying for hotels especially if you have had problems with them taking too much before.