Money pending but transaction failed

bobblebob · 17 June 2024 at 5:48PM

Went to book a hotel earlier (Travelodge) and as the payment was authorising i received an error message so never received a confirmation email. Not thinking much of it, i checked my account and noticed the money is pending to come out.

I rang customer service who confirmed no booking has been made and they cannot see anything on their system, but they couldnt explain why the money was pending and advise to wait a few days see if it actually gets taken.

Anyone had this before when booking something and getting an error message, and did the money eventually drop off and "returned" to your account?

Shakin_Steve · 17 June 2024 at 5:57PM

The pending payment should disappear in a few days, it's not that unusual for something like this to happen.

hpas251 · 19 June 2024 at 9:31AM

This happened to me when buying cinema tickets in about 2016. I received an error message, then started again. Both transactions showed as pending, but only one was eventually debited.

PRAISETHESUN · 19 June 2024 at 9:50AM

The bank can't really do anything whilst the transaction is pending. Note that the money hasn't actually left your account, it just gets ringfenced from your available balance until the transaction goes through. The pending authorisation should should drop off after a few days if it doesn't get taken, but if it does end up debiting your account twice, then you can ask your bank to do a chargeback on the duplicate transaction.