Cancelling overseas credit card transactions

AntMuz

Bit of a long story but I want to know what the repercussions are if I cancel a credit card transaction used to pay for a hotel room, after I've found out over £300 worth of goods were stolen by the hotel workers.

Here's the long story:

In the past week I've come back from a weekend in France, and found that a number of items have been stolen from my bags that could have only happened at the hotel.

First of all there was some money that was on the hotel floor near my bed (around £15 worth) and when we came back the following evening it was gone.

The hotel totally denied that they had anything to do with it and the cleaner is well respected and could not have done this.

When we got back home I found that two of our mobile phones were missing from our cases. They were put in the bag at the hotel and that compartment was not opened until I opened it when I arrived home.

I have contacted the hotel and they are very un-co-operative. The only think I can think of to get compensation for this loss is to cancel the credit card transaction, although this wouldn't even bring back half of what it cost for the mobiles.

If I do this what could happen to me? Would it go as far as being considered as theft or fraud in France and lead to me being banned from entering the country?

Or because I live in a different country the authorities wouldn't even bother to chase this up? I know there could be a few potential outcomes but I'd like to see if anyone knew much about this?

Thanks!

MarkyMarkD

You cannot "cancel a credit card transaction" for any reason, let alone because you have ungrounded suspicions that you suffered theft whilst you were there.

If you have a legitimate reason to dispute a CC transaction (like the hotel didn't supply what you had agreed to pay for, such as meals, or a holiday company failed to supply you with flights, or whatever) then you can DISPUTE the transaction.

If you have transactions on your account which you haven't authorised, you can DISPUTE them too.

What happens when they are in dispute is that the CC company will investigate the transaction (and get a copy of the signed authorisation slip, if you are disputing having authorised the transaction). Meanwhile, you should not be charged interest on the transaction or be expected to settle it.

Once they've agreed that you have been mis-charged, or the item/services haven't been supplied as you have been charged, you will get the item credited on your statement.

I can't see that you are going to get any redress in these circumstances though, as the theft and the hotel accommodation charges are unrelated and the hotel will have disclaimed liability for theft (because this is a standard thing for hotels to do).

You should claim the loss on your travel insurance, or the "all risks" part of your house contents insurance, assuming that you have one or both of these types of insurance.