Halifax Clarity payment decline
badger09
Posts: 11,201 Forumite
in Credit cards
On Saturday 13th morning I made 2 hotel bookings, on full prepayment basis, with about 60 minute gap in between.
1) AUD 2868 = approx £1600
2) AUD 539 = approx £305
I received email booking confirmations for both.
2) appeared as pending in the app yesterday 14th
This morning I slept through a phone call and SMS from Halifax Fraud Dept, and despite texting 'Yes' to confirm that 1) was made by me, SMS said it would not leave my account and call to Fraud Dept confirmed this.
What happens next? Will the hotel try again to take the payment?
Needless to say, both email confirmations are from addresses which don't accept replies, and from prior experience, emailing the hotel's centralised address is like putting a message in a bottle and hoping it arrives on the correct continent:cool:
1) AUD 2868 = approx £1600
2) AUD 539 = approx £305
I received email booking confirmations for both.
2) appeared as pending in the app yesterday 14th
This morning I slept through a phone call and SMS from Halifax Fraud Dept, and despite texting 'Yes' to confirm that 1) was made by me, SMS said it would not leave my account and call to Fraud Dept confirmed this.
What happens next? Will the hotel try again to take the payment?
Needless to say, both email confirmations are from addresses which don't accept replies, and from prior experience, emailing the hotel's centralised address is like putting a message in a bottle and hoping it arrives on the correct continent:cool:
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Comments
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So you phoned the fraud department?
And they still won’t release the payment?0 -
I assume the transactions are for different hotels.
Because Halifax has issued a 'decline' response for Transaction 1, the hotel will (should) not attempt to process the payment - it isn't the case that Halifax will not release the funds per se.
What you would hope now is that Halifax - who have received your confirmatory SMS and phone call - will treat any further authorisation attempt as genuine and will approve it. Did you tell them to do this when you spoke with them?
I would expect the hotel will contact you to say the payment has been declined and ask you to make alternative arrangements to pay. When that happens, give them the same card details and all should be well. If they don't get in touch, you can be reasonably confident that your booking will not exist and you will have to do it again. That said, there is an outside chance they may simply re-try the transaction, so keep an eye on your account for a pending transaction whilst you are trying to establish contact with the hotel.0 -
I have experienced a situation with Lloyds where after making a payment I have received the text asking me to respond yes or no as to if it was me who made the transaction and saying that it would not leave my account, when the transaction had already gone through,
If the payment is showing as pending I suggest that you wait and see what happens. If the payment had been declined it should not be showing as pending.0 -
If the payment is showing as pending I suggest that you wait and see what happens. If the payment had been declined it should not be showing as pending.
I think it is only the lower-value transaction that is showing as pending; the higher-value one was declined and is (I believe) not showing as pending....saying that it would not leave my account, when the transaction had already gone through,
This is indeed one of the quirks of card-based transactions; a retailer could still process a transaction when it has been declined and your bank cannot (in theory) stop it from being taken out. That said, they would have a Chargeback right for 'Declined Authorisation' if necessary.0 -
It was a chip/pin transaction. It went through fine. It was not declined. I had the receipt and the goods. The text came shortly afterwards and I replied Y but the text said my account would not be debited and to wait 10? minutes before trying the transaction again.Terry_Towelling wrote: »I
This is indeed one of the quirks of card-based transactions; a retailer could still process a transaction when it has been declined and your bank cannot (in theory) stop it from being taken out. That said, they would have a Chargeback right for 'Declined Authorisation' if necessary.
I think maybe the same thing has happened with the smaller of the OP's transactions which is showing as pending.
I am assuming the larger one really was declined.0 -
It was a chip/pin transaction. It went through fine. It was not declined. I had the receipt and the goods. The text came shortly afterwards and I replied Y but the text said my account would not be debited and to wait 10? minutes before trying the transaction again.
I think maybe the same thing has happened with the smaller of the OP's transactions which is showing as pending.
I am assuming the larger one really was declined.
Understood.
My comment about declined transactions coming through was more of a general observation on how it can happen after a decline and your bank cannot stop it even if they say that no funds will be taken.0 -
Terry_Towelling wrote: »I assume the transactions are for different hotels.
Because Halifax has issued a 'decline' response for Transaction 1, the hotel will (should) not attempt to process the payment - it isn't the case that Halifax will not release the funds per se.
What you would hope now is that Halifax - who have received your confirmatory SMS and phone call - will treat any further authorisation attempt as genuine and will approve it. Did you tell them to do this when you spoke with them?
I would expect the hotel will contact you to say the payment has been declined and ask you to make alternative arrangements to pay. When that happens, give them the same card details and all should be well. If they don't get in touch, you can be reasonably confident that your booking will not exist and you will have to do it again. That said, there is an outside chance they may simply re-try the transaction, so keep an eye on your account for a pending transaction whilst you are trying to establish contact with the hotel.
Thanks
Yes, sorry if it wasn't clear. These were 2 separate hotel bookings with different hotel chains. The 2nd, lower value one seems fine.
I thought the 1st one, which hasn't gone through, would simply be reclaimed by the hotel chain after I confirmed the transaction to be genuine.
Its complicated by the time difference I guess, but I've had no contact from the hotel today. I'll give it another couple of days to see if they contact me. I'm reluctant to redo the whole booking as it is on a full prepayments, no cancellation basis, and the last thing I want is a bill for over £3k:eek:
Its annoying that despite having made the booking before 12.00 on Saturday, I wasn't aware of any problem until the early hours of this morning0 -
I'm sure you'll get it worked out.0
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For anyone interested.
I didn't hear anything from hotel 1, so emailed them yesterday 17th.
This morning they replied to say they had reprocessed the prepayment and attached a photocopy of the cc authorisation. I've lost out a few ££ due to exchange rate, but glad its sorted. Already showing as pending transaction.
My 'big birthday':o trip coincides with LGBT Mardi Gras, which is huge in Sydney, so prices are only going to go one way:p0
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