Re: Billing issue

whatislife

Hello,

I booked a hotel through booking.com for £243.10. On the 10/05/2012 they took £41.65 from my account which in theory should have brought the remaining balance down to £201.45.

However today they took the full £243.10 from my account, meaning that they have taken £284.75.

I rang the hotel and they said that they will reimburse me the £41.65. They say they took it out as a preauthorisation.

I just want to know if this is normal practice and verify it?

Thanks.

Procrastastudy

Its not actually normally 'taken out' its just held. Some banks this shows up on the statements.

It can cause issues in other scenarios. If a customer comes in and buys something on a credit card at €500 then an hour later gets a refund - the money never actually hits the retailers account. Its 'held' in limbo land. This causes an issue if the customer doesn't have any more credit on their card as its takes until the end of the day when the machine is polled for it to release. (Sometimes longer). The issue is that you can't give the customer the cash because you don't and will never have the actual money.

whatislife

GCDLawstudent wrote: »

Its not actually normally 'taken out' its just held. Some banks this shows up on the statements.

It can cause issues in other scenarios. If a customer comes in and buys something on a credit card at €500 then an hour later gets a refund - the money never actually hits the retailers account. Its 'held' in limbo land. This causes an issue if the customer doesn't have any more credit on their card as its takes until the end of the day when the machine is polled for it to release. (Sometimes longer). The issue is that you can't give the customer the cash because you don't and will never have the actual money.

hmm, he said it will be released back into my account in the next few days.

If that doesn't happen, what advice would you give me?

Thanks alot, appreciate it

Procrastastudy

Just contact your bank. If it's as I've described its actually them holding it.