I checked my family in at the Sheraton Universal Studios hotel today and ended up being charged four times instead of once for my stay! Over $4,000 was deducted from my account, and now our three-day trip to the theme park is ruined because I barely have enough money left for gas to get us home.
The hotel claims they only see one charge and can’t assist me, stating that I need to contact my bank. The bank tells me I can’t dispute the charges until the pending transactions go through, which could take 3 to 5 days, and they suggested I speak with the merchant. No one seems to care that I needed that money for this vacation, which I planned for my family out of state.
Am I out of luck here?
I think the solution is to have multiple payment methods available. Even if this charge was on a credit card and it was the only one you had, it would have exceeded the limit. Ironically, I’ve experienced a similar issue in my line of work. The DoubleTree hotel kept re-running their authorization file every hour without realizing it, resulting in over $9,000 worth of authorizations on my card before it finally stopped. The authorizations eventually fell off, and only one transaction was posted. Based on my experience and seeing this happen multiple times in the card industry, I believe you might face a similar outcome. It might be wise to cancel this reservation and create a new one to ensure the posted transaction goes through, allowing the authorizations to drop. If there’s a billing department you can contact, I recommend reaching out to them.
Hey, I recommend avoiding debit cards for purchases whenever possible, especially at hotels, car rentals, and gas stations, which place holds. Debit holds impact your available funds more than credit holds. Pending charges may fall off, but the funds remain earmarked until cleared. I’ve faced similar issues while traveling, unaware of the differences. Unfortunately, the bank can’t help until the final charges are processed, and having both the hotel and bank on the line usually won’t resolve system issues.
Hello, This is a common issue with hotels and rental cars, so it’s best to avoid using a debit card for those transactions. You might ask your bank if the merchant can provide any information to help cancel the authorizations. However, this is unusual, and your bank may not agree to it due to their policy, as it exposes them to financial risk.
Hello, In this situation, the charges aren’t fraudulent; they are duplicate charges. Therefore, the bank can’t classify it as fraud and must follow the dispute process established by Visa. The bank can’t take action until the payments are posted, which likely won’t happen since they are duplicates. Eventually, the issue should resolve itself. The dispute process is managed by Visa because both the cardholder and merchant are their clients, and disputes are handled between the banks.