phantom debit card charge

real_pochacco

so, I stayed at a Victorian B&B in San Francisco several weeks ago, and I paid using my debit/check card. the next day, I took out some cash and got a receipt from the ATM. the amount that the receipt told me that the charge from the B&B had been put on the card, and so I had like 5 dollars or something left in my account.

a day or two later, I go online to look at my account and I have a lot more money than I should. I couldn't think of why, until I realized that I had exactly 114 dollars more than I should -- the amount the B&B had cost. sure enough, the charge had disappeared.

now it has been quite some time, 18 days, and the charge still hasn't gone through. not only has it not gone through, it does not even display as "Pending". the only time I have ever experienced a charge that was this delayed to my account was when I used my card to pay for train fare at one of the automated ticket machines, which obviously would have a delay. right now I took some money out so if the charge goes through my account will be overdrawn.

the question is, when should I stop worrying about the charge? do you think they've forgotten about it? ostensibly I could resolve all of this by calling the B&B, but honestly if they forgot about my stay I would be quite happy to keep that money. maybe that makes me a horrible person, but damn that trip was expensive. are there limitations on how long businesses can wait to charge a check card?

Seattle Thread

The only way that I could think that they may have swiped your card without charging anything would be if they ran an "Authorization," which really just checks to see if said card has said amount of money available. It's good for placing a deposit on something, or the like. But running an Authorization requires a keypress beforehand, so it's not likely to be done on accident, nor does it typically print a receipt.

When given this situation, I wait it out and go with my own records. Once the next month rolls around, and I reconcile my bank statement with my ledger, I may find that it did indeed go through--and I've seen debit transactions waylay for an entire month, yes.

You should most certainly assume that your card was indeed charged, despite what your ATM receipts may say, because if you assume otherwise you're likely to get bit in the ass when it does go through, and you've been spending that money elsewhere. If it still doesn't show up within the next week, call your bank. Don't call the B&B--they won't know anything, other than to try and run your card a second time, which might invariably cause you to pay twice.

And a bit of advice: get a ledger. Quicken is cheap. One of those free-inside-your-check-wallet paper ledgers is even cheaper. Record EVERY transaction, no matter how minor. Take your monthly bank statement and check it against your own. It seems like a lot of work, but it only takes a few seconds each day to record, and a few minutes each month to reconcile.

ATM balance inquiries are never 100% accurate, since it can and will take anywhere from a day to several days for any electronic transaction to actually process. And if you end up overdrawing because you believed that you had more money than you actually did, due to basing your balance off of ATM receipts, your bank will likely grant no leniency because you are supposed to keep your own records accurate.

If you assume that the transaction has just been "forgotten," then you'll be in for a big surprise when it finally does go through. Businesses don't generally just forget things, especially when it affects their bottom line.

Willeth

Yeah, just act as if that money is not in your account. You have 114 dollars less than your bank says, and work on that. They will take it out, and you don't want your balance to be $113 when they do that. That can be pricey.

FyreWulff

Assume you don't have that money. Call the bank and see what the deal is. It'll be a lot faster and less clusterfuckey than the B&B trying to sort it out from their end.

Unearthly Stew

I recall reading a story somewhere that some hotels, if you use your debit card, take the deposit out of your account for as long as you're staying there, and then replace it when you leave. This can be a hassle if you're on a trip and need some extra cash for any reason.

real_pochacco

Fortunately, I have overdraft protection (a credit card tied to my account which will automatically kick in if it's overdrawn), so I'm not really too worried. I was kind of just wondering what the chances were that I got a free night's stay, heh.