Authorisation hold on Debit Card

skuzzb

Hello there,

I allowed an authorisation hold to be put on by Ulsterbank Debit Card while in the US.
Basically its like a deposit, say for a Rental Car or Hotel room and it puts a hold for x amount on your card.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Authorization_hold

The authorisation hold is supposed to be removed after generally 24-72 hours. I have been waiting 5 days now and have contacted both Ulsterbank and the company that took the authorisation hold.

Both claim that the other is responsible and are not willing to help me any further so I have jumped between, its your bank, its the merchant, its your bank its the merchant and so on for about 8 attempts.

Has anybody had any experience of this?

After a long list of problems with Ulsterbank I think Ive given up on them and I now feel like reporting the company that took the authorisation for fraud as they did not explain I could be left in the US with no access to my account!

Any help appreciated!

Thoie

skuzzb wrote: »

Hello there,

I allowed an authorisation hold to be put on by Ulsterbank Debit Card while in the US.
Basically its like a deposit, say for a Rental Car or Hotel room and it puts a hold for x amount on your card.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Authorization_hold

The authorisation hold is supposed to be removed after generally 24-72 hours. I have been waiting 5 days now and have contacted both Ulsterbank and the company that took the authorisation hold.

My experiences of authorisation hold were that they're only removed when you pay in full for the service - so on checkout from the hotel, or the end of the next working day after dropping back a car. Did you happen to pay with a different payment method than you had the hold put on? Eg, put the hold on your debit card, but then paid with credit card? If you're anywhere still near the merchant location, ask them to write a letter, including the auth code, saying they no longer lay any claim to the amount. Then tell them to fax it to Ulster Bank, and give you a copy of the letter (signed/stamped) and a copy of the fax receipt.

skuzzb

Yes I payed in full (was a bike rental) with the same card. (Visa Debit)
I contacted the merchant a few times already. A few thousand miles away at this stage and a few thousand more by the morning.

I will try get a fax number off Uselessbank on Monday and see if they can deal with it properly. I have a feeling the rental company is correct and Ulsterbank just dont have the systems in place to deal with Visa Debit Cards correctly...or banking in general for that matter.
I had the same issue with Halifax this time last year and they sorted it with a 5 minute phone call, authorisation holds from a car rental and two different hotels all sorted.
I got a 'I'm sorry but your not through to Halifax I'm afraid' at one stage from Ulsterbank.

3DataModem

It may not be UBs fault.

The pre-authorisations can be done in a few different ways... mainly;
- automatically expire after x days
- automatically settle after x days (rarer)
- automatically cancel on subsequent transaction (hotels etc)

If your shop has it set up (via their processor and the processor's acquirer) to expire after a few days, then you have to wait that long before it is lifted. This is generally outside the issuer's (in your case, UBs) control.

I would also add that most merchants and many issuer's fail to understand this process properly.

Worried!!

If it is any help, pre-auths on debit cards are handled differently by the merchant and bank than credit cards.

In my experience, pre-authorisations on debit cards do not release and the bank picks them up as a charge. Even when the sale is completed againt the pre-auth, it will show as a seperate amount.

The quickest way to cancel this authorisation is to contact Ulster Bank and get the name of someone in the call centre who can cancel this pre-auth. Contact the merhant in US and ask them to fax Ulsterbank (for the attention of who you have been speaking with) including the pre-auth amount, authorisation code, date it was made, merchant number. With this in hand, Ulster Bank should be able to get it sorted quite quickly.

Hope this helps