Has this happened to you?

[mikki.young]

For the last few years we have been using our Citibank US$ debit cards in Florida and using them at the hotels so we could charge to the room. It has worked great until now. This latest trip we did that at 3 hotels and although they were initialy accepted when it came to charge them they would not get authorised. They worked fine buying stuff direct from Disney shops, Walmart etc etc but would not work for hotel check-outs. We didn't charge much at the last two hotels and had enough Travllers checks to pay those balances but the first one is still a problem. Disney were supposed to be sending us a paper bill so we could send them a US$ check from citibank but it hasn't arrived. I know there have been postal strikes over here but I am not absolutely convinced they have even sent it! I tried emailing their bill enquiries department but they didn't understand what I was talking about.

Citibank have investigated and did actually show one authorisation being given but it never got debited to the account. They confirmed there was no problem with the card (which is sort of confirmed by the fact all the shops and restaurants would take it). Hotels don't ask if it is debit or credit but there is clearly something weird going on between them and visa. Hopefully this only applies to debit cards but I would be interested to know if anyone else had this problem and if they found any solution.

 

[raven69david]

You may have a limit hold on the debit card or the +4 zip on the debit card is messing up the purchase. This is a known issue with bill payments, but is also slightly problematic with Citibank debit cards. This would explain why you can do smaller purchases, but larger purchases get declined. The only way to know for sure is to contact the Citibank debit card unit directly at 1-800-647-5344, option #4 ( 24 x 7 ) or you may contact them from the U.K. collect at 210-677-0065. There is a toll-free number from the UK to US but do not have it handy with me.

The problem may not be with the card, but rather the merchant services that a company uses to process the payments. Some merchants require the +4 and others do not. The ones that do, may have problems with the +4's on some cities. This is especially prevalant if a cities boundary lines (or districts) have been updated/changed/realigned. To fix this issue, we simply remove the +4 zip on accounts and that fixes the problem.

In addition, Citibank will authorize half of the amount that the hotel is charging to the card as a "hold" (i.e. if the hold is $40, you will see a $20.00 T&E authorization hold from [insert name of hotel]). This will show up as a T&E "Travel & Entertainment" hold on the account and will fall off in 4 business days. The correct purchase will follow within 2 to 4 business days.