Air New Zealand Air Points - Warning: RE Booking with VISA DEBT Card

I booked a return AKL-CHC-AKL with my new BNZ Debt card this weekend, since the fare was only $28return.

Be aware manly if you are booking a flight for a much larger amount you may not want to book using your debt card. Unlike with a credit card you don't notice VISA taking out a security which is the same amount of your purchase (Unless you check your card balance or hit your limit). After a call to AirNZ & BNZ they said even with debt cards visa likes to double charge and will release the funds in 5-10 business days!

Why VISA likes to do with is beyond me after all was i was paying with cash from my CHQ account.

I booked a return AKL-CHC-AKL with my new BNZ Debt card this weekend, since the fare was only $28return.

Be aware manly if you are booking a flight for a much larger amount you may not want to book using your debt card. Unlike with a credit card you don't notice VISA taking out a security which is the same amount of your purchase (Unless you check your card balance or hit your limit). After a call to AirNZ & BNZ they said even with debt cards visa likes to double charge and will release the funds in 5-10 business days!

Why VISA likes to do with is beyond me after all was i was paying with cash from my CHQ account.

I am told AVIS will not accept Visa Debit cards for car hire either

the hold for NZ payment should only be for 3 days and i though that was only till the transaction was processed by AIRNZ and showing in your account. Like when you use a credit it takes a day or two to see the details on your account. Hope that makes sense

Apparently its 5-10 Days with Visa debt cards.

I checked at work its 3 working days for domestic and 5 working days for international cards. A hold would generally result because a pre authorization was done. I ran out of time to look at it futher though

debt card

a debt card? :D

As for the double "charge" (actually only a double authorisation) - call your bank and ask them to cancel the authorisation, as they can clearly see there has already been a completed transaction for the same amount.

I've used my VISA debit card (Westpac issued) to purchase a $3000 ticket and didn't have any trouble with double charging. The bank did however call me within the hour to check that I was indeed making the purchase and that the card wasn't being used fraudulently.

a debt card? :D

As for the double "charge" (actually only a double authorisation) - call your bank and ask them to cancel the authorisation, as they can clearly see there has already been a completed transaction for the same amount.


Haha yes i know i should be useing a gobalplus for Airpoints, but i wouldnt have got any on a $28 fare :D.

Its canceled its self now, I got told that if i wanted cleared earlier i had to get the AirNZ to fax my bank to say it was cleared by them.

Any ideas why visa likes to run "double authorisation" ?

Thats shocking! I have a debit card over here in Oz and i've never had anything like this happen when using the card for flights. Must be a NZ thing....

Are they actually placing an authorisation in place for twice the value or is it that the authorised charge (or hold) appears and then the payment is processed from your account prior to the hold being removed? Meaning that effectively you've then paid for the goods but still have a hold over your funds?

The same thing can happen with credit cards it's just that you don't usually see the authorised charges. Good example is when you visit a service station at night and you have to give them your card prior to filling up. Many stations put a charge through for $100 or $150 and then process the payment on top of that. The hold drops off after a number of days but could be annoying if you were close to your limit.

Are they actually placing an authorisation in place for twice the value or is it that the authorised charge (or hold) appears and then the payment is processed from your account prior to the hold being removed? Meaning that effectively you've then paid for the goods but still have a hold over your funds?

.

It was weird even though NZ had cleared and been paid VISA still hadnt processed because it was booked on a Saturday. It was two charges one FROM AirNZ Online Sales ($28) & One from Visa ($28). You wouldn't want to say book a $10,000 Business Class Trip on your debt card. As an extra $10,000 would be locked off in your CHQ Account.

Unless you win todays Big Wednesday

Haha yes i know i should be useing a gobalplus for Airpoints, but i wouldnt have got any on a $28 fare :D.

With Global Plus you get AP$'s on all purchases. You would have got AP$0.19 for that purchase ;)

There are actually 5 different earning rates depending on the card type - so more or less might be able to be earned!

It was weird even though NZ had cleared and been paid VISA still hadnt processed because it was booked on a Saturday. It was two charges one FROM AirNZ Online Sales ($28) & One from Visa ($28). You wouldn't want to say book a $10,000 Business Class Trip on your debt card. As an extra $10,000 would be locked off in your CHQ Account.

Unless you win todays Big Wednesday

What exactly do you mean "charge"? Do you mean that it posted to your account twice (so you could actually see 2 transactions on your statement)? Or only one transaction posted and the hold remained on your account?

Just wondering since I work for a bank and I commonly see that the transaction will post though the hold will remain on the account (but will normally drop off that night).

Unless you win todays Big Wednesday

Didn't win. Will send of an email to NZ Lotteries for a refund! :D

What exactly do you mean "charge"? Do you mean that it posted to your account twice (so you could actually see 2 transactions on your statement)? Or only one transaction posted and the hold remained on your account?

Just wondering since I work for a bank and I commonly see that the transaction will post though the hold will remain on the account (but will normally drop off that night).

There was two transactions, one was cleared as being AirNZ, the other didn't have a name on it. When you added it up both transactions where charged off my balance. With the hold one refunded last night at roll over, well i think it got refunded since its not on my online statement anymore. Maybe it might have been faster if i didn't book on a Saturday. Now its just my Thursday night itunes purchases to clear then ill be happy, I could look at it is a good way to save money.

So the second entry that you could see for visa was a hold. If it was a double charge then you would see two entrys and a reversal. For a domestic transaction a hold may be processed for 3 working days. How, when and why i don't know.