FlyerTalk Forums - View Single Post - Priceline guests get a bad rap? How to fix?
Old Mar 1, 2010 | 2:24 pm
  #32  
bhatnasx
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Originally Posted by mbstone
Usually the hotel just charges the amount of the incidental deposit to the debit card and refunds it later.
A common misconception...hotels rarely, if ever, charge an incidental deposit to a debit card. They only authorize the card to that amount. That authorization, because it's a debit card, removes the amount from someone's available balance, but the hotel never took possession of the money. They release the authorization at checkout and the bank usually takes a few days to process it - hence the reason you never use a debit card to book a hotel room & most rental car companies don't even take debit cards.

With a credit card, the authorization is still requested, but it doesn't remove available funds from your credit line because it's a credit line & the merchant has an agreement with the issuing card provider. Debit cards are issued by individual banks (regardless of the fact that they are Visa check-cards or the like).
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