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If you reserve a hotel on say booking.com and cancel the credit card (this is very common for certain kinds of travelers...) used and then do a no-show how will they charge the (usually) one night penalty fee?

Zach Lipton
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  • Related: http://travel.stackexchange.com/questions/50631/how-does-booking-com-enforce-cancellation-fees-when-booking-without-a-credit-car – JonathanReez May 17 '16 at 20:29
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    Possible duplicate of Hotel booking cancellation using debit card with insufficient funds - not 100% identical, but the answers cover your scenario – JonathanReez May 17 '16 at 20:29
  • Erm, nope? That's a debit card. Entirely different to a credit card. –  May 17 '16 at 20:41
  • an empty debit card is equivalent to a cancelled credit card. – JonathanReez May 17 '16 at 20:42
  • If they put a hold on the card (i.e. authorized) which is then settled, your bank will send you a bill anyway. – neo May 17 '16 at 20:51
  • "Visa Debit" and "Debit MasterCard" work almost like a regular credit card with only minor differences that are largely irrelevant here. Note that this is not the kind of "Debit" transaction done via Canadian Interac or that you can choose at an US retailer (Pulse, STAR, ...). – neo May 17 '16 at 20:57
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    @neo that is very interesting! As for credit vs debit. in my (limited) experience, a visa debit card is basically your checking account in a card form. –  May 17 '16 at 21:26
  • @chx Yes, usually they are (although whatever a "checking account" is and can do differs between countries). The important difference is that e.g. a Visa Debit is accepted almost everywhere where a Visa (Credit) is accepted and has largely the same features. The main difference is that (usually) the credit version sends you bill or automatically charges your checking account once a month, whereas (usually) the debit version withdraws funds from your checking account immediately. – neo May 17 '16 at 22:02
  • This question really boils down to: 'I owe someone money, but they have no known method of getting money from me. How will they charge me?' It will all boil down to the law of both your country of residence and the country in which the hotel is located and potentially agreements and cooperations between the different countries. In some jurisdictions, authorising someone to charge a non-covered card can be considered fraud and a criminal offence. – Tor-Einar Jarnbjo May 17 '16 at 23:58
  • Ouch, I intend no such, I was more wondering what happens. I book flights very early and add a hotel night somewhere in between and then change flights then I might forget to cancel. Thanks for reminding me, I just cancelled one at Toronto Airport :) –  May 18 '16 at 01:11
  • Jumping back to the debit vs credit comments. A Visa debit card and a Visa credit card are basically the same, differing only as to the method of billing (immediately deducting it from your account vs paying over time). In both cases, when you use the card you are agreeing to be financially responsible for the amount due for the service rendered or product purchased. So legally when you book the hotel and provided your card as a guarantee, you have accepted financial responsibility for the charge. Whether to hotel will pursue you for not honoring that responsibility is their call. –  May 18 '16 at 01:44
  • Cancelled credit cards can be charged in many circumstances, e.g. http://money.stackexchange.com/questions/48103/how-can-a-company-charge-a-closed-credit-card – Berwyn May 18 '16 at 07:18

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if merchant has secured booking in advance and locked your payment doesn't matter card is valid or cancelled, you will be charged after no show. if debit/credit card payment is not secured and cancelled before no show up then you will not be charged

Ali Awan
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