Last month I stayed at a hotel in Israel and paid a refundable deposit during my stay that was meant to be returned to me upon checkout.
I checked out nearly a month ago and the hotel is confident that the funds have been released, but there is nothing showing up in my bank account.
As this was a business stay, my company is currently chasing the hotel up and I was content to leave it at that, but curiously enough, two of my other colleagues were expecting their deposits returned, one uses monzo and one doesnât and the latter received their deposit back weeks ago while the other monzo account holder, like me, hasnât.
I didnât think much of it until I bought some train tickets this week, some on my monzo card and some on my backup card from a different bank. For various reasons, I also had to get some of those purchases refunded using the ticket providerâs automated system (southeastern if it matters)
When applying for a refund for a ticket purchased on my other card, it went through without a hitch, but when I attempted to get a refund for the ticket purchased with my monzo card, I was met with a long loading screen then an error message saying that I need to call the company directly or use their online form to get the refund.
Has anyone else experienced this? Is there any way I can call Monzo directly about this? Any options on their app to speak to someone are conspicuously absent
The hotel one isnât a refund, itâs a âholdâ on the funds. If that money isnât claimed by the hotel, it gets released back to you after 30 days.
There is no reason why the ticket money hasnât come back to you, but this isnât a Monzo issue, itâs whoever is refunding you. When Monzo have it, theyâll give it to you.
If you want to talk to Monzo, go to help, type âcontactâ and press âContact Usâ and theyâll tell you the same as above.
So to build on Revels point, have you scrolled back in your feed to see if the hotel transaction is still there? They may have just ânot claimedâ the money and the transaction will have disappeared. If so they youâve had your refund. If they only held the money they donât need to do a separate transaction to reverse it.
Has it been 30 days since you vacated the hotel? As hotels and other types of hold can take this long to be released.
Alternatively if youâve stayed, come home, and can get full confirmation from the hotel they arenât going to collect the amount thatâs being held, you can reach out to monzo and they might be able to release it sooner.
Given some posts here lately that also may take some time.
Also, as noted above, the released funds will generally show against the original transaction not a new entry in your feed so worth checking that too - as youâre generally not notified of an updated presentment.
This reminds me, and I may have heard, but I have the memory of a goldfish, does Flex make you pay for pending transactions?
So if I pay for a hotel deposit, and they take 30 days to release it, might I be asked to pay the first instalment in the meantime? Or would the clock only start once the transaction cleared? Based on my experience so far I suspect itâs the former, which hopefully might change in the future?
What credit cards donât charge you within the next monthâs cycle, on a hotel purchase (technically a hold, but seen as a purchase no less), until reversed?
The only avoidance of this would be if youre within 2 weeks of your next payment, which jumps to the following month.
No and no. A hold is just that, a promise to pay money if requested. The money hasnât been paid, itâs just been ringfenced so that it is available if needed.
The hotel/RSPCA/any other merchant wonât see a penny from the hold until they collect it, and likewise not a penny would leave the payorâs account until such time.
No transaction means no money spent means no money owed to the creditor (unless that creditor is Monzo, clearly).
Iâd be very curious to hear @TheoGibson and the Flex teamâs take on this â how can they charge me money for something that I havenât technically paid for? Has this been approved by the Regulators? What is their view?
Someone will likely jump and clarify but I recall Apple placing a hold on a customers Flex and it was a to and fro to have it released because the available balance was impacted by the value.
Oh I donât doubt that Monzo would charge you for pending balances because this is Monzo and they have some of their own very strong ideas of how things should work (as evidenced by the @N26throwaway overdraft saga).
But that doesnât mean itâs industry standard (or usual or even right) and as weâve seen sometimes not even in line with what the Regulator thinks.
Pending transactions arenât charged from any credit card Iâve ever used. If I put a hold on my Amex, my available balance reduces sure, but it will still say payment due as âÂŁ0â until as such time as a transaction actually settles.
Thanks for the advice regarding the hotel. Iâve had a dig through my February statement and I can see that the transaction is present, but greyed out as a hold.
I tapped the âget helpâ button and the hotel hold system was explained in the same way it was in this thread and if I donât get the money released back to me after 30 days, Monzo will do so automatically. Turns out today is day 29 so I suppose I can just wait until tomorrow and see if this all blows over haha thanks everyone.
Iâm still a little confused by the train ticket refund situation though
Were they the same kind of tickets? Monthly pass vs single etc? Was one only due a partial refund? It sounds more like a southeastern glitch if you saw an error, refunds are sent over the MasterCard network in batches to Monzo a few times a day, so thereâs no way as far as I know that you can get an instant error thatâs Monzoâ fault, it would have to be something on the train company or their card processor end.
Was the other card a MasterCard also or something else?
