Pre-Paid Card Safety

Monzo Chat
1

Today, against my better judgement, I booked a hotel via otel.com which I found through trivago.

Long story short, the site looks pretty dodgy and I’ve not even received a confirmation email.

The terms were payment upon check in, but I’ve no faith the booking has even been made.

Luckily, the card I used was my Monzo, which I’ve reduced the balance down to near enough zero, so there’s no money to take, even if they try.

Their customer service seems to be based in Turkey and is pretty non existent.

My question ultimately, is if I order a new monzo card, will I get a new card number? That way I’ll just book the hotel via the hotel’s own website on my replacement monzo card, and there’s nothing these scammers can do in order to get the fraudulent money from me.

Thanks guys

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Yes you will get a new card number, however it might be worth freezing your card until you get a reply from the company?

EDIT: I had a quick look a the site, they appear to have a live chat feature you could use to cancel the booking.

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Thanks. I thin I’ll freeze my card to be on the safe side.
With regards to the booking, there is no cancellation within the terms, however I’ll try the live chat, as they don’t respond by email.
I’d hope by ordering a new card though, there’s very little they can do to try and charge me if I do cancel.

1 Like
4

No worries, to be fair though, when I have had to pay upon check-in, it’s normally the hotel that takes the payment directly not the booking company. I believe the hotel then pay the booking company fee as they brought them the business.

2 Likes
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That’s normally the case. It’s more the fact I don’t trust them to make the reservation with the hotel, then charge my card regardless. Tried the live chat and it was useless. I’ll just be booking via the usual trusted places in future. Lesson learned, but my Monzo card saved me really as regardless of what happens, I’m in control of my money. Can’t charge a card that’s been frozen with zero funds on it!

6

Can’t you give the hotel a bell and see if they’ve had your booking?

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Done that. No sign of it yet, 24 hours later. The site I booked through apparently says that they won’t get the booking until 48 hours before my stay. Something doesn’t sound right there. How would the hotel know they’ve a room free or not if they only get the booking 2 days before?

Getting slightly off topic now, but if I freeze my card, order a new one and just book via the hotel for a few more quid, these cowboys don’t have anything on me whatsoever

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