• Hotel reservation and cancels

I reserved a hotel room for next month is Germany. I used my Bunq card to hold the room. I was told there would be no charges now and all charges would happen when I checked out. Two days later the hotel tried to charge the total amount of the bill, which I don’t yet have on the card. I called the hotel and they have cancelled my reservation because they claim that Bunq and other “pre-paid cards” are not real credit cards. Has anyone else had this happen?

    Which card did you use? It seems that you used the travel card? And yes, the the reservation will be taken out of your account in advance, because bunq does not do ‘credit’.
    Did the reservation of the money for your account fail immediately? Or did you have a chance to accept/decline it? If you get a prompt, it would possible to quickly move some 💰 from a savings account first.

      Eigenartige Vorgehensweise. Vorher keine Gebühren bezahlen müssen, sondern erst bei Abreise, bedeutet ja irgendwie nicht, dass das Hotel den Betrag schon mal vormerkt.
      In dem Fall hat das Hotel wohl nicht viele Kunden..

      Das hatte ich bei noch keiner Buchung.

      Bedeutet das allerdings, dass das bei keiner bunq Karte möglich ist?

        @Lisa-Purple-Penguin#116277 Bunq and other “pre-paid cards” are not real credit cards

        The Travelcard is a real creditcard. It is not a prepaidcard. Though, from a customer perspective it works like that. I can understand that a merchant might think so, but it is a difference. Also, maybe they're confused with bunq's debit Mastercard.

        Anyway, regarding the reservation, it is your own responsibility to have enough funds on the account. bunq does not provide any credit so you have to provide your "own credit". In other words, making sure there is sufficient balance to pay the reservation (which will be cancelled afterwards). I'd put enough money on the card (keep in mind that the money will be unavailable for the duration of the reservation, so maybe add a safe buffer amount!) and then call the hotel and ask them to charge the card again. It should go through fine then, given that they are not too stubborn to require (in their terms) a "real" creditcard.

          @Remco137#116282 I don’t have any other account with Bunq (that I know of) There was no prompt I just saw the total amount was declined. I called the hotel and then they said it wasn’t a real card and the reservation was cancelled. I think it’s weird. I used to have a card with ICS also pre-paid and I’ve never had this problem.

            @Sander#116293 I was only reserving the room with the card which Bookings.com said “no pre payment required pay at the property” and if it’s just a “debit card” then I will use my debit from the bank (it is not possible to hold a reservation with a debit card it had to be credit)

              @Sander#116308 Ok. Thank you for the information!! I will call them tomorrow.

                Hotel clerks, and retail staff in general, might not always give you 100% correct information when it comes to these topics, either because they don't know it themselves, or because that would confuse "regular" people, who don't know much about how credit cards work. Especially at places where they required "credit" cards, it's highly likely that's just because they want to do a deposit until the actual payment. It's a completely stupid rule, as you can have deposits work perfectly well with debit cards, and you can also have them not work with actual credit cards (for example when there is not enough credit left), but well, people believe that and here we are. With the bunq Travel Card, as long as it is actually loaded up with enough money, it behaves and looks exactly like a normal credit card with a credit line, so you shouldn't have any problems with it, as long as there is money on it to temporarily pay for the deposit.

                  @Jakob#116324 Thank you for the info!!

                    They real confusion is that bunq provides a product which is a bit different to the mainstream products people are used to.

                    They call it a credit card, but it offers no credit. It actually behaves more like a pre paid credit card, which is in fact not a credit card either as there is no credit provided.

                    What they want to offer (and do offer) is a card that acts like a credit card in its acceptance, but without the burden of credit and high interest fees.

                    This is actually not what credit.card companies invented the credit card for. Their business model is based on high interest rates and transaction fees. Bunq just wants a widely accepted debit card and due to the world’s stubbornness, it has to brand it as a credit card.

                    So yes, the TravelCard is prone to misinterpretation by both customers and merchants.

                      @Lisa-Purple-Penguin#116298 You can contact the booking support and tell them the hotel try take from your card money and say them in the offer was stay no pre payment. booking.com will contact the hotel. I did have time ago the same problem with a other hotel after the contact with the support the hotel was stopped to try take money and accept the rules of booking.com

                        Afaik the idea for Diners Club was born after one of the co-founders went to a restaurant and wasn't able to pay because he forgot his wallet, so that his wife had to pay for him. And to avoid this situation, he created the Diners Club, which until today, only issues charge cards, so the business model wasn't based on earning money through interest. However, today it most definitely is for most banks.

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