Tips on Dealing with Credit Card Blocking
Written by Dongmiao Cui   


This perhaps has happened to you at least once before: you knew that you still got plenty of available credit, but you were told that you were over your credit card limit. What was wrong?

You probably just had a problem known as “credit card blocking.”

Credit card blocking typically arise when you use a credit card to check into a hotel or rent a car. The register may contact your credit card issuer to offer an estimated total of your bill. So that this amount of money will be “blocked”, or namely set aside to make sure that you will be able to pay the bill later on.

For example, you use your credit card to check into a motel that costs $60 per night. If you plan to stay for 3 nights, it is likely that $180 (or more) will be blocked. Later if you pay your bill using the same card, the block can be replaced by the final charge within a day or two. However, if you check out with another card or with cash, the block might be held by your card issuer for up to 15 days. This happens when your credit card company was not informed of the change in your way of payment.

Since credit card blocking reduces your available credit, it can become very problematic if you are already close to your credit limit. You may either have inconvenience when you are not able to make emergency purchase; or have to pay heavy over-the-limit fee to credit companies that do allow your balance to exceed the limit.

What’s worse is when the final bill turns out to be less than the blocked amount. The “extra” blocked money will remain unavailable for a few more days. How frustrating it is to have the credit that belongs to you, but you can’t use it.

Credit card blocking is not anything illegal or immoral, but it can be inconvenient. Here are some tips that can help you avoid the troubles.
  1. When you check into a hotel or rent a car, you can ask the clerk about how much will be blocked and when the block can be removed. It could also be helpful if you further inquire how the amount to be blocked is determined. Some hotels may add charges for “incidentals” like beverages or snacks. Some car rental companies may add anticipated gasoline charges to the block. This way you can be careful not to go over your credit limit and avoid over-the-limit charges.
     
  2. Pay the bill with the same card you checked in with. If you need to pay with cash, check out with another card, you want to inform the clerk that you changed your form of payment and remind the hotel or car rental company to remove the block promptly.
     
  3. You can consider separating the blocked credit card from all your other forms of payments.
     
  4. You can also pay for hotel reservation in full before you check in. The block will not be placed or will only be in a small amount to cover incidentals such as food or beverages. The same also applies to cart rental companies.
Last Updated on Tuesday, 21 December 2010 05:42