Prepaid credit cards for hotel reservations

[jollygreen]

Can prepaid credit cards be used for pre-authorisation when you check in at a hotel?

Obviously, haviung enough cash on the card is important! I've heard that they cannot be pre-authorised.

[bednobs]

i think you would have to ask the hotel. i would presume not because theere is nothing to stop you spending all the credit in the shops then doing a bunk and the hotel can't get their money

[Mr Veritas]

I agree with bednobs.
As (i presume) a prepaid credit card has no credit limit (other than the amount prepaid onto the card) the hotel has no way of knowing how much you have on your card.
If the bank allows the hotel(or if the hotel is willing) to charge most of your stay (apart from extras which may have to be paid cash) then I cannot see any problem.
The main problem is that I don't think enough hotels have experience of prepaid credit cards to know what to do with them,or to trust them.
As bednobs says,ask the hotel, as each hotel will probably have different rules/opinions on this.

[Fitzer]

I have a Caxton pre-pay card and they advise you not to use it for such purposes as an amount of money will be 'shadowed' (basically unavailable) and this will then lower the amount you have to spend. Use a regular card to pre-authorise and then settle your bill with the pre-pay

[jollygreen]

Thanks. Regarding money being "shadowed" on the card, presumably that would be cleared when you paid the hotel bill?

[Fitzer]

Actually they say the shadow can remain for up to 30 days, the amount they shadow may also well be more than the final bill if you are only staying for a short while. Here is the link to Caxton's site http://www.caxtonfxca...ips.asp?dist=CAXTGENL