Neil Williams wrote:
On Fri, 15 May 2009 11:53:26 +0100, Roland Perry
wrote:

That reminds me - I stayed at a foreign hotel about a month ago and they
insisted on making a 10-euro test-payment using their C&P machine. This
was for "extras" and in fact I didn't incur any. When I checked out
there was some confusion about whether or not the 10-euros needed to be
explicitly refunded, or whether it just "expired" in some strange way. I
must check my statements...

I've seen that - it seems that while taking the "swipe"
(pre-authorisation for things like the minibar) some badly-designed
terminals show it as an actual purchase with an amount and require a
PIN, but it isn't an actual transaction and doesn't go on the
statement.

On the occasions I've been asked to provide a card for authorisation in
a hotel, it's generally said "Pre-Auth" (or similar) on the display on
the PED.

On a similar subject, I went into a branch of NatWest last week to pay a
cheque in, over the counter, and was asked to use Chip & PIN to confirm
the deposit. That's a new one on me.

Cheers,

Barry