Credit Card Charged in error

I have just spoken to P&O after checking my credit card statement I have been charged today nearly £600.

They have a problem and credit cards have been charged even though bookings have not been made.

They are trying to reverse them all but do not know when it will be resolved. Anybody else had this problem today?

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It is a widespread problem according to P and O Facebook page, large sums of money taken from peoples accounts,

after final payment.

Yup...happened to me for my cruise on Adonia in June. It seems to be payments made during March, both deposits and final balances. Fortunately I paid by credit card so it has only affected my "available" credit, but many have paid by debit card and are now technically overdrawn becuase of the "pending" payment.

Faceache gone bonkers about it. Its affected Cunard and Princess too......

There was an alert on Cunard's site today about payment problems so looks widespread. Just going to check my CC balance now!

There's an alert on the P&O website also

The alert provides very little information and the replies on Facebook aren't much better.

Financial regulations and incryption requirements are pretty tight and they should never retain or be able to access this kind of information after a transaction is complete. It also begs the question who the third party is that has customers bank and credit card details? I thought we were dealing with P&O.

I think the PR department are going to be very busy as there are issues here beyond the money removed illegally from accounts.

Lots of very unhappy people.

I paid a deposit of £1168by DD in March and it has been taken again from my available balance. If it werenot for social media I would be completely unaware of it and as I am going on holidays on Monday could have been very embarrassing

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I'm a Princess customer and they've taken money from my account too. Seems to be Princess, Cunard and P&O customers affected. Will report it to the FCA.

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Just read this and the facebook page. Has anyone who paid in March not been affected or is it all accounts?

I paid a deposit and balance and I'm wondering if I will have to go to the bank tomorrow. I haven't got an online account.

Just read this and the facebook page. Has anyone who paid in March not been affected or is it all accounts?

 

I paid a deposit and balance and I'm wondering if I will have to go to the bank tomorrow. I haven't got an online account.

I would definately check with your bank. My DD paid in March has been taken but my DD paid in April is ok.

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I would definately check with your bank. My DD paid in March has been taken but my DD paid in April is ok.

 

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Thank-you.

What a pain.

The alert provides very little information and the replies on Facebook aren't much better.

 

Financial regulations and incryption requirements are pretty tight and they should never retain or be able to access this kind of information after a transaction is complete. It also begs the question who the third party is that has customers bank and credit card details? I thought we were dealing with P&O.

 

I think the PR department are going to be very busy as there are issues here beyond the money removed illegally from accounts.

 

Lots of very unhappy people.

Storing of card details entered online or over the phone are all covered by PCI DSS. P&O would have to meet these requirements.

When you purchase somthing online or even in stores, they are the merchant, they take your details but third parties then carry out the authorisation and process the payment. For small business this maybe merchant banking services offered by the bank or they may choose someone like worldpay, The Logic Group (Barclays) or similar.

Contrary to the posts of Facebook, this won't simply be a 'IT issue' and I doubt we will know who and how the mistake has been made but I can bet you that there was some very twitchy people running around at p&o and the 3rd party. Was it human error in the finance department, a coding error by IT developers or poor communication between p&o and the third party.. I doubt we will ever know but i know some people will have some difficult questions to answer.

Mistakes happen, it's unfortunate but there are safeguards in place and you should not end up out of pocket due to this error. On P&O's and the 3rd party's side they will have implemented an action plan to resolve this asap, they would be talking to the banks directly too.

Any doubt or charges, contact your bank and they will be able to advise.

Personally I can't stand the over the top reaction some people have on Facebook.

I was reading the comments on Facebook. Some people have had multi thousands made pending on their accounts..DD being refused were among the problems some were encountering. As it was 3 carnival companies (pando,cunard,princess) the problem must have been higher than just pando's . have to see how this pans out.

I was reading the comments on Facebook. Some people have had multi thousands made pending on their accounts..DD being refused were among the problems some were encountering. As it was 3 carnival companies (pando,cunard,princess) the problem must have been higher than just pando's . have to see how this pans out.

Yes, it's the knock on effects which can present the biggest problems. As you report, DDs are an issue.

I can well understand how people may be getting very worried, distressed and/or angry about this. Whilst I'm sure it will all be resolved eventually and trust there are no security issues involved, the claim of thousands of pounds from a bank account from which DDs are drawn can lead to financial embarrassment, a potential to be in default with payments and a whole lot of telephone calls and time taken to sort things out with the relevant parties.

We've had recent problems with the NS&I website which took two payments from our account after the first transaction didn't apparently go through - but subsequently did! I didn't realise until I noticed I was functioning on my overdraft! They were very understanding, accepted it was a mistake but it took 2 weeks for the money to be returned (although it was taken from my account in hours). I spent hours on the phone in total over this period. We managed to work around it but not before an overdraft charge - not enough to bother trying to reclaim but you can imagine it could cause big problems in some circumstances. I have a lot of sympathy for those caught up in it.

I suppose the reaction people have will be based on the impact it has had on them and how much mess they have to sort out as a result (missed DD,s etc)

If you only have a hold on available funds on a credit card then you will probably just wait for it to be released. If however you have a pending transaction for thousands on your debit card I can see why people would be really upset. They may have no access to money over the weekend.

I only found out about this problem on here last night and immediately checked with my bank so many thanks to the OP for the information.

I am sure that some people will only find out about the issue when they go to a cash machine today and notice an unauthorised transaction or a hold.

I don't think I would be keen to use my debit card with P&O again but the charge to use a credit card is ridiculously high.

This is the notice on the website

Just read this and the facebook page. Has anyone who paid in March not been affected or is it all accounts?

 

I paid a deposit and balance and I'm wondering if I will have to go to the bank tomorrow. I haven't got an online account.

Paid a deposit (to Princess) and only debited once.

I wonder if it was transactions for a specific date range??

Annie

Paid a deposit (to Princess) and only debited once.

 

I wonder if it was transactions for a specific date range??

 

Annie

Yes Princess are affected by the same dates as stated above December 2016 to April 2017. It is obviously a problem affecting all payments taken by Carnival UK and the 3rd party they use for payment collection.

Yes I to have been had so much for your money being safe and don't hold your breath for any compensation

Attached is the content of an email from P&O. Doesn't matter if it was reversed or not, it could still cause issues for pax

They appear to be palming customers off on their third party merchant or your bank. Not great customer service in my opinion and I still want to know why it has happened and why someone has my bank details months after a transaction.

I want to inform you that we have been notified by our third party payment processor that they incorrectly processed a pre-authorisation transaction yesterday against your card. This has been reversed overnight. As a consequence, no monies have been taken from your account. We apologise if this has caused you any concern or any inconvenience.

We are able to confirm that this was not a result of a security breach and that no personal information has been compromised.

If you have any questions or concerns regarding this matter, we recommend in the first instance you contact your bank who has been made aware of this situation. If they are not able to resolve the matter, we recommend that your bank contacts Elavon Merchant Services on this number 0345 600 0292. This information is also shown on our website at brand specific website www.pocruises.com

Kind regards

The Email that I got was different

We have been made aware of an issue with a number of historic card payments made in relation to cruise bookings on P&O Cruises. We have been informed by the third party payment processor that you are affected and we would like to apologise sincerely for any inconvenience caused.

As a result of an error made by the payment processor they have incorrectly debited a transaction against your account. The payment processor has now posted a refund to your account. The majority of banks and card providers should already be aware of this matter, however processing may take up to seven bank working days depending on your bank. We will be in touch again next week with further details as to how you can reclaim any charges you may have incurred.

We are able to confirm that this was not a result of a security breach and that no personal information has been compromised.

If you have any questions or concerns regarding this matter, we recommend in the first instance you contact your bank who has been made aware of this situation. If they are not able to resolve the matter, we recommend that your bank contacts Elavon Merchant Services on this number 0345 600 0292. This information is also shown on our website at www.pocruises.com.

We would like to apologise again for any inconvenience caused

Seems not all incorrect payments have or will be refunded promptly.

I rec'd a similar e-mail..see below...have checked my bank and there is nothing showing in or out with P&O other than a booked shore excursion from a few days back which was as expected.

Really embarrassing for P&O but it does not look like their fault....however as they chose to use the company taking the erroneous payments there will be some comeback for them to face.

I want to inform you that we have been notified by our third party payment processor that they incorrectly processed a pre-authorisation transaction yesterday against your card. This has been reversed overnight. As a consequence, no monies have been taken from your account. We apologise if this has caused you any concern or any inconvenience.

We are able to confirm that this was not a result of a security breach and that no personal information has been compromised.

If you have any questions or concerns regarding this matter, we recommend in the first instance you contact your bank who has been made aware of this situation. If they are not able to resolve the matter, we recommend that your bank contacts Elavon Merchant Services on this number 0345 600 0292. This information is also shown on our website at brand specific website www.pocruises.com

Kind regards Paul Ludlow

Senior Vice President, P&O Cruises

Just over £2700 pending to go out on my card,luckily my credit card .i imagine anyone who has had this happen on their main bank account could have all sorts of problems

I have just had the "Pending transaction" email today - thought I wasn;t affected but seems I was! Luckily I use my credit card. I checked my credit card online yesterday and I can't see pending transactions like I can on my bank account but there was an available balance so no harm done (I hope!)

As others have said if it had been on my debit card and therefore my cheque account I would have been embarrased at the shops yesterday!

I paid by debit card and the deposit I paid in March is now a pending transaction. I rang my bank they told me to ring P&O. I rang P&O who gave me a telephone number to give to my bank. I rang my bank again and they said they would fill out a dispute form.???? I had an email from P&O to say

I want to inform you that we have been notified by our third party payment processor that they incorrectly processed a pre-authorisation transaction yesterday against your card. This has been reversed overnight. As a consequence, no monies have been taken from your account. We apologise if this has caused you any concern or any inconvenience.

We are able to confirm that this was not a result of a security breach and that no personal information has been compromised.

If you have any questions or concerns regarding this matter, we recommend in the first instance you contact your bank who has been made aware of this situation. If they are not able to resolve the matter, we recommend that your bank contacts Elavon Merchant Services on this number 0345 600 0292. This information is also shown on our website at brand specific website www.pocruises.com

Kind regards

Paul Ludlow

Senior Vice President, P&O Cruises

Yet according to my account it's still pending.