American Express Users, input needed

[cheetahwind]

So it would seem as if there is a new processor that has propped up, and is now double posting transactions.

They post the first transaction to my prepaid account like they normally would, but instead of using the original transaction. They force a second transaction thru, that ends up settling.

Now this wouldn't be an issue if was a regular credit card. Yet this issue has been going on for a solid month. I guess at this point, I'm just collecting data if any other American Express users, whether your on the credit card side or prepaid side. Have been experiencing this issue.

The original transaction that sits in pending, always fall off 8 days later. Yet it's just annoying that I either A, have to reimburse my prepaid card for the overdraft, plus whatever I want to play. If I want to continue using the card. Which of course that transaction will more than likely overdraft as well.

I'm just more paranoid eventually there going to shut my card down. Being consistently over drafted for almost a solid month. Minus the day or two, where I have just put fresh funds on there. Waiting for them to reforce a settlement.

I guess I would name a casino that has this issue, but right now I have an e-mail popped off to them. Asking if they could get this issue fixed. So until I get some resolution or not, I'm not going to name them.

I just hate using my visa card, because of the foreign transaction fee, and the load fee that I incur everytime I load. Compared to my Amex prepaid that has no fees what so ever.

Anywho, if anyone has any ideas, all suggestions welcomed.

 

[randomiam]

try something else

if its causing a months issue to your credit card even debit credit load up money into money bookers or ecopayz or the best one available for you country if the casino seems abit dodgy or you getting double tapped id consider this and stop depositing directly in aus you can get ecocard or ecocard and moneybookers card in uk means you can pull your cash out at any atm just my solution and view

 

[dunover]

This is bad processing. It used to happen here in the UK, whereby the vendor 'dips' your card for the amount of the attempted transaction (this debit clears in a working day in the UK usually) and then re-inputs the transaction when it does take place. So your available credit reduces by double the amount it should until the first 'dip' is wiped off. This is taking far too long in your case and causing grief. The processor needs a kick up the jacksy for this. There is little you can do bar using a Visa or alternative form of payment, until the casino processes in a way that doesn't require a horse and Stetson.

 

[Mousey]

Cheeta, I'm getting this too on my prepaid. And, like you, it eventually results in in an 'overdraft', which prompts an alert email, then days later the doppelganger transaction disappears. Now, I don't like using my Amex 'there' as this has happened 2 or 3 times and I don't like these overdrafts which are drawing attention to my account - if you know what I mean.

*sigh* If it's not one thing it's another for USA players... and all the choices suck. LOL

just to add: This double charge thing very, very rarely happens with my Visa prepaid. But always with the Amex at a certain casino.

 

[silcnlayc]

It has happened to me 3 times last week of double posting at the same casino. Never had happened before. Casino reimbursed the funds into my casino account to make it right.

.

 

[pmutts]

It happened to me at JPC--but KUDOS to JPC for their handling.

First and foremost, I want to commend JPC for the way they handled this matter.

I got the Amex BB Card about a year ago. I'm not sure exactly how but a deposit to JPC for about $50 did not actually post to the card account until 2 or 3 weeks after I made it causing the card to have a negative balance.

I received a couple of emails from Amex that I needed to load funds to cover the transaction. Since I had all but quit using this card due to lack of acceptance at so most places I play loading money on the card was not exactly a priority for me.

About a month after I was alerted of the negative balance, I called Amex to ask them if loading funds would result in making the card good to use once again. I was told I needed to make the deposit within 3 business days and I told them I would try.

I missed their 3 "Business"day deadline by ONE day and was going to go that day but wanted to check with them first. When I called I got a very snotty ahole of a guy who basically said the account was closed and not to bother with the deposit and my card account was closed.

I thought nothing further about it since I really had very little use for the card anyway.

Then about two months--A FULL SIX MONTHS AFTERWARD--I received an email from JPC informing me of a charge back for roughly $50 that stated my account was locked until I explained why this occurred.

I replied to the email explaining what had occurred with the card. I fully expected that I would need to make a deposit to cover the amount AMEX charged back without my knowledge. To my complete surprise, they promptly replied that they had unlocked my account and it would be unnecessary for me to worry about reimbursement.

So, again I compliment JPC as this is an example of truly excellent customer service--going above and beyond for a regular "loser" on their site.

As for the Amex prepaid card--I think you know where I think they can shove it.

 

[cheetahwind]

No I totally understand, they've made Amex prepaid cards practically easy to overdraw. The authorization hold time, doesn't sufficiently account for the fact that sometimes foreign transactions take a while to post. Therefore making authorization hold times expire relatively easily. Yet generally I don't spend the money that expires, for the reason I don't want to deal with paying back an over draft. I did enough of that when I was 18 with my first checking account.

On either note, really the issue I'm dealing with here doesn't exactly have much to do with the authorization hold times. As much as the processor isn't able to apparently process transactions right.

I'll agree with Sic and Mousey. Up until about a month ago, I really never had any issues. The transactions would post the card immediately. Then a few days to a week later. Would go from pending to complete. No overdraws, no issues.

Plus I've enjoyed the fact I can load my card with cash or debit card without any fees. There isn't a monthly fee or foreign transaction fee. So the card itself is a breath of fresh air compared to other prepaid Visa and Mastercard products out there.

I tried a local bank for a while, but apparently places like China, India, Cyprus, and the Philippines isn't directly consider kosher places for me to spend my money. It ended up causing me more headaches than it was worth to save the few bucks I was by not loading a prepaid card. Mainly because of having to fill out paperwork, stating I'm waiving my rights to the fraud liability, informing them yes I made the charges, and of the such.

So now essentially, there getting pre-approval that I have the funds in my account. Yet instead of using the same authorization number, there forcing a second transaction thru to my card that completes immediately. Causing my card to overdraw, because of the forced transaction that didn't use the same authorization number.

To add insult to injury, I got a ummm not very nice e-mail from finance. Telling me there isn't any issue with the processor, I got the credit I was due. Therefore there really isn't anything to investigate. That the transaction really didn't cause an overdraft. Apparently I looked at my statement at the wrong time and it was just a formality on my bank communication with there bank.

So if the pending transaction should have fallen off, why is it 24 hours later I'm still stuck with a negative balance. Stating that I've purposely overdrafted my card. Plus not once during my e-mail did I ask for a credit or a freebie or any sort. All I was stating that there was an issue with there current Amex processor.

So shortly after that e-mail, I got an e-mail from host. Asking me a few more questions, which I responded to. Then he assured me they'll look into what's going on with the processor so it doesn't happen again.

So I guess at this point, I'm confused. Finance is telling me case closed, yet the VIP host is willing to look into it. So I'm not sure whether I should be expecting something positive to happen or not. Either way this whole ordeal has left me a bad taste in my mouth about this particular casino.

I understand really Visa, is about the only real way casinos know how to efficiently process transactions. Yet if your going to offer other options, they had better work flawlessly too, or else you should just say. Apparently this option isn't working too well, lets just pull it. I guess no using my American Express for another 8 days because of this whole ordeal.

 

[vinylweatherman]

This is also bad business practice for the casinos. Every time their processor screws things up, the oddities draw attention to that players account with the card company. This is the complete opposite of trying to stay below the radar. Normally, a customer could be open and frank with their card provider as to why they have ended up overdrawn, but that would not only drop them right in it, but the casinos too. In the end, the US banks will cotton to this particular pattern of processing as an indication that these are gambling transactions disguised as regular overseas purchases, and thus understand why their customers paid the charges rather than make a big fuss.

One possible consequence can be seen above. Amex decided to close the account rather than wait a 4th day for their customer to put funds on the card. Also, it must have been pretty obvious to AMEX that there were loads of "identical twin" transactions causing the problem, and that this is simply not how a regular person would use a card, and certainly a regular person would be raising hell over this with AMEX, and quit using the merchant responsible. It doesn't take too much thinking to come to the conclusion that on the balance of probabilities, the customer is making miscoded gambling transactions, and knows full well what they are doing. they thus make the odd decision to write off the $50 overdraft after a mere 4 days, even though in the past the customer has ALWAYS settled up. They then pull back the funds from the merchant without reference to the customer.

They can't prove they are gambling transactions, but by letting the customer continue to make good on the short term phantom shortfalls by adding extra credit they risk falling foul of UIGEA as they could be judged to have "known what was going on", thus falling foul of "knowingly permitting transactions related to illegal gambling".

The bigger picture is that the banks catch on more quickly, and shut down yet another route for deposits, along with tightening up procedures as seen elsewhere where banks have told customers that in general certain types of transaction will no longer be allowed, whether or not they are related to illegal gambling.

Rather than brushing off complaints, casinos need to act quickly to force their processing back under the radar BEFORE any actual loss, or processor shut down, results.

 

[Mousey]

Here's what I think happens... MHO only because who really knows how this processing crap works?...

When I make a deposit at RTGs, put all the numbers in, then I'm taken to a screen with a red 'processing' bar that fills from left to right. If I use AmX, when it fills the first time, the screen refreshes and begins again, then usually it does it a 3rd time. I think it tries 3 different 'processors' or codes and one of them 'takes' and I get the money into my account. However, at least one other of those 'tries' that didn't go thru shows up on my card anyway. It will eventually drop off, but meanwhile, it may make my account 'short'.

I won't be using the Amex anymore. Not for casinos. Too much attention being drawn to my account. Just a reminder, we're talking about a prepaid here, which really shouldn't allow transactions that make a shortfall in the account in the first place. And as Mutts mentioned, these cards are not above pulling funds back ('chargebacks') on their own - especially if the charge is an exact duplicate of another in the space of a couple minutes.

 

[Mousey]

Here's a recent example:


Nov 17, 2013 $75.66 store purchase xxxxxxx Complete

sending Nov 16, 2013 $75.66 online purchase yyyyyyy Pending

Different dates listed, exact same amount, different 'store' listed. But I made only one deposit.

I am presently $25 in the red in my prepaid account till the pending falls off (hopefully).

Sadly this has happened at a casino where it usually does not occur. These pendings really makes a mess of my card account. **heavy sigh**

 

[anniemac]

I haven't had this happen with one of my cards in a while and I use Visa and Amex prepaids.

However, I only put enough on my card for one deposit at a time. I know this costs me more money but I don't have to worry about double dipping or strange charges. I haven't ever had my cards overdrawn like that since I quit using Netspend. Sometimes the foreign charge will get me for a buck or two but no large amounts.

I did have a disappearing deposit the other day. Made the deposit, went thru fine, didn't show up. Had to wait until next morning for finance to fix it but it was fixed.

Depositing at an online casino is like shooting craps. You just toss the dice and see what rolls up. LOL!

 

[cheetahwind]

Mine is the same descriptor, just different dates, but the same amount.

 

[mush]

I only really play at one casino these days, CW, and I haven't been able to get a deposit to go through there with my AMEX in several months. I continue to get the annoying "pre-authorized" screen every single time. If anyone knows a way to use AMEX that I'm obviously unaware of please shoot me a message and clue me in on what I'm missing. Thanks!!