We had a similar situation where a travel agency charged us twice for one trip. It took months for the travel agency to give us our money back and we disputed with our credit card company. Thankfully both charges were in the same amount and the credit card company immediately agreed with us it was the travel agency's error.

In the future, yes, do only book by credit card as the cc company will be the go between for you.

The credit card company told me that travel agencies are known to "double charge" travelers when they are in financial difficulty. Not surprisingly this ta went under less than a year of my problem. Expedia is doing well, seems more like bad customer service.

I would cancel completely and rebook somewhere else. Finally, you can always file a complaint through the Better Business Bureau, Expedia has to respond in seven days and if they don't you can get a ruling in your favor in which Expedia has to comply by default.

in the middle of all that you mention that $400 was on your cc and $200 was on your debit card and the next day $600 was taken from you checking acct.

Did the $400 show up on your cc statement?? You don't mention whether the $400 cc/$200 Debit card were posted. But your case is muddied because the two billings are not identical. Instead of trying to get the $600 reversed, have you tried getting the $400/$200 reversed.

Sorry, I didn't explain that accurately.

The total charge was much more than any of the amounts you mentioned janisj.

The $600 referred only to the portion of the trip that was charged to my debit card. The rest was charged to my credit card and went through without difficulty.

It was the $600 that was charged a second time...on my debit card only.

Sorry for the confusion! I tried to avoid posting the full prices in order to AVOID confusion. ...so much for that - d'oh. ;)

travelinwifey - I can't believe that you learned that travel companies sometimes double-charge when they are suffering financially!!

Is that information that has been reported elsewhere or did you only hear it from the musings of your credit card rep?

I'm curious because that is extremely uncool.

I empathize with your payment problems. I have heard, not read, that certain wineries will also put the double whammy in so that they carry "credit" numbers for certain short periods. By the time it gets straightened out, they may be further showing in the clear- black.

netizenbane, I have no idea who you are and despite you hating baseball (I think I infer this from the other thread- but I have been wrong before)- I still like you.

Good job on supporting yourself against the usual new person/poster onslaught of questionings. You are righteous and fair in your ponderings upon running the gauntlet. And in your answers- you hold and assume good intent.

netizenbane, welcome to Fodors. May you return and tell us of your more happy escapades.

WOW! That's a difficult situation to be charged twice with no help from the bank. I know my credit card will fight the charges, as for the debit card... Sounds like my bank would refuse any responsibilities :)

Reading the European website often, I saw posts there about credit cards charged twice.

RE: credit vs. debit: was it a signature visa/MC-branded debit, or PIN debit? If it was run as a Visa/MC transaction, you should have been able to dispute the charge with the CC company. (If that is wrong, someone please enlighten me!)

I use a PayPal debit and their online statements confuse me. Instead of just listing actual debits, they list the autorizations a couple times, and finally the debit. As far as I can tell I haven't had any double charges. But it's confusing to read the statement and try to decipher it. I'd wonder if you weren't just seeing both the authorization and debit on your account, but the fact that your account went into the negative tells otherwise! Egads.

Good luck.

And thanks for being understanding about all the scrutiny. This is a great community that is fiercely loyal to one another (or to most, LOL) and quite protective of the integrity of the site and the information shared here. You'll often see posts fishing for information as your original post did, but the author has different motives than you did. Welcome!

Sorry for the big mess, Netizenbane. Everyone's welcome on the forum. It's just first posts of complaint are often met with skepticism. And your wording was kind of strange, quite honestly (asking about getting booked to the wrong country, etc.).

Lessons learned? Book with a credit card. Book direct to the airline or hotel, not a middle-man travel website.

Hi Netizenbane, it was the Citibank credit card company representative that told me the info. It was really true because like I said the company went under not long after. It took about 3-4 months for the travel agency to give the money back, kept giving me the run around, "you'll have it, you'll have it". It was strange because I used them for over a year. It was a local company that sold consolidator rooms for Las Vegas and Hawaii. I found them recommended in a travel magazine. But this was several years back.

Ps, I also drove to the travel agency in person to get the refund which I think made a difference, but unfortunately you aren't able to do so.

I don't use the sites at all (for booking purposes). They cost more than booking direct. I only use them to check itins. & prices.

Yes xrae, it was indeed a visa/MC-branded debit card. I wasn't aware one could take up a dispute with the credit card company represented on a debit card though. Is that true?

Thanks to everyone for the advice and for screening and policing the site. It was indeed a gauntlet of sorts, but I'm sure it gets old hearing people sign up only to pop on, complain and then *poof*

Thanks also to Doug_Stallings for participating in the thread.

The perspective of a site administrator was a further comfort that the community is solid here...and that it is supported by the good folk at Fodor's itself.

Cheers all...

Oh and hey JJ5 - I don't <i>hate</i> golf, I'm just not fond of it. And truthfully I just couldn't figure out a better example at the time! ;)