Can't buy a plane ticket with a debit card -- why not?

Factual Questions
1

My mother-in-law recently tried to buy a round-trip plane ticket to Hawaii from Orbitz. However, when she entered her Visa number, the transaction was refused because it’s a Visa debit card, not a Visa credit card.

I know that most car rental places won’t let you use a Visa debit card to secure your rental, but I don’t know why you couldn’t use a debit card to purchase plane tickets – you’ve agreed to a set price, and you either have that in your account or you don’t.

I don’t know if the “no debit card for plane tickets” policy is exclusive to Orbitz, or if other online travel agencies have the same policy. It’s especially odd because the FAQ at Orbitz says that debit cards should work, but when my MIL talked to an agent, she said that they never take debit cards for ticket purchases.

Anyone know more about why this policy is in place? I don’t mean to start a thread complaining about Orbitz – they’re entitled to whatever payment restrictions they want, although it’d be nice if they were more clearly marked…

2

I have a Master Card debit card, and have never had problems getting plane tickets or car reservations with it. I usually use Expedia, though.

3

I purchase tix on USAir all the time with my debit card.

However, I deal with them directly (via phone or their website) and not a middleman (Orbitz).

4

I’ve bought a number of airline tickets with a debit card, including third party tickets. All of them have been purchased via various ticket broker services. So I’m guessing this must be a policy exclusive to Orbitz.

5

I’m pretty sure I’ve bought plane tickets with a debit card before, so I’m not surprised to hear that it’s probably an Orbitz-only policy.

So does anyone know why Orbitz would have this policy? It just doesn’t make any sense to me – why make it harder for people to give you money? They’ll probably lose the ticket sale to my MIL, who doesn’t want to put the ticket on a regular credit card.

6

Does your mother-in-law have a limit on her debit card? I found out that my bank put a $250 limit per transaction on my card when I tried to buy $275 worth of merchandise at Home Depot.

7

'Spossible. In fact, I was pretty sure the problem was due to her bank, rather than Orbitz – until she talked to someone at Orbitz who said that debit cards were just plain no good.

Of course, the person she talked to at Orbitz may have been misinformed.

I’ll have her talk to her bank; I’d at least like to be grousing about the correct company.

8

And some of the debit cards are set up differently it seems.

Mine does not check my balance… It just approves. I cannot run my account negative with an ATM card, but could with this card.

9

I’ve purchased plane tickets, hotel room reservations, etc. on my debit card, not sure what the problem was for your MIL.

I have a daily amount I can spend no matter how much I have in my account so that could be the problem. I have never tried to rent a car on it though, I suspect if I can buy airline ticks and reserve and pay for a hotel she has some odd rule on her account.

BTW, I bought my tickets directly from United, not through Orbitz.

10

America West had that policy also at one point in time. (I haven’t tried to buy tickets through their site with a debit card in a while, though.) I had no idea why, though, but it isn’t just Orbitz.

11

I’ve bought tickets from Travelocity with a Visa debit card.

12

I can tell you that it is just not a good idea to use a debit card for travel expenses.

While airline expenses are cut and dry, hotels are another story. We get at least three calls a week from people who have used their debit cards to guarentee their rooms and then pay cash or with another credit card when they check out. Unless you have a ton of money in your account, you will be overdrawn. Hotels go out and get authorization on a card for the amount of your entire stay (estimated) this places a hold on your debit/credit card and with a debit card makes those funds unavailable for you to use. So you check out, you pay with another card, it can still be up to ten working days before that hold is released from your debit card. This means checks are bouncing, your unhappy, the bank is piling on fees and well, the accounting department at the hotel can only do so much for ya. And some days I don’t have much sympathy either, we put it in big bold letters on the registration card that we discourage the use of debit cards as a payment method. Oh well.

I can’t think of any reason why an airline wouldn’t accept a debit card, but remember, mistakes happen and the cash will get sucked out of your account pretty quickly and getting it back can be a real pain.

Just a helpful little tip from the hotel accountant :slight_smile:

13

I don’t know the specifics, so this is just what I remember.

Debit cards don’t work exactly the same way that a credit card does, even if it does have the Visa or Mastercard logo on it.

IIRC, they are generally unable to confirm the billing address, as there is actually none. Some banks may be set up differently and it may not be a policy of companies, but the way your bank responds when information regarding the card is requested. In theory, they are the same, but in practice a banks implimentation may fall short.

Then again, I could have it all wrong, it’s been a while since I looked into it.

14

Quite a few places do that Jane, not just hotels. And yeah, it’s a bitch if it’s your debit card because they can start charging you overdraft fees if the authorized amount ties up all your funds.

For example-

-$500.00 Checking balance-

Hotel rate of $250.00 a night.

Great, you think, I still have $250.00 in the account! Woo-hoo!!

Wrong.

Hotel authorizes and freezes $500.00 just in case you cause damage. They freeze it for a day or two or until they realize you’re a good person and don’t trash hotel rooms. In the meantime, you continue to write checks and whatnot against the $250.00 that’s left in the account, assuming all is OK.

Anything you write on that amount- until the hotel unfreezes that $250.00 buffer they put on the card- is overdrawn funds and it’ll cost 'ya.

Sucks. And yes, it’s happened to me before too, so be carefull.

I also want to comment on what frankhoma said- he’s dead on.

That’s something you should check out and change before you run into problems. In my case, with a couple different accounts, all had a max daily spending limit of either $200 or $250.

I’ve had it explained to me that’s it’s for my protection, but it isn’t- it’s for the banks protection.

My problem was I didn’t have that changed (A simple call or visit to the bank can have that amount upped to whatever it is you want, at least in my case with my different banks) and I was stuck trying to get the amount upped when I was in a bind and out of town.

It’s a lot harder trying to do it last minute and up against the wall, as it were, than doing or checking it out beforehand.

  • Obviously, your own experiences may vary, but best to be safe.
15

“IIRC, they are generally unable to confirm the billing address, as there is actually none.”

I don’t think this is correct. I have a Mastercard debit card, and once when I was purchasing something on-line, the merchant’s website specifically said it was checking the address I gave against the one on my Mastercard account. It kicked it back because I entered my new ZIP code while the bank & Mastercard still had the old ZIP. When I re-entered my address with the old ZIP, the transaction went through.

16

So apparantly Orbitz does take debit cards. At least sometimes.

I got home last night and found out that my MIL just tried again, entering her debit Visa number the same way as last time – and the charge went through. She’s getting the tickets, no hassle, no fuss, no muss.

Strange. I’d chalk the whole thing up to computer error. The conversation with a customer service person who didn’t know what she was talking about was just a red herring. I guess.

Thanks for the theories, though!

17

I’m one of the ones who prefer debit card to credit card. It has a $400 a day limit which can be a pain buying appliances,
etc, but it’s something I can live with.

However, when travelling recently I tried to get a car at Avis. They set my reservation up OK, but when it came time to rent the car
they informed me it was “against company policy” to accept debit cards. In their favor, they did get me a reservation with
another rental company, but still it bugs me that they couldn’t have mentioned this little fact at the time I made the reservation.