Just got the VISA statement

[question everything]

and a relative expensive dinner from August - was a special occasion - is still not posted.

Shall I go to the restaurant and tell them? Would they rather not know since they've already closed their August book?

Normally I would, but this large sum these days... it is too tempting to just ignore it.

My concern is more the tip that we added to the invoice. If they did not enter it then the server did not get his tip.

What would you do?

[LiberalHeart]

1. I'd tell them...

...but then I'm the person who went back to a store and told them when they undercharged me for something. They had no procedure in place for correcting undercharges; they said nobody had ever come back to them to tell them they hadn't paid enough. It took a conference with three employees to figure out how I could give them more money.

Recently a vendor credited my card with $75 for absolutely no reason. I let them know, too. Turned out they'd meant to credit it to someone else.

[petronius]

2. Are you sure it didn't sneak onto the August or September statement?

I've had times when I thought a charge didn't go through, but it was just on the cusp between two cycles...

[question everything]

6. Yes, I am sure. I use quicken where everything is recorded

and when I get the statements I reconcile the Quicken ledger.

But your suggestion of a cusp makes sense. The charge was on the same day as the closing date on the cycle - on a weekend, even.

So it is possible that the restaurant did submit it and VISA kinda lost it in between but still paid the restaurant.

[jobycom]

3. It may still show up.

When a vendor runs an approval, it still takes several days to a couple of weeks before the amount shows on the ticket.So if it's from August, it may have posted in September, just after your last statement cut-off. Happens sometimes.

One way to tell is to calculate your available credit against your posted balance. The amount would have been deducted from your available credit already, even if it does not show on your actual charges. If charges and balance match, maybe it is missing.

Have you checked the online postings to see if it's posted after your last statement?

And yeah, I'd contact the restaurant, too, if it really has been lost. Just the way I am. Someone could be in trouble over the charge already. A lot of things can happen to make a charge go astray. I worked for a hotel once where we had to enter a number manually on a certain transaction--rather large one. The clerk miskeyed the number, and actually managed to enter a valid number--just not the number of the customer. So a couple of months later the charge was challenged, and we lost a bit of money on it. We eventually found the right customer, contacted him, and got the charge taken care of, but it was a lot of work.

So, that's that. :)

[Gormy Cuss]

4. If it happened to me, I'd first check with the cc company.

It may have been posted too late to meet the cutoff for the current cycle. I've had charges show up as much as three months after the fact. I can check my pending charges online now but before I set that up customer service was always willing to do the look up.

If that didn't resolve the issue, I'd contact the restaurant and ask. It's always tempting to hope that I wouldn't have to pay a big charge but I figure that if I owe it I have an obligation to pay whether it be now or later and I'd rather pay it now than have it hanging over my head for some future period.

[mwooldri]

5. Seconded.

The credit card (CC) company *should* have access to the authorization system, to see if the card was ever ran through. If it was, then you can relax - you've done your part, presented the card and prepared yourself to make a payment. Merchants have up to a year (at least with the CC I work for they do) to submit their charges, so if it was authorized that's OK, even if the hold has dropped off ages ago.

If there never was an authorization on file, then certainly go back to the restaurant and ask them to re-run the card. And keep your statements and records for a year... if the charge does then appear a second time you then of course can dispute it.

Mark.

[question everything]

7. Thanks. Just checked with the credit card and they have no record of it

and it was more than two months ago.

I guess I will call the restaurant. As I've posted above, I've always done this and am embarrassed that it is so tempting to ignore...