Think you’ve been charged in error for a booking made with your credit / debit card on our APP?

Please read below before contacting us

New Banking regulations mean that any debit or credit cards used for making bookings on our APP must be pre authorised at the time of booking a journey. This is done by your bank / payment provider. This is to reduce fraud and to improve security for customers and means that we can inform you at the time of booking whether you have sufficient funds available to pay for the booking or whether you need to pay by a different method. You will have received an email from us when you made your booking explaining this process.

How does this affect me?

When you book or attempt to book on the APP there is a pre-authorisation made on your card for a slightly higher amount than the journey is estimated to be - this is not an actual charge, and no money leaves your account, but the funds are held as a pending transaction in your account to be used at the end of the journey once it has been completed.

• The actual fare is charged to your card only when the booking is complete.
• If your booking does not go through for any reason, we release our “hold” on this preauthorised amount and it should vanish from your account. This can happen instantly, or may take a few days to do so – the length of time depends on who you bank with.
• If you make any changes to your booking, such as destination or pick up time, you may see a second preauthorisation on your card. This second preauthorisation hold is also cancelled by fonaCAB when the journey completes or is cancelled, and again the time taken for it to disappear from your statement depends on who you bank with.
• The preauthorisation amount is held in your account, not with fonaCAB. Only your actual fare leaves your account when the booking completes. Because the preauthorised amount is never taken by fonaCAB we cannot make a refund as we never received the amount in the first place.

Why are both the pre-authorisation amount and the final fare showing on my statement?

This can happen if your bank does not update your statement or release the preauthorisation immediately but don’t worry, this should correct itself.

How long will it take for the preauthorisation amount to vanish from my statement?

If you are still seeing any preauthorisations on your account more than five working days after your booking you should contact your card provider as they are the ones controlling the preauthorisation release, not fonaCAB, and we are unable to speed this process up How long this takes varies depending on who you bank with. As an estimate, online banks tend to release funds more quickly (can be instantly but can be up to one day). Traditional bricks and mortar banks seem to take longer (between one and five working days) with Danske Bank among the ones who take the longest.

Has this answered your query?

We hope this has answered your query, but if you still have questions, please complete the contact box on this page or email the details of your booking, including your name, telephone number associated with your account, and booking reference number if you have one to customerservice@fonacab.com and we will investigate further. Thank you.