Quick hotel question!!

Hopefully someone can help....I'm wanting to pay for a hotel room with cash but the place is telling me they need a credit card on file. I can't leave a paper trail for obvious reasons.
The question I have is, when you give them a card to put on file for incidentals, does it appear online, or is there any notification sent out that the card has been put on file.
My wife handles the money and I can't risk her seeing it show up online....even if I don't get charged for anything and pay in cash.

Any thoughts and ideas would be helpful

Buy a prepaid Vanilla Visa. They are sold almost everywhere.

Your financial institution will put a hold for incidentals for x amount of days and your wife is gonna see it.
Go buy and load a prepaid card and use that. Don't buy a gift card get a prepaid card cause some of them look similar

Your financial institution will put a hold for incidentals for x amount of days and your wife is gonna see it.
Go buy and load a prepaid card and use that. Don't buy a gift card get a prepaid card cause some of them look similar Originally Posted by Seeking ~P

Took the words out of my mouth!
YES it will show up on your banking statement, so dont use your own card.
DO NOT get a Vanilla Visa. Ive been to 39 states and more hotels than I could count, and Ive never been to one that takes those.
GOOD LUCK if you get a prepaid one, alot of hotels do not take those either. But some do and thats for sure your best bet.
Pay attention to which one you buy, there are a few that make you wait 24 hours until your funds are available after activating.

Good Luck and Happy Hobbying!

Hmmm, I've used the vv multiple with no issues. I overloaded it with much much more than the cost of room and whatever incidental hold the hotel charged. I prebooked room online with vv and had to show same card at check-in. Maybe it depends on hotel ??? I only used the vv for booking hotel rooms and never have used for any other purpose so I know there weren't any other pending charges on the card

Thank you guys for the input!!
It's much appreciated !!

Find a provider that has incall.

my experience is the hold never shows on the statement but it might show in the live page if you log in on the web.

but ditto on the prepaid or gift.....not sure why gift won't work.


trivia....i learned long ago about statement details. i bought a plane ticket for a civi...using Expedia. later when i read my cc statement, the flight details and her passport name were in the purchase description

and obviously that item is still in my Expedia account.

since then, I've made a hobby expedia account and power it with prepaid visa. the nicer part is that even when i buy intentional stuff with Expedia, the transaction is usa so a gift card works. i do have to list a traveler name but it is always the woman....not mine.

eventually, I'll have lying and cheating mastered......except some of you nosey whores already know who i am.....or was.

I've also used a vanilla visa many times to book hotels. I've only been turned down once or twice, but I had a back up card. Maybe you could get yourself something reloadable, like a ? I've never had any issues using green dot.

Hmmm, I've used the vv multiple with no issues. I overloaded it with much much more than the cost of room and whatever incidental hold the hotel charged. I prebooked room online with vv and had to show same card at check-in. Maybe it depends on hotel ??? I only used the vv for booking hotel rooms and never have used for any other purpose so I know there weren't any other pending charges on the card Originally Posted by Seeking ~P

You can definitely book and pay for room with them online (Vanilla Visa) but I've never been to 4 star hotel that would take a card with No name (Vanilla Visa) for incidentals. Shit I stay at 3 1/2 star hotels sometimes and everytime they've never taken one of those either.
Then again I learned that lesson years ago and maybe things have changed, but I doubt it. If you're okay with staying at like 3 star or below Hotels, Im sure you could use one there.

Also some people mentioned Green Dot Cards..
When you first buy them at the store, obviously there is no name on it. But when you register it, they send you a permanent card in the mail with your name on it. If you could pull that off (send it to your office or something) then you'd have a separate CC no one knew existed, that you could load with cash however much you needed (you buy refill cards at same places that sell gift cards)and could actually use it at any hotel then.

Hope that helps!

Most locally owned hotels will take cash but will get needed information from a credit card.

I've used my personal credit card to secure a room and pay cash, and it will show up when I look at my bank account online for a couple days it shows up then goes away after a few days. It never shows up on my printed statement, and my wife doesn't look at online statement so I've been ok. There are a couple cheap motels in town that take cash only but they are run down but clean inside but ratty.
I think I'm going to look at the green dot card Candi is talking about.....

I think I'm going to look at the green dot card Candi is talking about..... Originally Posted by weebbadd

You definitely should!

Checked into a hotel today via hotels.com which I had paid for with Green Dot. The hotel wanted a credit card for incidentals and the Green Dot was perfect for that. Had to load more money onto the card yesterday and accomplished that easily at CVS. Can also be done at Walgreens, Walmart, K Mart, etc.
Candi is correct. Wish I had discovered Green Dot long ago.

One downside with Green Dot is they charge a fee each month (recently increased to $7 something) if you have less than $1000 on the card. But it is worth to me because it keeps my transactions private.