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My credit card appears to have been charged twice?!?

Wayne R. Dempsey

Starting in March 2005, Pelican Parts moved to a more efficient method of charging credit cards. Previously, cards were only charged when your package was shipped. We still only charge your card when the package is shipped - never before. The exception to this rule is for special-order parts, or custom-made accessories, which require prepayment up front.

Although we do not charge your card until your order ships, we did recently add what is called a pre-authorization step. We basically take your credit card and run a request to the bank to see if the bank will approve it or deny it. This pre-authorization then allocates funds with your bank so that we your package ships, the authorization is automatically removed.

Occassionally, the system may perform an additional authorization. Let's say for example that you place an order for $100 and then call the next day to add one $20 item to your order. The new total would be $120. Pre-authorizations only work for the original amount authorized, so we would then have to charge your card for a new charge of $120. This would then show a pre-authorization of $100, and a charge of $120. On some statements, this looks suspiciously like two charges, but in reality, it is only one single charge. The first, existing pre-authorization disappears off of your account in a few days (this time period is highly dependent upon the bank that issued your credit card).