Pay-as-you-go debit card

gives you a Prepaid Maestro Card 1.99p a month fee

talksport do one which looks to be pretty cheap (I assume wanting recommendations was your unstated question?)

Most cases of fraud with credit cards on the net do not originate from the card being used on the net initially. They originate from the credit card details being obtained in some way, and then the net being used as the mechanism to use them. Dont imagine that just because you never use a credit card on the net, its soemhow immune to its details being captured by dishonest shop staff, discarded bills, or numerous other means that are nothing to do with the internet. Bought any petrol at a Shell station for example? Hada meal at a restaurant?

If thats your worry, any credit card will protect you against fraudulent use (why worry _just_ about fraudulent use on the net?) but you can get ones which provide explicit protection, for example barclaycard and marbles.

for a mastercard but you'll need ID to get one or as someone else suggested (I didn't need ID but might have changed now).

I'm not worried about ID; what worries me is having my card charged for something I have not agreed to.

Hotels seem to have negotiated a special deal with credit card companies by which they can charge your card what they like without having to agree the details with you in advance. This is presumably to cover themselves against people who book rooms and then don't turn up.

I booked into a Holiday Inn over the phone. I was given the price for the room and asked for my card number which was fair enough. When I checked in at the hotel, the girl at reception asked me to sign an open authorisation on my card to cover "drinks I may order from the bar or food from the restaurant or any damage that may happen to my room". All I wanted was a room for the night but she refused to give me my key until I signed the open authorisation although this was not mentioned when I booked the room over the phone.

It occurred to me that this gave a dishonest member of staff carte blanche to charge my card for anything whether I had had it or not and I should then have the hassle of sueing the hotel to get my money back.

If I had a card whose credit was limited to the amount I had deposited with the card company, I could have booked the room and when asked for the open authorisation, tendered the card with the limited credit and if the hotel tried to charge it more than I'd agreed, they'd get nowhere till I had added more funds.

It's "shoot first and ask questions later" as far as the hotel is concerned.

I'm afraid a prepay would be worse then because they will have already taken your money, like a debit card. At least with a credit card you can refuse to pay it rather than worry about getting your cash back,

Sorry I hadn't read your post correctly, you'd only be loading the card for the exact amount when needed, I see.

Whether you booked in via the phone is irrelevant. This is standard practice, they may well not have actually charged you at the time of booking, but upon checkout. Not normally a problem, but in theory it could tip you over your credit limit before its refunded, especially if you are staying in the hotel for some time so they makea big reservation. They dont actually 'charge' your card as such, its more like 'reserving' the money, so you dont see an amount charged and then cancelled on your statement.

No different to you absconding with the tv in the room I suppose.

And they might decide they didnt want you as a customer, since you might be looking to bunk off without paying, especially if they didnt actually charge you until you checked out. The reason for asking for your card number was probably in case you later didnt turn up rather than to charge you straight away.Normally when I book hotels, the credit card is only booked at the time if its via a third party, like a booking agency. Book direct with the hotel and they only charge you when you check out unless itsa real cheap place, maybe? Did this happen in your case?

I believe it is standard practise in most hotels to get authorisation for the room rate plus a percentage to cover bar and room service bills. This amount is placed on hold by your bank until you check out and the final bill is known. If you use a prepay card with the exact amount of the bill loaded onto it the authorisation is unlikely to be sucessful. Indeed, section 4.6 of the 360money terms and condtions specifically mentions this

Unless you do a runner (or use express checkout) you'll be given a copy of all the charges to your room then anyway and on, the very few, ocassions I've noticed a discrepency its always been rectified without question. (in fact there have been far more discrepencies in my favor that i've kept quiet about). You have to sign for any thing you charge to your room anyway so it would be easy to disprove false charges.

Peter

OP would get nowhere, or certainly not into the hotel, as below!

In fact, reading those, it doesnt seem such a rosy picture for these cards as you might think, eg forget about putting the exact amount in beforehand, or even the amount being immediately deducted (example, buy on Amazon, card deducted when goods despatched, might be several days later)

The OP should just get a credit card with a good online guarantee if thats his worry. In fact he should get that anyway since even if *he* doesn't use his credit card on the net, fraudsters might!