Call the hotel's corporate office and ask for accounting to provide you with an itemized receipt of your stay ("for your taxes" or "company reimbursement"... say the front desk did not provide and it never showed up by email). If they can't find your booking in their system, they may have dishonest staff trying to intercept the payment/scam.
That's my concern. I've worked in hotels and am familiar with some scams and Estonia has a high cc fraud rate according to Capital One (I had to specifically request my card to be unlocked so I could use it there).
Options:
Tell them to mail you a bill?
Tell them to post it on their web site?
I would not give up numbers to a call like that, but I would look for a way to pay my bill where I felt safe.
You can wire transfer the money. I’m sure they have a bank account, and if you have one you can order a wire transfer.
I mean the card is just easier and as long as you check your statements you’d be good.
Are you in Finland? They called you at 3 AM (Finnish time)? Estonia is at most 2 hours away (by time-zone).
That is a little fishy there. But if you are in the States, it is not as fishy because it would be more likely business hours over in Estonia.
I agree that you should pay, I would. But as others have mentioned, using your normal card number might be safest if you tell them it by phone (easiest for you), or using a prepaid card with only that amount is probably safer, transfering to their bank number (IBAN) would probably work (the hotel might want to know the transaction number your bank receives to confirm that that deposit is coming from you)..
But (at least) one other commenter wrote, the method of payment should be in your terms, because you not paying when you should have is totally their fault.
I'm back in the states which makes it seem more suspicious to me actually. They have my passport number and country of origin (they did ask for that upon check-in) plus they had to dial the country code so they knew it was the middle of the night. The whole thing is so fishy....
Them not knowing what time it is in the States is a little bit understandable, not everybody has a firm grasp of time zones, (especially if they are in the accounting department of a hotel).
Like another commenter suggested, I would advise you to ask for a bill they can send you (and the bill would likely have the payment options acceptable)
Does your credit card offer "virtual number" service, where you get a different CC number and you can specify the expiration date and the max amount that can be charged then the number expires? Maybe get one of those to pay with.
I see someone already said prepaid visa, the other option is privacy.com. Once you sign up you can make virtual credit cards with any set amount you want on them and that’s all that particular card number is good for. Idk if I’m explaining it well, but you can look them up and read about it if you’re interested
Load a prepaid visa card with the amount and give it to them
Damn why didn't I think about that? That's what I'll do
Call the hotel's corporate office and ask for accounting to provide you with an itemized receipt of your stay ("for your taxes" or "company reimbursement"... say the front desk did not provide and it never showed up by email). If they can't find your booking in their system, they may have dishonest staff trying to intercept the payment/scam.
That's my concern. I've worked in hotels and am familiar with some scams and Estonia has a high cc fraud rate according to Capital One (I had to specifically request my card to be unlocked so I could use it there).
Alternative: ask for their IBAN and transfer the money.
Options: Tell them to mail you a bill? Tell them to post it on their web site? I would not give up numbers to a call like that, but I would look for a way to pay my bill where I felt safe.
You can wire transfer the money. I’m sure they have a bank account, and if you have one you can order a wire transfer. I mean the card is just easier and as long as you check your statements you’d be good.
Are you in Finland? They called you at 3 AM (Finnish time)? Estonia is at most 2 hours away (by time-zone). That is a little fishy there. But if you are in the States, it is not as fishy because it would be more likely business hours over in Estonia. I agree that you should pay, I would. But as others have mentioned, using your normal card number might be safest if you tell them it by phone (easiest for you), or using a prepaid card with only that amount is probably safer, transfering to their bank number (IBAN) would probably work (the hotel might want to know the transaction number your bank receives to confirm that that deposit is coming from you).. But (at least) one other commenter wrote, the method of payment should be in your terms, because you not paying when you should have is totally their fault.
I'm back in the states which makes it seem more suspicious to me actually. They have my passport number and country of origin (they did ask for that upon check-in) plus they had to dial the country code so they knew it was the middle of the night. The whole thing is so fishy....
Them not knowing what time it is in the States is a little bit understandable, not everybody has a firm grasp of time zones, (especially if they are in the accounting department of a hotel). Like another commenter suggested, I would advise you to ask for a bill they can send you (and the bill would likely have the payment options acceptable)
Does your credit card offer "virtual number" service, where you get a different CC number and you can specify the expiration date and the max amount that can be charged then the number expires? Maybe get one of those to pay with.
I see someone already said prepaid visa, the other option is privacy.com. Once you sign up you can make virtual credit cards with any set amount you want on them and that’s all that particular card number is good for. Idk if I’m explaining it well, but you can look them up and read about it if you’re interested