What to do if a card payment fails or gets double-charged in Bali?

Based on 1 discussion with 3 participants · Last activity: 22 days ago

TL;DR

Card payment glitches happen in Bali: your bank debits the amount but the terminal shows an error, forcing you to retry the payment. Foreign cards may also have the issuing bank's own commission (~4%) taken on top.

What the community said

Another case: paying by QR code at a cafe for 400 (local currency) — the payment appeared to go through on the customer's side, but the cafe didn't receive it. Already finished eating and the payment was still unresolved 5+ minutes later.

QR payment, cafe

One traveler noticed a payment of 5000 resulted in only 4800 reaching the merchant — the ~200 (about 4%) difference is the issuing bank's own commission, not a merchant fee.

~4% bank fee

In another case, the card was charged but the payment didn't go through on the merchant's end. Bank support just suggested redoing the payment, while resolving the original charge dragged on.

Paying for dinner at a food court in Legian, the first attempt (325,000 IDR, ≈$21) was debited but the terminal showed an error and the bank didn't auto-refund it. The traveler had to pay the same amount again, which went through, and then wait separately for the first charge to be refunded.

food court, Legian