Grandview Campground & RV Park, Hardin Montana

[SSliter]

This campground is a GoodSam sponsored campground. We stayed there on or about August 21, 2014. We made our reservation a couple hours upon arrival. We provided our credit card information over the phone including name, address, card number, exp date and the 3 digit code. When we checked in, the office manager refused to return or destroy our credit card info even though we had just swiped our card for payment. We do not think this is a good business practice.

We called Good Sam and we did not get a reply until today, Sep 8. Good Sam's response was not acceptable. They said that each park is privately owned and can do what they want.

The campground did return the credit card info to us when we checked out the following day.

[tbutler]

This is not an uncommon in my experience. It is assumed that any copy of the credit card information will be destroyed but most businesses don't return the information to the customer. I always check my credit card statements to ensure we have been charged correctly and not double charged. I share your concern.

We encountered a similar example of this in Australia this year. Checking into a hotel I was asked for my passport. They took it and scanned it into their computer. I asked for the information back and they refused. We had quite a discussion. After that I would not hand my passport over to anyone but Customs/Border agents. When asked, I would show the passport but I would not let loose of it. For making reservations over the phone, you really don't have much choice if they insist on a credit card to hold the reservation. The only choice I can see is to try another park.

We checked into a AB Camping RV Park in Cheyenne last week. They had written the CC number on a manual CC slip and returned that to us when we checked in so some places are doing this. Of course what they returned to me could have been a second or third copy. I was interested to see that AB Camping used their tablet to charge the credit card and I signed with my finger on their tablet. They have an excellent BBQ restaurant and the charge there was also done on a tablet there. At the other extreme, we stayed at South Park RV Park in Englewood, CO and they didn't take a credit card for reservations but they also didn't take credit cards at all, we had to give them a check. They were really old school!

No matter how it is handled, there has to be a certain amount of trust in any credit card transaction. When we hand the CC over to anyone in a business, they get access to our CC information. We know that Target, Home Depot, and a host of other companies hold on to all this information far longer than they should. I think things may change, I understand US banks are going to cards with chips which will help. At least that would make a transaction without the actual card much more difficult.

[Mathew]

I share the concerns on the credit cards. Last month I traveled two weeks using my credit card. I gave my card number to three campgrounds. Five days after my return my credit card was used three times not by me. Visa cut them off and called me. I had to get a new card.