thread Can I charge a no-show/cancellation fee if the client deleted the card they originally booked with? in Appointments & Bookings

Can I charge a no-show/cancellation fee if the client deleted the card they originally booked with?

janny — Mon, 22 Sep 2025 13:43:18 GMT

I use Square to manage bookings and require clients to enter a valid credit card to secure their appointment. My policy states that no-shows or cancellations under 24 hours are subject to a cancellation fee.

I’d like to understand how Square handles situations where:

A client books and enters a card on file,
But then deletes or removes that card prior to the appointment ,
And then fails to show up or cancels late.

Can I still process a cancellation or no-show fee in this case?
Does Square retain a secure token of the card even after the client removes it on their end, or is the authorization completely lost?

I want to make sure I’m protected from potential abuse of the system, and I’d like to know the best practices to ensure I can still enforce my policy fairly and legally.

This frequently happens when clients book, delete their cards, and do not show.

Re: Can I charge a no-show/cancellation fee if the client deleted the card they originally booked wi

TheRealChipA — Tue, 13 May 2025 22:36:06 GMT

Hey there @janny.. I did a little research with the help of Square's new "Ask AI" feature. It seems that the following statements are true:

If a customer books an appointment that requires a card on file, they CAN delete the card of file which effectively removes it from their account, so it can't be used any further.
Also, oddly, when customers do this there is no message sent to us (the seller) that this customer no longer has a card on file which is required for no-shows.
Also, oddly, the pending appointment(s) that require a card on file don't seem to be automatically cancelled.

While I can't believe that this would have been intentionally designed that way. But I can believe that oversights like this happen because, unfortunately, not everyone thinks like a dishonest customer. Ha. So, I'm going to tag the Square moderators here in the Community. Hopefully one of them can follow up with that team to get more information.

Good luck.

@Kassi_@RSosebee1 @_Violet @MayaP @Summer2024 @Summer2024 @Ellie_@Katie_SQ @Laurie_@Sammie_C

Re: Can I charge a no-show/cancellation fee if the client deleted the card they originally booked wi

janny — Tue, 13 May 2025 22:48:51 GMT

Thank you, @TheRealChipA. I think it would be a great idea to automatically cancel their appointments if they decide to delete their cards, or at least allow for the charge they agreed to.