[lxgr]

How would a single-use card help?

In my experience, restaurants taking deposits will actually charge the deposit to the card at the time you are making the reservation and credit it towards the final check amount if you do show up.

[brewdad]

I’ve seen it both ways. For larger parties most places near me charge upfront. For couples or parties up to 4 the charge hits 48 hours before your reservation or whatever the cutoff happens to be. In one case, I did have to get the bill adjusted because the restaurant forgot the credit our deposit. I think it was an honest mistake since we’ve never had a problem there in half a dozen other visits and it’s only for parties over 8 that they charge the deposit. Seeing as the whole place only seats about 40, they don’t get many large parties.