Self Serve Fuel Warning

On Mon, 29 May 2006 11:20:31 GMT, B A R R Y
wrote:

Folks,

Yesterday, I bought less than $20 of self-serve fuel @ MGJ
(Montgomery-Orange County, NY). The receipt printer was broken, so
this morning, I checked the card web site for the charge data. The
credit card I use for flying has instant web updates.

Those morons have a $150 hold on the account!

While this isn't a big deal in this case, BEWARE if you use a debit
card with a credit card logo! A couple of stops like this on a
decently long trip could tie up quite a bit of money!

Here we can refuel by, gallons, dollars, or fill up. With gallons and
dollars the hold will be for the amount. For a fill up I believe it's
either $150 or $200.

With 100 gallon total capacity I could easily hit a $200 fill up
although $60 to $100 is typical. OTOH if I ended using all useable
fuel that would be almost $300 including the tip tanks. The most I've
ever put in it was 64 gallons which meant I had 25 useable, or an hour
and 45 minutes of flying time left. I've never seen a hold on my CC
for car gas. That doesn't mean they don't do it, but the charge is
there immediately.

The consumer advocates have made such a big deal of this that I
typically see $1 holds (if I see one at all) for auto gas stations.
Apparently, the tide hasn't caught up with these guys yet.

Roger Halstead (K8RI & ARRL life member)
(N833R, S# CD-2 Worlds oldest Debonair)
www.rogerhalstead.com