Self Serve Fuel Warning

Jay Honeck wrote:

I'd be willing to be money it is not the airport 'morons' fault.

The hold placed by Sunoco, Citgo, and Mobil auto gas stations is a
buck, as in $1. I'm sure the hold will clear in a few days and revert
to the actual charge, they always do.

This makes no sense to me.

The only reason for any merchant to put a "hold" on ANY amount (or, as
we call it, a "pre-authorization") is to make sure that the users
credit/debit card is actually valid for the amount of the purchase.

If one must use debit, another option would be to use Online debit
(PIN-Based). When a PIN is used only the exact amount is withdrawn, and it
is done almost instantly. There are no preauthorizations, no holds, no
settlements several days down the road. You get what you get in real time.




Therefore, "pre-authorizing" $1 proves nothing -- especially with gas
purchases topping $75 - $100 a shot. Shoot, unless the card has been
revoked, ANYONE is going to be "okayed" for a buck -- and therefore
preauthorizing that amount simply is not worth the effort.

There must be more going on here.

Gas stations realize that the biggest risk is that the card is not valid at
all. If it is valid for a dollar it is almost certainly valid for $50 or
whatever the average transaction is. (Heck even if someone was near their
limit, most credit card companies (and debit) would allow the transaction to
go over by a lot more than that anyway so that they can collect either the
Over-the-credit-limit fee or the Overdraft fee.)

They accept the tiny risk that a $1 card may not work for a larger
transaction because it far better than to have to deal with customers
complaining about large sums held. And if it didn't work, well they have
cameras over the pumps. A friend of mine tried to buy gas one day, slid
his debit card thru and it just said Authorizing..... He waited and waited
and finally went inside to tell them. Frustrated he left and refilled at
another station. Guess what? He got charged for gas by the first station
too. After giving him the runaround (and the credit union claiming they
were investigating for weeks) he was very persistent with the oil co. and
finally got a tidy settlement.