Self Serve Fuel Warning

B A R R Y wrote:
Those morons have a $150 hold on the account!

Let me provide some information regarding "holds" on X amount of $$
for credit card purchases. We have a self-serve pump also and about
once every couple of months someone calls me (after checking their
card data online) raising cain about some large amount of money on
their credit card account from our airport where they bought self
service fuel. Not once in any of those cases was it the fault of
the pump (or US - the airport).

The credit card company somehow dropped the ball and did not clear
the hold on the card. The solution is to simply call the credit card
company (customer service) and clear it up. You should have a receipt
for your purchase (for those that do not we always provide a duplicate
upon request).

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

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.

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 Shoot, unless the card has been
revoked, ANYONE is going to be "okayed" for a buck -- and therefore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.
--
Jay Honeck
Iowa City, IA
Pathfinder N56993
www.AlexisParkInn.com
"Your Aviation Destination"

Jay Honeck wrote:
There must be more going on here.

There is.

When you start the transaction, one of the questions most self-serve
aviation fuel pumps is "How many gallons?"

Many pilots enter a high number. Let's say, 50. This makes sense -
you want to get enough fuel.

The pre-authorization is then charged at 50 gallons times the cost per
gallon - about $200 at my local pump.

What you describe is a typical scenario. What Jay was responding to was the
hold of just one dollar.

The only reason I can think of is that they are trying to verify the card
but be nice and not put a large pre-auth on the card. Sounds like a win-win
to me.

Maybe my bank is just very good, but I have never noticed a large pre-auth
surviving beyond the real purchase. It's more frequent that the pump won't
take my debit card at all.

-------------------------------
Travis
Lake N3094P
PWK

"Brien K. Meehan" wrote in message
oups.com...
Jay Honeck wrote:
There must be more going on here.

There is.

When you start the transaction, one of the questions most self-serve
aviation fuel pumps is "How many gallons?"

Many pilots enter a high number. Let's say, 50. This makes sense -
you want to get enough fuel.

The pre-authorization is then charged at 50 gallons times the cost per
gallon - about $200 at my local pump.

In article ,
Travis Marlatte wrote:
What you describe is a typical scenario. What Jay was responding to was the
hold of just one dollar.

The only reason I can think of is that they are trying to verify the card
but be nice and not put a large pre-auth on the card. Sounds like a win-win
to me.

The gas station pre-auth of a buck is just to verify the card if
good. They probably do enough transactions when the occasional
full transaction is declined for being over the limit, it isn't a
huge deal. Some of the local gas stations have started asking for
zip code as a verification that the card isn't stolen, since the
pay at the pump is a good way to verify if a stolen card is good[1].

John
[1] I've been called by my credit card company several times after
filling up at a pay at the pump, and then making a large purchase
just after that (gas, then groceries).
--
John Clear - http://www.clear-prop.org/

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.

On 29 May 2006 14:21:07 -0700, "Jay Honeck"
wrote:

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..

Well, no, sometimes a vendor just wants to know that the credit card
is good.

That said, I've never seen a pre-authorization for a dollar, always
the amount of the purchase rounded off (most recently, $37).


-- all the best, Dan Ford

email: usenet AT danford DOT net

Warbird's Forum: www.warbirdforum.com
Piper Cub Forum: www.pipercubforum.com
In Search of Lost Time: www.readingproust.com

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.

Quite true.

Hotels. The BEST way to do things is to make your hotel reservation
(either on-line or on the phone) using your *credit* card. Then pay for
the room/suite with your *debit* card, using the PIN.

By doing so, you still get to pay with "cash" (no debt), and your available
balance on your debit card hasn't been tied up with a $140 (or whatever)
pre-authorization.
--
Jay Honeck
Iowa City, IA
Pathfinder N56993
www.AlexisParkInn.com
"Your Aviation Destination"

Jay Honeck wrote:

By doing so, you still get to pay with "cash" (no debt), and your available
balance on your debit card hasn't been tied up with a $140 (or whatever)
pre-authorization.

FWIW, you can still use a standard credit card without debt or interest.

I maintain a written monthly budget using Quicken. Our paychecks are
direct deposited to a credit union savings account. Each credit card
transaction is deducted from the budget immediately via automatic
download each time I start Quicken. We use the credit card for
EVERYTHING, including my monthly utility, insurance, and other bills
that are automatically billed to the card. I have a standing automatic
payment for the minimum payment due, so I can't "forget" to pay and
incur ridiculous late fees. I manually pay the entire balance each
month, as the money is always available, because the charges have
already been accounted for against available cash.

Last year, we cashed in almost $800 in free gift cards, including some
that are Visa logo, so they're good anywhere Visa is accepted. In
addition to the mileage earned, I'd much rather have automatic payments
go against the card, instead of my checking account, in case of errors.
I once received a $3500 cell phone bill when my phone was cloned.

For those that will point out that people spend more because I'm not
using green cash, that's exactly what the written budget is for. We
can't spend what we don't have. We do the same with retirement savings,
depositing it before we ever touch it. G

B A R R Y wrote:

Jay Honeck wrote:

By doing so, you still get to pay with "cash" (no debt), and your available
balance on your debit card hasn't been tied up with a $140 (or whatever)
pre-authorization.

FWIW, you can still use a standard credit card without debt or interest.

Of course. But so what?



I maintain a written monthly budget using Quicken. Our paychecks are
direct deposited to a credit union savings account. Each credit card
transaction is deducted from the budget immediately via automatic
download each time I start Quicken. We use the credit card for
EVERYTHING, including my monthly utility, insurance, and other bills
that are automatically billed to the card. I have a standing automatic
payment for the minimum payment due, so I can't "forget" to pay and
incur ridiculous late fees. I manually pay the entire balance each
month, as the money is always available, because the charges have
already been accounted for against available cash.

Last year, we cashed in almost $800 in free gift cards, including some
that are Visa logo, so they're good anywhere Visa is accepted. In
addition to the mileage earned, I'd much rather have automatic payments
go against the card, instead of my checking account, in case of errors.
I once received a $3500 cell phone bill when my phone was cloned.

For those that will point out that people spend more because I'm not
using green cash, that's exactly what the written budget is for. We
can't spend what we don't have. We do the same with retirement savings,
depositing it before we ever touch it. G

That's great, I guess-- you sound like a Visa commercial. But except for paying
Intuit's extortion every year or two to constantly upgrade their bloated product
so that it will still operate, doesn't just about everyone normal do something
similar?