Credit card limits when filling up the tank

I am a Visa/MC merchant. All I can say is someone down the line has a powerful financial incentive to get you to swipe as many times as they can. The statement I get at the end of the month contains a fixed charge per swipe and a percentage of the dollar total deducted from every transaction. The fixed charge is .40/swipe. Multiply this by millions of transactions and you get the idea.

Limit has got to be set by the gas station. I hit different ceilings at different stations.

Limits on number of daily fill-ups has got to be set by the card issuer.

Wayne

msmith1199 wrote:
I have the Pacific Pride Account through the place up in Washington.

Me too. No limits, monthly billing, never busy.. wonderful.

tropical36 wrote:

supermod38 wrote:

dbbls wrote:
I think the limits are set by the store. I ask the store one time and was told the credit card company set the limit. I then call the card company and they said the store. If the card company set them it would apply to all stations. I am incline to believe the store set them.

the credit limit IS set by the owner, however the limit comes from the card supplier.! the limit is the amount the card company will reimburse the owner for. if the owner sets a higher limit it is on his dime.

i owned my own gas station and store so you are getting this info from the horses mouth.

OK, but crossing the US a couple of times, we found that we could use the same Discover Card at least two times at the pump before being cut off and having to use another, or having to go inside the store and for whatever difference that made for the owner getting reimbursed. I guess, they just go for it, when they can see that it's something with a huge gas tank.

As I explained up thread, the limit is "per transaction". Each card swipe is a separate transaction.

supermod38 wrote:

dbbls wrote:
I think the limits are set by the store. I ask the store one time and was told the credit card company set the limit. I then call the card company and they said the store. If the card company set them it would apply to all stations. I am incline to believe the store set them.

the credit limit IS set by the owner, however the limit comes from the card supplier.! the limit is the amount the card company will reimburse the owner for. if the owner sets a higher limit it is on his dime.

i owned my own gas station and store so you are getting this info from the horses mouth.

OK, but crossing the US a couple of times, we found that we could use the same Discover Card at least two times at the pump before being cut off and having to use another, or having to go inside the store and for whatever difference that made for the owner getting reimbursed. I guess, they just go for it, when they can see that it's something with a huge gas tank.

dbbls wrote:
I think the limits are set by the store. I ask the store one time and was told the credit card company set the limit. I then call the card company and they said the store. If the card company set them it would apply to all stations. I am incline to believe the store set them.

the credit limit IS set by the owner, however the limit comes from the card supplier.! the limit is the amount the card company will reimburse the owner for. if the owner sets a higher limit it is on his dime.

i owned my own gas station and store so you are getting this info from the horses mouth.

BobGed wrote:

msmith1199 wrote:
In any event, one of the easiest solutions to this is a commercial fueling account. I have the Pacific Pride Account through the place up in Washington. It lets me pump as much diesel fuel as I need. And they have gas too. The stations are generally unattended and generally not crowded at all so you don't have a line waiting for you to finish pumping 100 gallons. Of course you have to plan your fueling stops for where they are located, but that hasn't been a problem for me with Pacific Pride.

The franchisee is Pioneer Fuel Pacific Pride locations are generally higher priced than anyone in the area including PFJ, but they are very convenient if and when you need them. I used them on a coastal trip from California to Oregon. In many locations all of the regular stations were lined up, and the Pacific Pride location was wide open.

I have noticed they are a little higher price and there is the problem of not knowing the price until you get the bill, but in my area they higher price has never been more then a few pennies. I'm using only getting about 75 gallons when I fill up so the few extra bucks is worth it to me.

msmith1199 wrote:
When you think about these limits, most of them are kind of dumb because you can swipe the same card multiple times. What's the purpose in a limit if you can just keeping swiping the same card? I have never been asked to use a different card or had the card shut down. Just swipe it three or four times and it just keeps going. If I was using a stolen card what would have been saved by having a limit versus swiping in four times?

There's actually a big difference to the station owner. The card issuer sets a limit on how much they will reimburse the station when a fraudulent transaction takes place at the pump. The station owners typically set the card per swipe limit to that same amount. Since they are reimbursed on a per transaction basis, if a bad card is swiped three times because of a $75 limit on a $225 total sale, they get fully reimbursed the $225 in fraudulent charges at $75 per transaction. If the same card was allowed to only swipe once for that $225 sale, they would only be reimbursed $75 for the one transaction. and the remaining $150 would come out of their pocket.

Reason for setting limits on "at the pump" purchases.
If you go to Walmart and make a $200 purchase, Walmart will get a $200 approval from the credit card company, all is well. When you make a fuel purchase at the pump, the credit card company does not know the amount of your purchase until after you have completed the purchase, so they approve you for the largest amount most people buy ($75 or $100). The approved amount results in a conditional hold against your credit card limit. If the conditional hold was $500, and you only purchased $10 in fuel (motorcycle purchase) 3 or 4 times in one day, the $500 conditional approvals would quickly eat up a large credit card limit.

msmith1199 wrote:
In any event, one of the easiest solutions to this is a commercial fueling account. I have the Pacific Pride Account through the place up in Washington. It lets me pump as much diesel fuel as I need. And they have gas too. The stations are generally unattended and generally not crowded at all so you don't have a line waiting for you to finish pumping 100 gallons. Of course you have to plan your fueling stops for where they are located, but that hasn't been a problem for me with Pacific Pride.

The franchisee is Pioneer Fuel Pacific Pride locations are generally higher priced than anyone in the area including PFJ, but they are very convenient if and when you need them. I used them on a coastal trip from California to Oregon. In many locations all of the regular stations were lined up, and the Pacific Pride location was wide open.