Credit cards at the pump

homedad wrote:
We just got back from NYC and stopped at a Sunoco on the Penn. Turn Pike. I paid with credit card at the pump and pumped $125. On the second time, because we all buy more than $125, the pump told me to see the cashier. She said I need to buy a specific dollar amount. I told her $100 and she tried to enter that amount and it was rejected. She then told me she didn't know what to do so I just left. I then stopped in Ohio to fill up again and the card wouldn't work at all. The cashier said it looks like it's flagged as stolen. My wife called the CC co. and they said that once the maximum is hit the second time you try the card will shut it down as if it's stolen. To avoid this the company said take the card in to the cashier and tell them to hold on to the card while you fill it up. It was a US Bank Visa (and a PITA). Other than this the trip was great. We stayed at Liberty Harbor.

I let a gas attendant hold my card in GA a couple of years ago. That night I got a text message that a $3000+ charge had hit a Lowe's store a few hundred miles away. While I was on the phone with the CC company I got a second text with a $2000+ charge at the same Lowe's. If they won't charge my card for a preset amount I will pump enough with cash to get me on down the road.