Good Sam credit card fuel limits

westernrvparkowner wrote:

fj12ryder wrote:

beemerphile1 wrote:
When using a credit card without a signature the card company limits how much they will be liable for if the card is bad/stolen. Some gas companies will cut you off at that limit because anything over comes out of their pocket.

The limit the gas stations impose have nothing to do with credit card limits They are arbitrary amounts set by the stations, not the CC companies. That limits their losses in case of drive offs.

It technically isn't a classic drive off, but what happens is the fuel station sends your credit card company a preset amount to determine if the card is active. They don't have a constant live feed during fueling to say "stop the pump, Fred has reached his card limit or the checking account linked to his debit card is going to be overdrawn when the next gallon of gas is pumped". When the pump shuts off at the preset limit, that amount is applied to your card account and any subsequent pumping restarts the process. If you don't have enough credit limit or money in your debit card checking account to cover the station limit, your card will be denied.

Yes very true. I use a Paypal debit often because I have some customers send money that way. Even though you may only see the $1 transaction until finalized the pump is actually performing an authorization for a predetermined max amount. So even if you are only going to put $20 in the pump basically reserves an amount say $75. If you don't have the sufficient available credit it fails. After the transaction is complete the pump captures the actual amount. This amount can be applied to your card immediately or several days later. Those that deal with credit/debit card transactions will understand the difference between a captured event or an authorized event.