austingta wrote:
ktmrfs wrote:
wnjj wrote:
I believe the retailer limits the amount and here's one reason they might:
When you buy gas, your card is pre-authorized for the "limit" amount. This is because once the gas is pumped they can't get it back if your card doesn't let the charge through. So your card is charged say, $100 until pumping is done and then it's modified to the actual total. If you raise the limit too high, some customers don't have enough balance left on their account to get any gas, even if they only want $5 worth.
exactly. And the signs at the local fred meyer make this statement and go on to state that depending on the credit card it may take several days for the limit amount to be removed and replaced with the actual amount. And they have a different limit for debit vs credit cards.
In most cases the pre authorized amount will be removed the same business day. If you go online to your account as you are filling up or right after and the account is doing real time data you will see the pre authorized amount being posted against your account.
Many stations also post that if you think you will go over the limit, go inside and prepay or say how much you want to fill and they will run the card inside, in which case they run the card with the amount requested then adjust when your done.
At the stations around here, they just authorize 1.00 and then charge what you actually spend.
well, I wonder what they do when someone goes over the credit limit or cash in debit account then. they don't get any money, but your tank is full.
