What is with the $100.00 limit at the fuel pumps?

I had to stop using my Credit Union card for purchasing fuel. Not only would it limit me to $75, it would run a $350 pre approved hold on my account. If I tried to use my card anywhere again for a couple of days it would not authorize!
Very frustrating!! The bank would blame the station and the station would blame the bank! bottom line if I wanted to use that card I would have to withdraw the amount of cash I thought it would take to fill the tank, then I could use the card somewhere else for the next few days!!

I had a Chevron/Texaco fuel card but the finance charges were to high, plus most stations I have used have a cash discount!

The sad part is you have to go in and prepay, go back out and start the pump, then walk back in to settle up. And with may RVs you are occupying two or more pumps. The station owner must realize they are losing sales. The idea is to swipe and go. I agree the chip security does not improve anything until they go chip and pin. I tend to swipe and leave when the pump stops the first time.

RoyF wrote:
With a 98-gallon aux. tank, I sometimes take more than 100 gallons. I go inside, tell the desk that I want $xxx amount at pump so and so. They swipe the card or I give them case. When I am done, I go back inside and they put the change amount back on the card or give me the change.

Exactly, why does everyone else make it so complicated

Charlie D. wrote:
A little research will tell you that the chip cards are not as secure as one would think.

austinga, I agree with you. I often see 2 charges on my "pending" section of my card statement when viewing on line. Actual charge and "$1.00". Once the card company has approved, the $1.00 goes away. Usually the next day.

I have employees with a card on this account, so I have Capital One send me a text every time the card is used. I get them all day long it seems...

A little research will tell you that the chip cards are not as secure as one would think.

austinga, I agree with you. I often see 2 charges on my "pending" section of my card statement when viewing on line. Actual charge and "$1.00". Once the card company has approved, the $1.00 goes away. Usually the next day.

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.

Grit dog wrote:
Austingta, is this an annoyance you just discovered or ......?
Been happening for quite a few years now. Maybe more.

It's been happening since I added the 60 gallon auxiliary fuel tank in September. :W

Austingta, is this an annoyance you just discovered or ......?
Been happening for quite a few years now. Maybe more.

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.

Stations don't want to have a limit that doesn't authorize everyone and they don't want a limit that limits anyones purchase. But they can't do both, so they come up with a compromise amount that hopefully minimizes both cases.

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.

And gas stations are NOT the only merchants who will do a pre authorize for more than the purchase. Restaurants are another one. they will preautorize for you meal AND expected tip amount, then after it is approved and you add any tip, they submit the actual amount.

What I have also found is that some cards, if you have a high credit limit and low balance, rather than showing the full 100 or whatever the station says, will just show 1.00 then it will go away.

I suspect since the know the SIC code for a gas station, have that set up for some accounts. They may do the same thing for other preauthorizations if it is a SIC code that typically has that process.

bob_nestor wrote:
I wonder if these limits at the pump have to do with the change over to chip readers. I know that for other merchants the liability for card fraud switched from the bank to the merchant if the merchant didn't have chip readers installed by a certain date. For transactions processed by a chip reader the fraud liability is with the bank. The only chip readers at gas pumps that I can recall are the ones I used in Canada this summer.

For gas stations, they're still playing by the old rules currently. Originally everyone was supposed to have chip readers by the end of 2015 or face the consequences outlined in the liability shift. Gas station owners complained about the cost of new equipment and their deadline was pushed back to Oct 2017. Right now there's no real incentive to get the readers installed since they're still not on the hook as of yet. I don't think they should've been given a delay. In Canada, Visa and Mastercard had a liability shift for gas stations all the way back in 2012.