Wandering Storm wrote:
Traveling to Florida , I decided to use pilot flying j for gas because of the discount. I received a message from my card company that Pilot had put a 500 dollar hold on my account rendering the card non usable for several days. Pilot has no business screwing with my account. Good Sam ought to inform members that this scenario exists. I will no longer purchase gas from them because I donโt need the grief while traveling. My credit is excellent and Iโm ready to tell all of the above to shove it.
Sorry, but "Holds" are not new, pretty much ANY business can put a "hold" or "lock" your card account.
In general, holds or locks on a credit card are typically used during "Unsigned" transactions like a outside fuel pump transaction.
Larger transactions can often trigger a hold also.
In instead of a hold some gas stations will limit you to a max of $75 per transaction which means you may need to stop and swipe, stop and swipe multiple times in order to fill up.
Holds or locks can also be applied to DEBIT cards so if you use your DEBIT card you may find that your bank checking account is locked..
HERE is some information about holds and ways to avoid them..
We avoid this mess of holds or limits while traveling by using GIFT CARDS. We will buy a bunch of $100 gift cards with cash from a gas brand that we know we can find most anywhere.. When the card is done we simply throw it away.
Alternately you can use cash, but many stations now days require you to PREPAY before pumping, can be a hassle but does work. We used to exclusively pay with cash until we started running into a lot of PREPAY only stations, hence the reason we now use Gift cards..
