Are Gas Stations Holding Your Money Hostage?
Submitted by SDJoseph on Fri, 08/15/2008 - 10:17
Be careful out there .. This might sting a bit..
http://www.10news.com/news/17195651/detail.html?treets=sand&...
"Lewis purchased $20 of gas, but his bank account showed another $50 tacked on. The total amount of his cash tied up is $70 and Lewis wants an explanation."
"But Temecula Valley Bank tells him there is no mistake. The charge is called a pre-authorization hold.
"The operations officer said that's just the hold they put on the transaction when you make the purchase," said Lewis."
"Another consumer, Kathy, tells the 10News I-Team about a pre-authorization hold she said received at an ARCO station on Sports Arena Boulevard. She said her card had a $100 hold, lasting two days on her account."
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Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes
This ain't new; you just may not have known about it...but when you live as close to the vest financially as I do, you learn that if you want to buy gas, and then buy groceries, you'd better do your gas shopping in cash.
This has been going on for months and months -- it may even be a year now -- and several times I've been hit by this. I've actually had utilities turned off because I didn't have "available" funds to withdraw, thanks to the oil company hold on my card.
Two day hold? Try ten day hold -- that's what we experienced with ARCO on more than one occasion.
It's not just ARCO and Chevron, either. This has happened to me at Shell and other stations as well. And don't tell me it's the card companies putting the holds on the funds: it was only by contacting the card company that we were able to get the holds released (which one debit card issuer did immediately); they said the gas stations / oil companies put the hold on the funds.
CASH for gas.
Just another reason to reject...
plastic. Use cash. Join Pyrabang
Join PyraBang the peoples search engine.
yea, so??
When you swipe your card, it has to approve a sale... it doesnt know if you are filling up a compact car or an SUV... so it has to pick a price....
To avoid this, you could walk into the store and ask for 20 bucks on the card, then walk back to your car and pump.....
most people have credit limits well above their spending habits, so having a two day hold on a pre appoved 'sale' shouldnt be a big deal.
Release the hold when transaction is complete
The hold should be released when the purchase price has been determined. Not everyone uses a credit card, some people use debit cards linked directly to their bank account and risk being over-drafted because of this.
When a company places a hold, they are required to inform you of this, so you are even aware of this potential mistake. When purchasing via 'credit' then the hold will take longer to post back from being released, but using 'debit' it should be releasable in minutes.
For some it's not a big deal, but I would suspect this hurts more people than it doesn't. I for example fill up 3 times per week as a commuter. I'm sure that would hurt plenty of us to have $50 to $100 held for days, per fill up.
Nothing would suprise me.
Stopped a gas station in a very small town about 30 miles from mine to get gas about a month ago. Noticed the pumps said no cash. Went in to ask the clerk, she said it's credit card only. Well, that posed a little problem for me since I dont have a credit card. I cut up all the ones I used to have. I had to go another gas station up the road! Can you believe it? That perticular station did NOT take cash! I guess they want to control us thru plastic. It's coming.