Did you know the downfall to using a Debit card when getting gas at the pumps??

Question

Wow, I just learned this on the news tonight.......The gas stations charge your debit card $50.00 to make sure you have enough in your account to pay for it........Like if you got $10.00 in gas..........they charge the 50 then return it in 2-4 days to your account..........How can they be allowed to do this? And if you are not aware of this, you could have 0 balance in your account tomorrow, especially if you make a check out for the remainder that you thought you had........then it will bounce!

This doesn't seem right..........

Answer 1

I used to use my debit card for gas until I found out that the gas stations are placing a "hold" on my account for $50.00. I don't know how it can be legal, but it sure pisses me off!

Where I live, I found that if I use my debit card as a credit card (makes no sense to me) that they don't put a hold on my account. Also, if you pay inside at the counter instead of at the pump they won't put a hold on it... (so much more convenient to pay at the pump instead of standing in line behind people buying lotto tickets)

I went around in circles with a Hess Station about this very thing. I had been going there for five years, and they started this. They lost a regular paying customer because of it.

Note: I read an article about this in December's Reader's Digest. I looked up a link for anyone who may be interested..

According to the article, some people are charged as much as $75.00

From Reader's Digest: Gas stations are notorious for holds. On a Friday morning in January 2005, Jessica Hathaway of Allentown, Pennsylvania, bought $22.29 of gas by debit. On Saturday, the 34-year-old single mother of three checked her bank balance and learned she was almost broke. Right before the gas station debited Hathaway's account for the gas, it imposed a $75 block.

"I was living paycheck to paycheck. I didn't have much extra in my account, and this $75 charge worried me all weekend," she says. Hathaway was out of luck—and cash—until the following Tuesday, when her bank released the hold.

The kind of hold Hathaway described is a standard preauthorization for signature (non-PIN) transactions. Stations vary widely in their hold amounts. Because Hathaway bought gas before the weekend, her hold may have taken longer than usual to clear.

Answer 2

I have never ever seen this actually happen.  I know a lot of restaurants do that to make sure that you can cover the tip.  I am a hound about checking my bank account almost every day because I have had people put fraudulent charges on my cards before, but I haven't ever noticed the gas pump charges actually going on there like that.  I guess that is good news for people who live paycheck to paycheck!

Answer 3

I don't agree with it but I do understand why they do it.

Let's say you've just pulled into my gas station and said, "Fillerup". I know an average SUV that's empty can easily cost $65 to fill up. What about a van with a double tank? Yikes. Now, what if your credit is no good but I wait till after I've pumped $65 of Gas to do the transaction? You can look at me and claim you don't know what is wrong and that you've only got 6 dollars in cash...

You see why a station owner would choose to do this?  The only thing that seems slimy about it is the idea that you would have this charge pending for 2-4 days.  

By the way, I've never seen this on my statement. I have seen unnamed "pending charges" on my account that always turn out to something I bought in the last couple of days or so.  

I would suggest keeping a seperate card for gas purchases and make sure you don't run it on empty just in case you come up against one of these charges.

Answer 4

My husband & I regularly gas up on our debit cards (Visa) and this has never happened to us.  We also check our account online on a daily basis.  Fuel purchases normally are deducted instantly from our account.  

Do you have a link to this?  It's interesting.

Answer 5

I don't know about that, though I do know that some stations will charge you about $1 fee.