Ed Pawlowski Fri,
05 May 2017 01:44:48 GMT in alt.home.repair, wrote:

[snip]

I know. Call on me! Call on me!

When you use a debit card in a gas station they do no know how
much you are going to pump. They put a hold on $XXX.xx in case
you are going to fill up a truck or camper. Once the actual
charge comes through, they adjust to the actual amount.

Sort of... You're very close though. It can also affect a credit
card transaction in the same manner. It's not restricted to your
debit card. They don't know how much money your card has available,
so, if you only had, say $20 available and you pumped $50 worth,
they're eating $30; since they do the transaction AFTER you receive
the gas.

They can't very well reverse the pump and get that gas back from
you. So, they place a hold on your card that's settable by them, and
*should* cover however much you might use at their pump. Your bank
and the ACH network determines how long that hold actually lasts,
not the gas merchant. The merchant just controls how much of a hold
they're going to place on you. Just to make sure you can pay for the
gas you pumped.

If you want to avoid the entire process, go inside and swipe your
card at the cash register. This also reduces the chances of your
card being skimmed, since it's much harder to modify the cash
register equipment (pending the cashier isn't in on it) than it is
to play with the gas pumps card reader.

Don't take my word for it, see he

http://www.cleveland.com/business/in..._your_car.html

One little thing the article doesn't mention is what happens if you
pump more gas than you can pay for using that card...Bring another
card and/or cash with you, or just prepay for a specified amount and
swipe your card for that amount, prior to pumping, INSIDE the store.
Otherwise, if you pump the gas and can't pay for it, well, you won't
be having a good day.

If your familiar with the vehicle, you should already have a good
idea how much gas it can drink to full up.


--
I would like to apologize for not having offended you yet.
Please be patient. I will get to you shortly.