Last Saturday I went and filled the tank up in our van. In the past I’ve used our credit card to pay for the gas due to concerns of identify theft (concerns over someone swiping our PIN number at the outside pump). However, I was in a rush that day and so mistakenly used our debit card for the purchase. Later that evening we were reviewing our checking account balance online and noticed a debit card charge to our account for a gas purchase of $75, which was about $35 higher than the actual cost of the gas. The actual receipt I received from the gas pump was $40.38.
Mr. Not Made Of Money remembered recently hearing on the Clark Howard show (see Why Debit Cards Are Such A Rip- Off) about some of the pitfalls of using a debit card. Specifically, when you are purchasing gas, paying for a hotel room, or paying for a rental car with a debit card, the bank will put a hold on your account for an amount that exceeds the bill. Now we have an adequate balance in our account that the amount held did not cause our account to be “overdrawn”. However, other people might not be so fortunate, if their account was low and they did not know that a hold in a greater amount than their purchase would be put on the account. Overdraft charges would be applied in this situation.
Needless to say, I was very irate to see the $75 hold on our account. I can understand a hold for hotel and car rental charges, but for purchasing gas?!? We reviewed the checking account a day later and the charge showed correctly but we won’t be using our debit card to purchase gas anymore.
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{ 13 comments… read them below or add one }
This is a result of how your bank handles debit card transactions. One advantage of my credit union is that they never place a ‘hold’ on my account for using my debit card. They only remove my available funds once the transaction has cleared processing. In the past I banked with chase and their policy was to ‘hold’ funds exceeding my actual charges, personally I feel like this is theft, however temporary it is. The bank (the institution who is actually holding my funds) has no reason to not make the funds available unless I have authorized these charges. This practice is only followed in order to increase the likelihood of an overdraft charge that increases the banks profits. A credit union however works for the people, and has more customer friendly policies.
Scary,
Our bank is a credit union. We’ve had our account there for many years and haven’t noticed this type of hold in the past so it might be a new policy. We plan on finding out.
I agree that the practice is only being done to increase the likelihood of an overdraft charge and that is just plain wrong.
I worked at a “casual upscale” restaurant for several years, and they did this. They would tell the customers that the credit companies did it, but in reality, the company itself had it worked into it’s software to run the charge for 20% more than the bill before tip. The theory was this: we don’t know how much you’re going to tip, so we want to make sure there’s enough in your account to cover both the bill and the gratuity. After we “deposited” the credit card transactions (we did it nightly), it typically took 24 hours for it to get processed. I was the administrative assistant, and I fielded plenty of calls from upset customers.
That should have mentioned that after we deposited the credit cards, the charges went to the correct amount. But if we waited several days to do this, it would take longer for the correct charge to show up on an account statement.
This is why I never pay at the pump at the gas station. Regardless if you’re using a credit card or debit card, they put a hold on a certain amount, in case you pump-n-dash. There have been all sorts of stories in my city of stations not “releasing” the money, so that people have had to call in and complain about it. I always go in to the counter, that way I’m only charged, and I only pay, the correct amount. Lesson learned.
BP stations usually put a hold for $100 that’s why a pay them cash
Whoa! That’s a scary story. Thanks for sharing!
SMASH – Save Money and Stay Home with your kids
I got stuck with the same crap getting gas.
While a hold may be placed on a debit card transaction in excess of the purchase amount by the merchant, an overdraft fee will only be incurred when actual items POST to the account in an amount in excess of the account BALANCE on that day. I happen to work in a bank and what we see most often from pay at the pump debit card purchases is a $1.00 hold. The only real risk one runs when using a debit card with a low account balance is that an attempt to use the card (later in the day after a hold has been placed for your debit purchase) could be denied if it is going to exceed the account balance. Actually, your credit card is going to work the same way! The hold is just going to be on your available credit limit. Most banks have programs in place depending on the age of your account and the responsible use of the debit or credit account which may override an account balance or credit limit by a small percentage so that responsible cardholders are not usually affected by a hold placed on their accounts.
Another point I should have mentioned is that the AMOUNT of the hold the bank places on an account is what the MERCHANT reports! And why would you think it’s OK for a rental car agency or a hotel to place a hold on your account and not a gas station? It costs $75 to fill my car – fortunately I don’t have to fill it as often as lots of others do…but I have rented a car for less than $75!! I do need to say that Mr Not Made of Money does have lots of other great tips and ideas and thanks for passing them along!! I just felt like you needed to know your bank is not the bad guy!
I don’t recall ever having this problem…. Even when I moved across the country twice. Both times I used my debit card. I didnt even have a credit card come to think about it.
I have worked in Banking for over 12years and I spend allot of my time dealing with upset customers on this issue. What most people do not understand is that it is not the station that you getting gas from that places the hold nor is it the bank, but the clearing house that the credit or debit card is insured through. This was put into place when the pumps would only hold a $1.00 and customer would pump $25.00 and only had $10.00 in their account. In the same since – when a customer would pay by check trying to float their money for a few days trying to give themselves a little more time for their paycheck to be deposited. I understand all the concerns but it was put in place to protect the consumer, retailer and the customer. Just wanted to clear everything for all you guys…
this happen to me i was so upset….i wont be using my debit card for gas i only purchased $15.00.