The credit card companies and the stations are trying to limit their losses due to customer credit card fraud and it should be no big deal for you.
Last month on our trip to FL & back each time I fueled up I first took my card into the cashier. At Pilots & Loves they asked me to estimate the maximum I’d pump. They put a hold on my card for that amount and gave the card back to me. When I got done I returned to the cashier and she ran the amount I actually pumps and released the hold.
It may be a little inconvenient but credit card fraud is costing billions per year and they’re trying to limit it.
Another thing you should do is call your credit card issuer before you leave home and have them flag your record what areas you will be traveling in, how long yu'll be on the road and that you'll be buying large amounts of fuel. This should alleviate some of the multiple card usage blocks.
Dave
Plus New Brunswick, Prince Edward Island & Nova Scotia
egh33 wrote: I just filled up last month at Flying J. used a Discover card, It shut me down at $75.00 Inserted a MC and only took 45 bucks worth. So every thing was fine. Today I got my MC statement. The Flying J charge showed up on my statment as a Pilot Gas Station. I called MC and they said Flying J in some places is now owned by Pilot. "News to me".
Apparently you've been out of touch... Pilot took over all but six Flying J locations as part of FJ's bankruptcy restructuring in 2009. The new Pilot Flying J company now operates all owned locations under their respective brands. The six FJ locations not included in the merger, along with 20 Pilot locations, were sold to Love's Travel Centers under an antitrust agreement with the FTC, and now operate under the Love's name.
The limits on your credit card purchase are only there because you're asking them to provide you with a blank check (buying fuel before your card has been approved for the amount of the purchase). In order to protect the store selling the fuel they impose a system where your card receives a "hold" on your account for the amount THEY choose. The bank receives a hold request which means that if you purchase $1.00 worth of gas you still get a hold for the full amount on your card and it is KEPT on the card until the store batches their receipts for that credit card (which can sometimes be several days). The simplest method of fueling vehicles like yours with a credit card is to simply run the card a second of third time (with the understanding that each time you will get a hold placed on the card for what ever amount the store has determined protects them. Changing to a different credit card won't change the stores policy so won't help your situation any.
OF course if you want to do it another way, take the card into the station and tell them how much you want to purchase ($200.00 for example) and they will put a 200.00 hold on your card until you finish fueling and then they can run the actual amount of your purchase which will release the hold. Not every station will do this because it's more trouble for them but many will if you ask. Of course you still have to wade through those same 10 folks at the counter twice to do it that way.
Good luck / Skip
2011 F-150 HD Ecoboost 3.5 V6. 2550 payload, 17,100 GCVWR - 2004 F-150 HD (Traded after 80,000 towing miles) 2007 Rockwood 8314SS 34' travel trailer
US Govt survey shows three out of four people make up 75% of the total population
"what's the story?"
Nobody seems to know.
The store says it is the credit card company (Visa, Mastercard, Discover, etc.).
The card companies say it is the issuing financial institution (your credit union, Wells Fargo, Glacier Bankcorp, etc.).
The financial institutions say "NO, it isn't us putting those limits on, it must be the station management!"
Personally, I think it is the companies which process the credit card transactions for the stations. There are several of them, and they can make whatever rules they want! I don't know if there is ANY regulatory agency that keeps an eye on them!
As for the "hold" amount, I check my account daily, every morning. The ONLY "hold" I have ever seen, no matter where I buy gas or diesel, is $1. When the transaction changes from "pending" to final, it changes to the actual amount of the purchase.
When the pump stops, I leave. I have run the card a second time in the past, and rarely do I put more than 5 gallons in the second time. IMO, it isn't worth it. If they want to sell no more than $75 worth to me, that's fine, it will get me a long way down the road before I have to stop for another $75 worth! THEY (whoever "they" are) make the rules, or allow the rules, and THEY can live with the consequences!
CM1, USN (RET)
2002 Fleetwood Southwind 32V, Ford V10
Toad: 2006 Jeep Rubicon LJ
Other toad: '06 PT Cruiser, Kar Kaddy dolly
Toy: 1977 Dodge W100 CC SWB, 3/4 ton axles & springs
"When seconds count, help is only minutes away!"
I opened an account with Pilot and they issued me a password protected credit type card to use at the pump. Account can be linked to a credit card or debit your checking or savings account. I choose the debit option. I just fill up and drive away, never have to go inside unless I want a reciept. They make 1 debit transaction per week but they do charge $0.50 per per transaction, but it's worth it to me vs. the hassle of having to go in to turn the pump on then going in again to settle up.
Works for me.
Steve & Judy
1996 American Tradition
Spartan IC 2242 Chassis
C8.3L Cummins w/Banks Stinger, Allison MD3060
Doran 360RV TPMS, Progressive HW50C EMS.
Koni shocks, Safe-T-Plus
2002 Chevy Tahoe toad
ReadyBrute tow bar w/ReadyBrake
There was discussion about issuing a "smart" credit card a few years ago to limit fraud losses. The credit companies said that it cost too much up-front to issue smart cards.
I am pretty lax with my credit and debit cards. I have had them compromised in the past but, it hasn't cost me. I use them for pretty much every purchase because I usually don't carry cash. That's a sad statement from a guy that worked on a police fraud squad for 15+ years (I was actually a computer crimes guy and a supervisor, 25 years total including patrol divisions, etc..). But, I choose to not stress over it and live a little.
Nevertheless, I watched over the last few years as the banks looked at the bottom line profit. Not, necessarily fraud detection or prevention. When times get hard the first layoffs generally include fraud investigators at the banks. They believe that the overburdened local and federal police can pick up that slack. Not gonna happen. Law Enforcement investigative resources at every level has been under water for twenty years.
So, when there is a fraudulent charge the bank does a charge back to the vendor (most of the time). Banks rarely eat this loss. The gas station eats it. Or, the business where the original charge occurred. And, upon reviewing the fraudulent charges you will see that in many cases the vendors were a bit negligent. Not so much gas stations where you can swipe a card at the pump. But, some of the big box stores that get hit a lot seem to make no meaningful effort to stem the tide of credit fraud. And, since card skimmers have captured the mag stripe data and videoed the pin code the fraud has gone overseas with counterfeit cards being used in epidemic proportions. So, we pay for it. The bank will never eat these losses in any meaningful way nor, it appears, will they take measures that currently exist to stop it.
Since smart cards aren't going to be issued then vendors really need to do a better job to stop credit fraud. Purchase limits limit their losses but, hurts their legitimate customers. Having employees who pay attention would really help a lot.
So, it's frustrating to have to stop for gas all the time because I can't always buy a fill up at one place. I like to drive for a few hours before a stop. $75 bucks worth of gas aint gonna do that. I did have one station tell me that the limit for credit was higher than debit. So, buy RV gas with credit card rather than debit.
I ask this credit limit question here a few weeks ago. There aren't any good answers that will cover various brands around this great nation. And, if you try too hard it might throw up a red flag and lock your card. That would suck.
And before I leave on a trip I phone the credit card customer service and tell them that I will be travelling from these dates and some idea of direction of travel and they flag my card so I can use it as many times as needed to fill. Doing that, I have never had a problem. I recall one time gas was supposed to take a 10-15 cent a litre jump so I took the MH down and filled it, drove home and took the van, and went back with the car but by that time there was a lock on it, phoned the customer service and they removed it so I could fill it. They were (rightfully so) protecting me as three gas fills in the space of a couple hrs normally would indicate that the card was stolen.
I don't know why this is such a difficult concept to understand... The station owner sets the pay-at-the-pump transaction limit if he wants one. Now the owner might be Pop sitting in the little back office at Mom & Pop's Mobil Station on Elm Street, or it might be Jimmy Haslam sitting in the big corner office at Pilot Flying J HQ in Knoxville, but the bottom line is the owner makes decision. In their turn, the credit card companies set the limit on how much they will reimburse stations for fraudulent pay-at-the-pump transactions. That station owners frequently use that reimbursement limit as their own set point is in their hands, not the credit card company's.
"As part of their fraud prevention programs, gas merchants may set dollar limits for purchases at customer-activated pumps when payment cards are used. These limits often correspond to fraud protection limits granted by Discover Network and other card companies. In most circumstances, Discover Network generally protects gas merchants up to $75 for pay-at-the-pump transactions, increased from $50 last year."
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