is it cheaper to pay cash in Houston? It is like 10-15 cents a gallon cheaper if you pay cash in florida, also no hold on card.

Only at those random ass mom n pop gas stations. But for the most part no.

...wtfux.

Is this common practice in other parts of the country?? Sounds ten kinds of shady to me.

Bars pre authorize enough to cover the average tab and a tip in lots of places. Google how credit transactions work. You dont get charged until the machine is batched out. It costs them more to run a debit transaction because it processes immediately. That is nearly everywhere with a credit card terminal. How else could you overdraft a checking account with a card?


What is strange in his situation is they are pre authorizing enough to cover an entire fill up. That means they are getting a lot of pump and runs.

I understand batch processing; I do tech support for a retail company. I've never heard of gas stations pre-auth'ing (x) amount before you fill your tank, though. As KoJ and Krnboi mentioned previously, that doesn't exist in California.

I understand that it's (obviously) different in different parts of the country, but it still seems shady. Seems like it's a fist in the consumer's colon.

"Oh, sorry that hold hasn't cleared yet, and you're now overdrawn. QQ moar, nub."

hmm nope, i usually pay debit

Ya that's not how life is.

This is not an uncommon thing. Some places will even reject the card if the $50 isn't there. You would of course have to go inside and pre pay to fuel up.

Happens a lot of places, when I use my discover card I normally get charged 1$ for a pre-auth then the rest comes out.

Just another example of the rich getting richer

Ugggg

Happens in Canada (at least where I am at). Only charges what you take out though, just checks to make sure there is enough funds in their for the transaction is all. Only happens with Credit I believe.

Hopefully works out for you.