Community Forums

336muffin · 05-29-2012, 04:14 PM

I don't like walking into a truck stop with $400.00 + in cash with a lot of people hanging around, it is easy to see what I am doing and clear what I am driving. Some undesirables could figure out that there might be more where that came from! Pennies on a gallon is NOT my concern, what the TS gets charged is not my question, I just want to purchase my fuel as easy as possible and enjoy the ride without the hassle of jumping through flaming hoops and standing on one foot while holding a CC to my head and wondering what is happening in the slot I swiped or stuffed the cash. I'm simply tired of the pump shutting off before my 150 gallon tank gets full. If I was confusing at my OP, I'm sorry for the rant,..... but I feel better LOL.

djbmsu · 05-29-2012, 06:51 PM

Here is my 2 cents, I am told from our bank President ( Bank of America ) "banks DO NOT set the limit on credit card purchases. ( I also called Pentagon Federal CU ) and was told the very same. It IS the station that sets the limits. I have purchased on both cards at different stations and had the sale stopped at 99.00 and then again at 150.00 at another station. CC is all I use for receipts and if there is any problem with the fuel purchased.

Nhytefall · 05-29-2012, 07:03 PM

If I may, I can confirm that the banks do have some say in the single purchase limit on a card (also known as the pre-authorization limit), but it is by no means a hard and fast rule. If there is a pre-auth limit, it is set by the retailer, according to their contract with the credit card association (visa/mastercard/etc). Unfortunately, the card issuing bank cannot override merchant/association limits.

Ray,IN · 05-29-2012, 08:12 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Wanabee FTer

As a station owner explained it to me, the CC companies automatically shut the pumps off at a pre-determined sale amount. Each time you swipe your card another transaction fee is charged to the station. This is why many gas stations charge extra for CC vs. cash at the pump.

The only way around this is to have the station operator turn the pump on for you before you fill, or start the CC process all over again when the max pump amount is reached.

I don't like to carry large amounts of cash so I have restarted the pump multiple times with my CC to fill the tank.

Station managers play the blame game. I emailed Discover and asked why they stopped my card at $75 or $100. The reply stated that it would not be in their interest to limit use of a Discover card, for any amount up to the card limit; it went further to state they have never set such a limit on their CC. I assume other cards, MC, Visa, etc act the same.

As to use of the RV card, the onscreen instructions say to swipe CC first, then RV card. I have followed those instructions for many fuel stops and refueling went smoothly.

cb1000rider · 05-29-2012, 08:44 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by djbmsu

Here is my 2 cents, I am told from our bank President ( Bank of America ) "banks DO NOT set the limit on credit card purchases. ( I also called Pentagon Federal CU ) and was told the very same. It IS the station that sets the limits. I have purchased on both cards at different stations and had the sale stopped at 99.00 and then again at 150.00 at another station. CC is all I use for receipts and if there is any problem with the fuel purchased.

Here's the rub:
When you start the pump, the credit card company is billed a pre-authorization, usually $75-$100. This makes sure that you have enough money to pay for your fuel. This pre-auth is automatic when you swipe the card.

When you stop the pump under that amount, you're actually billed for the fuel, but the pre-authorization stays there, usually for 12-36 hours, depending on your bank. Essentially you're billed twice off of your credit limit, but only once in real money.

If station owners raise the pre-auth, many more cards will decline and many consumers complain as you just impacted their last $$$ of credit...

You can, however, walk in and bill $200 of gas up front.

Note, last time I paid with cash, I was told that the register wouldn't accept $200 in fuel. I had to pay $100 then pay $100 again... Cash... Lovely.

Wanabee FTer · 05-29-2012, 08:48 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Ray,IN

I emailed Discover and asked why they stopped my card at $75 or $100. The reply stated that it would not be in their interest to limit use of a Discover card, for any amount up to the card limit; it went further to state they have never set such a limit on their CC.

The CC company has nothing to do with this. Whether it's Visa MC AMEX or Discover is does not matter. Anyone that accepts credit card payments has to have a merchant account.

CC Processing center's are also known as Merchant account providers.
They are the go between company for the merchant and the bank. They charge a small hidden fee to handle the CC processing, usually appx .35% per transaction or 25 cents per transaction.

There are many different merchant providers and they all charge for their services in a slightly different way. If they charge 25 cents per transaction for a gas station merchant, it is in their best interest to limit pay at the pump sales. Especially since they will be liable for any incorrect charges.

The bank did not lie to you, the person you emailed just did not know how the entire CC sales process works.

Ray,IN · 05-30-2012, 04:19 AM

Right John, thanks for "the rest of the story" that I forgot to include.

clyon51 · 05-30-2012, 06:26 AM

We got the P/FJ RV card recently and really like it. The pump has never cut off (largest puchase so far $253.00). Everything done at the pump including receipt with discount amount noted on it.

Since we have a gasser, this is in the auto and RV lanes. No idea how these "RV" cards would work in truck/diesel lanes.

num1dgh · 05-30-2012, 06:34 AM

We ran into that issue and then also the issue of our credit card company randomly deciding that they should cut off our credit card because we were using gas out of our "normal" or home area. Even if I informed the credit card company where we were going they would still do that. Once we got the diesel, it became a real pain! Now we generally use our CFN card to fill up, or cash. Occasionally, I will still use our visa (we do get 1% back) but always go into the gas station. They do sometimes insist on an amount, so we've gotten good at guestimating how much it will take. The CFN card has really eased up any challenges with getting the large amounts of diesel, and we're able to plan our trips around fueling up at CFNs with no problem.

Doug Sage · 05-30-2012, 06:48 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by djbmsu

Here is my 2 cents, I am told from our bank President ( Bank of America ) "banks DO NOT set the limit on credit card purchases. ( I also called Pentagon Federal CU ) and was told the very same. It IS the station that sets the limits. I have purchased on both cards at different stations and had the sale stopped at 99.00 and then again at 150.00 at another station. CC is all I use for receipts and if there is any problem with the fuel purchased.

It's the gas station that sets the limits!!! It's all based upon the fact that the credit card company will only reimburse the merchant for $75 in case of fraud. Therefore the gas station has to decide if they are willing to take any risk and how much. That is why you see some shut off at $75 or some other amount. My thought is that it is like shoplifting. The merchant needs to price his product to cover this "shrinkage" so he needs to take the risk. He blames the credit card company but it is only because they don't set their limit as high as we all would like it.

Luckiest Dreamer · 05-30-2012, 04:43 PM

I personaly do not care who is limiting my purchase to $75, it is still a pain in the @#$%@!

mackpeteno · 05-30-2012, 05:31 PM

At most small stores,in daylight I choose Pay Inside.I still have to go inside but only once.

itscottw · 05-30-2012, 05:55 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Doug Sage

It's the gas station that sets the limits!!! It's all based upon the fact that the credit card company will only reimburse the merchant for $75 in case of fraud. Therefore the gas station has to decide if they are willing to take any risk and how much. That is why you see some shut off at $75 or some other amount. My thought is that it is like shoplifting. The merchant needs to price his product to cover this "shrinkage" so he needs to take the risk. He blames the credit card company but it is only because they don't set their limit as high as we all would like it.

I never though about it this way. It certainly sounds very reasonable. If the stations are charged a $.25 processing fee (in addition to the percentage of the overall sale) I would have to assume that the station would rather spend an extra $.50 to process a card 3 times for a single RV fillup than take the risk of having to cover this "shrinkage"?

336muffin · 05-30-2012, 06:18 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Luckiest Dre

I personaly do not care who is limiting my purchase to $75, it is still a pain in the @#$%@!

That is exactly what I'm having problems with. I plan my fuel stops and have pumped as much as 138 gallons, at $4.00 a gallon that is a lot of time wasted at $75.00 a shot. Takes for ever! My Kenworth held 450 gallons and never had a problem with the pump shutting off.