[aft_lizard]

It’s not the card company its the place you got gas from, they are the ones putting the hold.

[Maine Mariner]

Yes, we understand that.

[Gabz]

It’s not the card company its the place you got gas from, they are the ones putting the hold.

WRONG - it is SOP for all debit cards at any gas pump. I never use a card at a pump - I always go inside.

[RightField]

I have had the opposite of this happen. When my son was in college, we had his debit card linked to our main checking account for overdraft purposes. One day I get a ping from the bank (along with a $16 overdraft charge) to cover a $40 gasoline purchase. It turns out the gas station only authorized the card for $1.00 at the time of purchase. The next day, they deducted the total amount. Of course, dear son was scraping the bottom of his account and did not have enough funds to pay.

He said he knew his funds were low, but he just assumed that the card would not be authorized if there were insufficient funds ... or that the pump would stop when the funds ran out.

The bank told me that it is up to the "point of service" as to how much they authorize the card for. They said is was quite customary for a gas station to only authorize $1, and the settle up the next day.

They did refund my $16, though, because we were long-time customers.