My wife and I are currently driving cross country (US), and earlier in the day we stopped at a Pilot gas station in Tennessee.
I exited the vehicle, tapped my card on the thing to authorize my card and pay, got about 30 bucks of gas, then went inside and paid for a drink and snacks with a different card.
300 miles later, we stop at another gas station and while we do we check our cards and notice a 150 dollar charge on the same card used for gas at that exact Pilot. Strangely the 30 dollar charge for the gas was there too. We immediately call our credit card company and they say its a pending charge and cannot do anything about it until its went through, so we pause the card.
I call the gas station itself and spoke to a manager, and was told its an authorization charge and will go away. 150 dollars is a crazy amount for an authorization charge and makes little sense to me, has anyone ever experienced this before? Is it normal?
(Meta: I didn’t know where else to put this, but wanted to ask my fellow Lemmites, is that okay?)
Update: The charge has been removed from our account, so alls good. This is the first time I have ever seen an authorization charge so big, so it scared me, thanks to everyone for informing me on these charges, I’ll know to keep my eye out in the future and not worry so much!
Both of you guys are missing the point.
He wasnt charged 150 bucks for gas.
The gas station is using a 150 dollar pre-charge to make sure the card is good. most places only do a 1 dollar pre-charge.
150 is stupid.
They do a charge that would cover a tank of gas to make sure there’s enough on the card for the transaction.
If that was the reason and logic then every store would do that.
They don’t.
Everyone on earth but this one stupid ass gas station just does the 1 dollar precharge.
No, they don’t. I get $100 charges all the time. No all do, of course, but plenty do.
I could just as easily say the opposite from my experience and those around me. I get $1 charges all the time. Not all do, of course, but plenty do.