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Ok, so today I used my lovely new Zync card at a Chevron gas station to put some gas into the car - the first stall(?) I tried wasn't dispensing the gas for me, and then the screen started flickering that the pump had stopped, please wait.. my boyfriend went in to tell the cashier who said they would stop it while I moved to the next stall, which did work.
So just now, I was checking my activity on the account, and I'm seeing 2 pending transactions for Chevron, both of which are at $100, while I only put $20 worth of gas on the card. I read on that page that totals might vary once they were posted and removed from the pending list - should I be worried about this, and does anyone have any idea what this could be? Should I wait to see what it posts as before possibly disputing or inquire about it now? Thanks in advance!
@Anonymous wrote:Ok, so today I used my lovely new Zync card at a Chevron gas station to put some gas into the car - the first stall(?) I tried wasn't dispensing the gas for me, and then the screen started flickering that the pump had stopped, please wait.. my boyfriend went in to tell the cashier who said they would stop it while I moved to the next stall, which did work.
So just now, I was checking my activity on the account, and I'm seeing 2 pending transactions for Chevron, both of which are at $100, while I only put $20 worth of gas on the card. I read on that page that totals might vary once they were posted and removed from the pending list - should I be worried about this, and does anyone have any idea what this could be? Should I wait to see what it posts as before possibly disputing or inquire about it now? Thanks in advance!
When you put your card in the pump. The gas station sends in a approval request with an arbitray amount for the purchase. Then when you are finished they send the actual amount. This preapproval will show as a pending charge for awhile (sometimes days) and then go away. While it is pending it will reduce your available credit. You did 2 pumps so there is an extra $200 pending. There is nothing to do, it happens all the time and will go away on its own.
I find the $100 preapproval quite annoying, I prefer the stations which do $1. If you know you are close to the limit on a card you should go to the cashier and tell them the amount you want and they will preapprove at that level.
Gee the hold is $100 now? They keep getting more and more expensive. The holds around Boston are $75. It's crazy. Not that it matters on a credit card like Zync, but still...what if someone was using their debit card as a charge and was broke? That'd be horrible for them.
It's not Amex putting the 100$ auth on your account, it's the service stations' credit card authorization center that they use that does. I ran into this same situation with my Discover card. I only use service stations in my area that authorize 1$ on my account. Some higher risk areas of the country, and cities may inflict the 100$ auth, but drops once the actual charge is presented.
It is the individual stores that set the amount. For gas stations that I have seen mostly $1, but quite a few $40, or $100.
The pre-authorization amounts skyrocketed a few years ago when gas prices were over $4/gallon. SUV owners sometimes had to run there cards several times to fill a tank of gas. In response, the gas stations upped the pre-authorization amounts.
Nothing to worry about, unless you have a credit limit issue.