topic Re: Gas pre-auth on pay inside in SmorgasBoard

Gas pre-auth on pay inside

pakratus — Mon, 24 Nov 2025 16:10:38 GMT

Do gas stations have a generic pre-authorization button instead of having to provide a specific dollar amount to prepay?

Tap to pay at the pump didn't work last night and I had to go inside to prepay. I had to come up with a dollar amount to tell them. The last couple times, I've come up with a number that's not quite enough to fill; I recognize this is my issue, I have to use a larger number. But it got me thinking, why can't there be a button that doesn't require an amount?

Re: Gas pre-auth on pay inside

LIGHTNIN — Tue, 25 Nov 2025 02:06:04 GMT

The same thing happened to my DH at rhe Exxon gas station, when he was using a debit card, it didn't work. After trail and error, we found out if our checking account had at least $125, it would work at the pump.

When you don't know, how much it takes to fill up your vehicle, hit the call button and ask the clerk to turn the pump on, that you'll pay inside. DH use to work at a gas station, the clerk can turn it on, as long as he's not too busy with customers because the clerk has to write down a description of the person and vehicle. Hope this helps.

Re: Gas pre-auth on pay inside

LiamDavis — Thu, 27 Nov 2025 00:27:15 GMT

I think a button with no amount would be really confusing personally.

Re: Gas pre-auth on pay inside

ptatohed — Sun, 07 Dec 2025 03:10:14 GMT

I'm pretty sure you can give a dollar amount higher than you think you'll need and they will only charge you what you used.

Re: Gas pre-auth on pay inside

pizzadude — Tue, 20 Jan 2026 21:36:20 GMT

Since the store doesn't know how much gas you'll actually end up pumping, the authorization checks that the card is valid, and that the merchant can authorize a purchase of $XX against the card. Most pumps these days seem to authorize at least $75 or $100 based on card types, which more or less functions as you're describing.

In the store, it works the same way except you're telling them the amount to authorize. The pump allows you to pump less than that amount but not more. If they authorized the same amount in the store as the pump I'm guessing enough people would complain about not getting the immediate credit back on their card if, for example they authorized $75 but only ended up getting $50 in gas.

In a perfect world the authorization drops off when the actual charge settles but I think there can be delays, which causes even more problems for people using debit cards as it locks up actual $$ instead of a credit limit.

Re: Gas pre-auth on pay inside

imaximous — Tue, 27 Jan 2026 18:15:02 GMT

Not sure if it works the same way at every single gas station, but you can authorize a higher amount than really needed. When done, you go back inside and the clerk will issue a refund for the difference. At one gas station I frequent, they actually ask you if you want a refund back to your card or get cashback. I always choose cashback and keep the extra tiny rewards for the purchase

You do need to be careful with that, though. Depending on the type of gas station, like those attached to Grocery stores, the pumps code as gas, but the store could code as groceries. That happens to be the case at the one station I was referring to above.

Re: Gas pre-auth on pay inside

AndrewF — Wed, 04 Mar 2026 00:09:11 GMT

@pizzadude wrote:
Since the store doesn't know how much gas you'll actually end up pumping, the authorization checks that the card is valid, and that the merchant can authorize a purchase of $XX against the card. Most pumps these days seem to authorize at least $75 or $100 based on card types, which more or less functions as you're describing.

In the store, it works the same way except you're telling them the amount to authorize. The pump allows you to pump less than that amount but not more. If they authorized the same amount in the store as the pump I'm guessing enough people would complain about not getting the immediate credit back on their card if, for example they authorized $75 but only ended up getting $50 in gas.

In a perfect world the authorization drops off when the actual charge settles but I think there can be delays, which causes even more problems for people using debit cards as it locks up actual $$ instead of a credit limit.

Yeah, I topped off my tank today because I have just joined AARP and it said a gas transaction of any amount would trigger a "welcome" reward of $5 on my next visit. I decided that since I'll be out of town the next few days, put a couple gallons of gas in since I had a limited time to get the reward but the reward stays on my account forever once I have it.

Shell has a better promo right now (5 cent Fuel Rewards per gallon with complimentary Gold for AARP members, an additional 45 cents a gallon off your first tank, and 22 cents a gallon off every Sunday if you activate the Race Days, and all of these stack, then you can pay with a gas rewards card like the PayPal one set to gas for 5%).

But I wanted to make sure I got the extra $5 reward for whenever Shell stops the Race Days or I need a mid-week refueling.

AARP members get an additional 1 point per gallon, so that's 4 points per gallon on any grade except their best. The Premium grade gas gets 7 points per gallon.

I don't like to go around putting generic gasoline in my car. AAA did an actual study to see if Top Tier actually was better, and they concluded that it was. Generic gas stations can lead to more than 10 times as many carbon deposits in an engine, which over time can cause loss of fuel efficiency and poor engine running conditions that may even cause the car to fail a smog test.

Switching to Top Tier was found to remove 47% of the deposits left behind on a high mileage V8 pickup truck's engine that had been operated on "supermarket gas" for most of its life, over just 1,000 miles of operating on Top Tier.

The AAA study authors speculated that running it longer than 1,000 miles would likely have additional cleaning effects.

My guess is that most of the deposit removal action would occur on the intake runners and intake valves. We've seen in-tank cleanup products that are supposed to clean fuel systems, but they have mixed results. Most do absolutely nothing, the ones that have PEA detergents in them fare somewhat better, but figure anything that involves fuel additives will mostly remove intake valve/runner deposits.

Most OEMs that make a recommendation say use Top Tier routinely. KIA said if you can't do that, chase the non-top tier with a bottle of Chevron Techron every 5,000 miles.

Re: Gas pre-auth on pay inside

FicoMike0 — Wed, 04 Mar 2026 00:38:57 GMT

I have a simple policy, no pay at the pump, I'm outta there. Plenty of other stations.

Re: Gas pre-auth on pay inside

AndrewF — Wed, 04 Mar 2026 01:02:21 GMT

@FicoMike0 wrote:
I have a simple policy, no pay at the pump, I'm outta there. Plenty of other stations.

The local Exxon down the street from my apartment is pretty sketchy anyway (they advertise that they sell those synthetic drugs, in the window). Rough crowd that goes in there. I absolutely never go inside for anything.

I couldn't figure out why it wouldn't take my PayPal Debit but then an earlier post said it has to have minimum of $125 in the account, and when I inserted the AmEx card that's what it preauthorized.

Re: Gas pre-auth on pay inside

FicoMike0 — Wed, 04 Mar 2026 01:26:58 GMT

Ditto @AndrewF

There are a few stations where it looks like a drug deal is going down often, I don't go there at all.

I've noticed some pumps charge $1 initally, then update to the sale price.

Since I've been playing the credit card game, thats the only way I buy gas. Usually with usb connect, 4X points, sometimes another card offers 5 or 10%.

Re: Gas pre-auth on pay inside

AndrewF — Wed, 04 Mar 2026 02:20:05 GMT

@FicoMike0 wrote:
Ditto @AndrewF
There are a few stations where it looks like a drug deal is going down often, I don't go there at all.
I've noticed some pumps charge $1 initally, then update to the sale price.
Since I've been playing the credit card game, thats the only way I buy gas. Usually with usb connect, 4X points, sometimes another card offers 5 or 10%.

Not political. But with the War in Iran we're all going to want a gas card that pays 5% soon. (Oil futures have gone sky high and the gas stations have started price gouging today in anticipation of the Strait of Hormuz being closed and sewing chaos in oil markets.)

My Paypal debit can do 5%.

The next best one I have is 3% on the AmEx.

Re: Gas pre-auth on pay inside

FicoMike0 — Wed, 04 Mar 2026 03:18:09 GMT

I might take a look at the PayPal debit. I think I have five debut cards frozen in my sock drawer, lol. The only one that pays anything is amex and it's not much.

As far as this war, I'm old. We've been quaking in our boots over the straits for 47 years. It appears to me that the only way iran closes the straits is if we let them. I'm retired from the military aero industry. The only reason massive air power doesn't work is when we're too worried about enemy casualties to use it. I don't think that's the case this time.

We have some really nasty stuff, look up cbu-97. When they drop those, it looks like star wars on the ground.

Re: Gas pre-auth on pay inside

AndrewF — Wed, 04 Mar 2026 04:06:12 GMT

@FicoMike0 wrote:
I might take a look at the PayPal debit. I think I have five debut cards frozen in my sock drawer, lol. The only one that pays anything is amex and it's not much.
As far as this war, I'm old. We've been quaking in our boots over the straits for 47 years. It appears to me that the only way iran closes the straits is if we let them. I'm retired from the military aero industry. The only reason massive air power doesn't work is when we're too worried about enemy casualties to use it. I don't think that's the case this time.
We have some really nasty stuff, look up cbu-97. When they drop those, it looks like star wars on the ground.

I pull over at Shell or Exxon now mostly, but any station that is on the Top Tier list is fine. Apparently, even Meijer is Top Tier now (didn't know that) according to the app.

It doesn't take my car long to not sound good on bargain basement gasoline. I got a tank that was so bad that it caused my engine to start misfiring and I learned my lesson about the generic stores. The 5% on PayPal has been part of my game plan for a while to counter the higher prices at the name brand chains.

But they almost all have various other rebates and gimmicks you can stack. You don't have to pay a lot for good gas. The other day I pulled over at Shell, and even though it's Top Tier and Illinois now raises the gas tax by the CPI every year, I still paid just $2.28 a gallon in the end, even though the sticker price was just shy of $3.

I got there with the Race Days 22 cents promotion, the Fuel Rewards 5 cents promotion, a special Upside rebate that raised the usual 9 cents to 39 cents (almost every month Upside says if you use it 5-6 times they boost your next gas rebate), and my 5% PayPal Debit card set to "Fuel".

The PayPal Debit works on anything you buy at the gas station, so even if you drive an EV and pull up to the supercharging station at the Shell, you'll get 5% back off the supercharger.

Anyway, so all these promotions get the cost of gas under what you pay for bargain basement brands. Around these parts, you only save 10-15 cents a gallon on bargain basement gasoline. It's just not worth having engine problems.

As far as gas prices go, like 47% of that is determined by the price of crude oil, and all those shot up almost 15% I think, so far, based on the idea of the Iran situation hurting oil trade.

But I actually do see why we're kicking Iran in the teeth very hard right now. It's either rip the band-aid off and deal with some short-term disruption, or have them go on being a constant problem. It takes a lot of money to get very little done when you're on the defense. When Iran was firing thousands of cheap drones and rockets at Israel, the US was busy shooting things like Standard Missile 2 and 3 at them for millions of dollars a shot.

Even if absolutely nothing came down on Israel, the cost alone to keep doing that is enormous. So the result of hitting the snooze alarm on the Iran Problem was that we could just end up doing that. When you can fire missiles and drones that cost hundreds or thousands of dollars, and it takes interceptors that can cost a million dollars or more per shot to deal with it, you're winning the economic war. Nothing even has to land, you're wearing the enemy down because of sheer costs.

Then there's the knock on bonus that if we take care of the source of the problem, they're not going to be an arms supplier of weapons of terror to Russia anymore, which sets Russia back in their war on Ukraine.