@ReturnOfTheCredi wrote:
@seattletravels wrote:Right. Your bank knows if you have funds available, why would they place the hold? The gas station does it to ensure the card is active and there is funds available.
So does the gas station distrust AMEX? Why am o having this issue with the Propel, but nothing else? At the same stations?
Who knows? Maybe they want to discourage you from using Amex because the swipe fee is higher.
@seattletravels wrote:Right. Your bank knows if you have funds available, why would they place the hold? The gas station does it to ensure the card is active and there is funds available.
Because the gas station doesn't know if I have $2 in my account or $1000. The hold isn't placed by the bank, it's placed by the station. How long it's held is determined by the bank. Makes no sense that a bank won't place a hold because they know what's in my checking account but a credit card will hold $100 of a $5000 limit. You have available limit, why would it matter. I can have $2 in my checking account and it'll let me pump $100 because it was only a $1 pre-authorization.
@seattletravels wrote:
@ReturnOfTheCredi wrote:
@seattletravels wrote:Right. Your bank knows if you have funds available, why would they place the hold? The gas station does it to ensure the card is active and there is funds available.
So does the gas station distrust AMEX? Why am o having this issue with the Propel, but nothing else? At the same stations?
Who knows? Maybe they want to discourage you from using Amex because the swipe fee is higher.
That's a reasonable thought. Odd that other AMEX card users are saying it doesn't happen to them, but of course, it's the gas stations that we're using making the call it seems.
@Brian_Earl_Spilner wrote:
@seattletravels wrote:Right. Your bank knows if you have funds available, why would they place the hold? The gas station does it to ensure the card is active and there is funds available.
Because the gas station doesn't know if I have $2 in my account or $1000. The hold isn't placed by the bank, it's placed by the station. How long it's held is determined by the bank. Makes no sense that a bank won't place a hold because they know what's in my checking account but a credit card will hold $100 of a $5000 limit. You have available limit, why would it matter. I can have $2 in my checking account and it'll let me pump $100 because it was only a $1 pre-authorization.
Right. That's what I'm saying. When gas stations started doing the preauth holds many years ago they were doing it on both debit and credit cards. If I remember correctly, there was law passed in the early 00s that restricts the hold on debit cards.
@ReturnOfTheCredi wrote:WF, btw, holds my payments as well. My payments will post one day and three days later, it still hasn't been added back to my credit line. They claim it's because I'm new to them and my payment account is external and that it will get better, but after clearing six payments with them (all good size), it hasn't made any difference.
I had the same problem with payments clearing and not releasing available credit for up to 7days. After I cut my 2nd statement (3rd technical because they cut a $0 statement when they mail the card) this stopped happening and now when I pay the available credit is refreshed when the payment clears. I had no prior WF history and was paying from a non-WF bank.
@ReturnOfTheCredi wrote:I just started using my new WF Propel card at the beginning of the month as my "daily driver" and noticed something I'd never seen before when stopping for gas: Gas stations......ALL OF THEM....place a $100 hold on my card for every swipe, even cancelled transactions! This lasts for 5-6 days at a time. When I contacted WF support, I was told this is normal and all cards do it. I've been using my Cap1 Venture and then my Savor as my daily card for years and had never seen this before, but figured it may have been me just not paying attention as my credit line is much bigger on those cards and WF had started me at $3k which means I have to pay attention more. My car is diesel and I later stopped at a station where all the diesel
pumps are located under a tractor trailer pull-through. When I pumped there.....an instant text notification of a $350 purchase/hold against my credit line! I understood why since it catered to trucks, but WOW! Called again and told the same thing.....all cards do this.
This morning, I put that to the test. Tried the Savor at that exact same pump: They put a hold on $1.00, immediately refunded that hold and charged the actual $33.00 in its place. So the WF line that it's normal and "all cards do this" is bunk. WF does this. Cap1 does not. Not sure about others.
Between this and the app ease of use.....and doing the math to realize my rewards will be roughly identical on either card.....it looks like I'm switching back to using my Savor.
Thought I would share for anyone who may not have realized any of this like me.
I've had that $100 hold happen to me a couple of times, but very rarely. It's not true that all gas stations do it.
