"John" wrote in message ...


Matt Barrow wrote:

Just returned from Oshkosh home to Pierre SD. I filled up at Dodge
Center MN this AM and not being familiar with the self serve gas
fillup, I did not hang up the pump handle properly. Somebody after
me
continued pumping another $150 on my credit card ($200 instead of
about
$50). My experimental only holds 35 gal bone dry. If it was you that
accidentally filled up that morning after me and don't see
corresponding "HARTLAND FUEL PRODUCTS - DODGE CENTER" credit card
charges on your card please contact me. Paul at 605-224-0660

Now that's been a few days, has the charge amount POSTED to your
credit
card account? Is it an even number like $200 or is it a more realistic
number like $197.34 ?

Question is: How did he know, as soon as he did (a matter of hours),
that
someone pumped gas on his card?

As Ted wrote in another post, the OP probably checked his account online
or
even via telephone. MBNA credit cards (such as AOPA credit card) even
show
authorizations in real time so it would show online immediately after the
transaction. Some transactions (like hotel rooms, rental cars, and gas
purchases) authorize a higher amount off the bat then will eventually be
posted, so that's why I asked my questions. You only pay what actually
POSTS,
which might vary from what can be authorized. So it is possible the OP
wasn't
actually charged anything higher than what he expected at the time of
purchase.

That'd work. So are you saying the $200 is the AUTHORIZATION amount, not the
TRANSACTION amount? I've seen delays on those of up to a day or two. I
suspect that an FBO that has a full time connection would have better timing
on the data than one whose system has to do a modem dialup and then batch
transactions at end of day/overnight.