AOPA credit card --- WARNING.

Janet wrote:
Morgans wrote:


Increasing that value would mean larger credit/debit preauthorized holds for
everybody, including the vast majority of people that fill up with less than
$50 at time. Why inconvenience everybody? If you need to pump more, just
restart the pump or pay with another method.


It would if the original premise was true, but in fact, the $50 is an arbitrary
limit set by the pump. It has nothing to do with the preauth.

On Tue, 7 Dec 2004 23:39:14 -0500, "Morgans"
wrote:

Sometimes a preauthorized hold is put on the card without an actual
transaction
amount known yet just to make sure there will be enough funds available.
Examples are pay-at-the-gas-pump transactions (usually $50 is
preauthorized
before you start pumping),

What is that all about? $50 for gas on a card? That does not even come
close for me. My full size work van has a tank that will hold 31.6 gallons
of gas, and still be running. With gas at times up to $1.89, I have to let
the pump shut off, and then have to start up another charge to finish
filling up. Let's get real here, gas station owners of America!Thanks, I
feel better now.

Required aviation content: I drove that van up to OSH this year, and it
would have been cheaper to charter a plane, after buying the gas and a new
transmission. (well, almost) :-)

I'll bet it's because of "Drive off's". People who fill their tanks
and split without paying. The higher the gas prices, the more the
occurrences, at least around here.

One gas station told me about an RV that topped off with 70 gallons,
then drove off without paying.

Corky Scott

Corky Scott wrote:

I'll bet it's because of "Drive off's". People who fill their tanks
and split without paying. The higher the gas prices, the more the
occurrences, at least around here.

Can't be done when you pay at the pump with a credit card (which is what this
part of the thread has morphed to). You put the card in first.

George Patterson
The desire for safety stands against every great and noble enterprise.

Corky Scott wrote:

I'll bet it's because of "Drive off's". People who fill their tanks
and split without paying. The higher the gas prices, the more the
occurrences, at least around here.

Can't be done when you pay at the pump with a credit card (which is what
this
part of the thread has morphed to). You put the card in first.

George Patterson

Good Point. So all you gas station owners, Raise The Damn Limit!
--
Jim in NC

Ron Natalie wrote:

Morgans wrote:
saction

amount known yet just to make sure there will be enough funds available.
Examples are pay-at-the-gas-pump transactions (usually $50 is

preauthorized

before you start pumping),

Actually, that's WRONG. What they usually do is put through a $1
preauthorization. The $50 limit they put on the pumping is a number
that the point of sale determines is the max they will do based on that
$1 preauth.

I'm familiar with pump POS systems that preauthorize $50. YMMV.

If the customer spends more than is preauthorized the merchant is not
guaranteed to get those funds. However I'm not surprised that some gas
stations would not be willing to take that risk since they readily accept
the risk of not requiring a signature, let alone not checking the signature.

Morgans wrote:

"Janet" wrote

Increasing that value would mean larger credit/debit preauthorized holds
for
everybody, including the vast majority of people that fill up with less
than
$50 at time. Why inconvenience everybody?

Inconvenience? What? You mean there are people running around filling
their tanks with a credit card, that will not have another $10 available on
their credit line?

The $50 limit is set because it serves the vast majority of customers without
undue inconvenience of holding checking account money or tying up unnecessary
credit.


I'm not buying it, and neither would you if you thought
about it. In the meantime, it costs me, and all others with big tanks
another few extra minutes when we fill up.

I doubt you will find much willingness on the part of most consumers to require
more of their money to be held to save a moment to restart the pump for thirsty
gas guzzlers. Try using online debit.

*That* is inconvenience, and I
will not go back to a place that has not kept up with the times and made a
higher preauthorizations.

That's certainly your right. Since you don't shop at gas merchants where they
have only a $50 limit at least you don't have to deal with it when you do buy
gas.

Debit cards are limited too. I use autogas and I fill 7-5 gallon cans as
well as my car sometimes. I like to put 5 gallons exactly in the cans and
now that's more difficult to do since it cuts me off in the middle of a can.

mike regish

"Janet" wrote in message ...
Morgans wrote:

Try using online debit.

Bob Noel wrote:

In article Tsdqd.405505$wV.131490@attbi_s54,
"Jay Honeck" wrote:

:-( Then I won't be able to make a reservation for business travel at
your hotel.

Or anywhere else, for that matter.

Jay: I have a Diners Club card which I've been using the early 90's
for business travel.

I don't know of a single hotel (or even small B&B in our market) that
doesn't pre-authorize guaranteed reservations on a credit card.

right. But your hotel is the only one that I've heard of that doesn't
take American Express or Diners. I don't have a Visa card
(just a debit card)

Diners Club is going to be affliliated with the Mastercard network in the very
near future, so you'll be fine at Jay's Hotel. CitiBank knows what's up these
days.

Jay Honeck wrote:

One lesser known fact about credit card companies is that they will screw
the VENDOR far more readily than they will their customers.

has American Express or Diners Club done the same to you?
(just curious)

We'll never know -- I threw BOTH of them out right after we opened, after
they tried to charge us 5% for each transaction. (The other cards -- Visa,
Mastercard & Discover -- charge us "only" 4% for the privilege of "working"
with them.)

Here's another credit card mystery: Why the hell does ANYONE use any card
but Discover? Everyone else charges to use their cards, while Discover
actually PAYS you to use their card -- yet they are a distant third or
fourth in the industry.

Marketing is everything to American consumers, I guess..

You might want to shop around for a better merchant bank deal--4% seems awfully
high for a hotel and signed receipts. You may be able to get a little less than
3% for Visa and Mastercard although your negotiating power will be limited by
your volume. Discover Card has historically charged lower merchant rates than
the big 2--they had to do that to gain merchant market share, just as they paid
cash back to gain consumer market share. American Express has always charged
higher merchant fees/rates, because they could.

Today there are numerous cards that pay more cashback than Discover. Discover
only pays 1% after you charge so many thousands per year (before that you get a
lower percentage cash back). Chase, Citi, BaA, and some others have a few cards
that pay a straight 1%. Discover used to let you "double" your rebate with a
bunch of merchant partners, but the doubling merchants have dwindled to a
trickle in the last year.

MBNA appears to eat part of their 5% AOPA rebate, so a lot of people must pay
them interest on these cards to make it worthwhile. Thanks, guys.

"mike regish" wrote

Debit cards are limited too. I use autogas and I fill 7-5 gallon cans as
well as my car sometimes. I like to put 5 gallons exactly in the cans and
now that's more difficult to do since it cuts me off in the middle of a
can.

mike regish

Janet is arguing, just to argue. There is not a reason that she has given
that stands up. It all boils down to the gas station operators being too
lazy to keep up with the changing gas prices necessitating a rise of the
purchase limit.

They can do it if they want to. They have done it at least 2 times before.
Some have already done it again. They will get my business.
--
Jim in NC