"Ted" wrote in message ...
[...]
Speaking of which, to the OP: is it possible that the charge you are
seeing is just an authorization and not a charge? The self-pump might
have authorized an arbitrary large number to make sure your credit card
was good for it before it let you pump anything.

That's a very good point. Wish I'd thought of it when I was writing my
previous post.

It is indeed very common for the initial credit card transaction to be that
authorization. If you pick "fill up" on the pump, it will record an
authorization on your credit card equal to some pre-determined maximum (the
maximum fuel available on a "fill up" will be determined by this maximum and
the current fuel price).

Good thing Ted mentioned it...even though I was aware of this, I probably
wouldn't have gotten my brain in gear enough to connect the two.

Pete