January 8, 2009
- Pasco, Washington
How much Are you Risking With your Card?
By Holly Zuluaga
TRI-CITIES--In these tough times every dollar counts, so when your money is tied up and you can't get to it you'll probably feel the pinch.
When you pay outside at a gas station, your debit or credit card is pre-authorized because the company doesn't know how much you're going to pump. That authorization could be as much as $75, even if you only pump $30. So that means you can't spend the other $45, until the transaction is posted. This hold can take a few minutes or a few days and until it's cleared you might come up short. Several members of the Tri-Cities shared their stories with Action News about the problems this has caused. "Each gas station or their parent company determines the hold amount, individual financial institutions could choose to lower that amount if they wished, but then they would take on the risk if that account couldn't cover the amount pumped," Bernadette Flynn from Hapo Credit Union said. Basically both the places need to make sure they're covered. Most holds haven't changed even though gas prices are dropping. "I don't think that with gas prices going down that we would necessarily see that hold amount go down in the immediate future, maybe long term," Flynn said. An easy way to free up the hold, don't pay at the pump. Take your credit card inside. That way the exact amount you spend is clear, or make sure to use debit pin option at the pump and the transaction will clear right away. Visa actually just changed their system last month. They're trying to eliminate holds, but gas stations will have to upgrade their payment processing systems. It's not clear will how much it will cost. |
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