Pumps here take chip cards, so I insert the card, choose how much I want as a maximum (the local Petro-Can and Esso both have $200 as a default; unlike @Spoons , I usually lower it to $60; must have a smaller tank ), then the pump asks for my PIN, and it then checks for authorisation for that amount. Once authorised, I can pump up to the amount I’ve chosen. If I don’t need that much (eg tank is full at $55), that’s all I get charged. It stops at $60, even if the tank isn’t full.
I prefer to avoid that kind of pre-authorization at the pump, for no particular reason other than habit, and because I’m old and cranky and cannot, as the saying goes, be taught new tricks. I prefer to fill up and then go inside to pay. But yes, the one time I was forced to use pay-at-pump, I recall having to enter a dollar amount. Which was not quite enough to fill the tank, and when the amount was reached, the pump shut off.
ive had PayPal and Amazon take random amounts to my accounts for them to verify the accounts are useable usually .20-1.00
Ive had cards locked up when they thought they were stolen , like at one Xmas I spent 300 dollars at a GameStop on a somewhat new card. Gamestop let me use their phone to tell the cc company that yes it was me …but bank of America reversed a year’s subscription to World of Warcraft that originated in France …
In the UK, when I put my card in the slot on the pump, it limits me to £99.00.
Truck drivers with much larger tanks, have to get authorisation from an attendant before they can fill up.
When I book into a hotel, they always put a hold on some maximum they expect the final bill to be. I wondered if the fuel pump does the same for the £99 for the short time it takes ti fill up.
Not an option here in Alberta. You pay first, either by the pump as I’ve described, or by going in and asking for authorizing $150 on pump number 6, and handing over your card. The clerk will run your card, then tell you that you’re authorized up to $150 of fuel on pump number 6. You pump, and you pay for what you pump. You get a receipt at the pump. No further interaction with the clerk is necessary.
I’d like to take a long motor trip through the US, but I understand that US pumps do not recognize Canadian Visa cards. Something about zip codes. Well, America, maybe you should recognize Canadian Visa cards—we’re right next door, we’re probably your biggest source of tourism, and unless and until you recognize our Visa cards, which are supposed to be honored everywhere—I won’t be taking that motor trip. I’m sure that there are many Canadians who feel the same.
That has to be some sort of misunderstanding, or some strange isolated occurrence because of some oil company demanding location information for marketing purposes. I’ve driven in the US (years ago) and so has my son (much more recently) and never had a problem. The whole point of all the money that VISA Corporation charges banks for their network services is universal acceptance.
In the USA, gas stations are one of the most common places where fraudulent credit cards are used.
In an attempt to reduce that fraud, starting about a decade ago many (most) pumps now ask the user to input the billing address zip code associated with the credit card they’re trying to use. On the theory that somebody using a lost or stolen card won’t know that info and their fraud attempt will be stymied.
In classic US-centric thinking, there is no provision for inputting a Canadian postal code. The same Canadian credit card would work fine if taken inside and presented to a clerk, or taken next door and presented at a restaurant. It just won’t work at a gas pump because a Canadian customer can’t possibly answer that US-centric question correctly.
And yes, that’s dumb.
I cannot imagine a less convenient system, and especially in a locale prone to inclement weather.
Are youse Floridians under the impression that Canadians endure perpetual howling blizzards such that the walk from the gas pump to the store constitutes the sort of challenge normally associated with scaling the peaks of the Himalayas and requiring the guidance of a Sherpa?
“I’m going to hang up now and call the number on my card in order to discuss this further.”
In at least one case, followed by the phone frantically ringing at me several times before I managed to get inbetween their attempts and call the number on the card; from which I was assured that the first caller was indeed a scammer.
– I have also had the credit card company legitimately call me up about a problem. They don’t mind having me call the number on my card, though.
What they seem to do around here is to put a hold on the card for an amount significantly more than they expect you to spend; which hold can take a while to clear after you’ve finished the transaction, potentially messing up a later transaction that day if you’re running close to your card limit.
You can’t generally do that around here. You can either put your card in the pump (and have them hold an amount which they won’t explicitly mention), or you can go inside, guess how much you’re going to want, and pay for that much inside before they’ll turn the pump on. If you guess $50 and the tank only takes $43, you go back inside and they’ll give you your change (if you paid in cash; if you did that with a card I suppose they’d just put it back on the card, but the only reason I can see to do that would be if the pump’s card mechanism wasn’t working but the pump worked otherwise. [ETA: or, I see, if the card’s billing address isn’t in the USA.])
I resisted that situation for a few years by preferentially using only gas stations which would let you fill up first and then go inside to pay (on the grounds that I resented being treated as a thief without evidence), but eventually all or nearly all of them started doing it and I gave up.
Yeah. They tell you they’re going to do that, though. Or at least PayPal told me in advance, some years ago.
That is typically done to verify you have access to the account. They’ll make a few small deposits and withdrawals, which total to $0, and then have you report the amounts before the account is authorized for general use. This prevents you from doing something like entering the routing and account number from someone else’s check.
You have obviously never had to take your gloves off in -30 weather to punch in your PIN and authorised purchase amount, because the buttons on the pump card reader are so small that gloved fingers will push two buttons at once, cancelling the process and requiring you to start again, as the wind whips the cold snow around you.
Not that I’m bitter.
Pumping with your gloves on and then going in where it’s warm is luxury.
I for one, living on the California coast and rarely traveling to cold climates, have indeed never experienced that. But just out of curiosity, couldn’t you use a pencil end or something like that to push the buttons?
Sounds like the problem is exacerbated by the fact that Canadian gas stations require some extra button pushes to key in a dollar amount, which US gas stations don’t require. We normally just need to type in a 5-digit zip code, which takes the place of the credit card PIN, which we don’t use because we live in the stone age down here.
No. Generally, you select from one of four choices: “Authorize to $50,” for example, with the other choices being $75, $100, and $150. Newer pumps have touchscreens for this. Anyway, one touch, and that’s that. Of course, keying in a PIN requires some button pushes.
Right, this is the kind of bullshit I’m referring to. So much easier to just insert the nozzle and pump the gas, then go into the store to pay it. It becomes even more obnoxious when you have a discount card that you somehow have to introduce to the robotic system. Much easier to just go into the store and have the guy who’s paid to do that stuff do it. It’s more or less the same way I feel about self-checkout.
Also …
Where I live in Canada doesn’t really have the kind of “inclement weather” you may be imagining. In the winter it’s decidedly colder than Florida – no doubt about that – but maybe not to the degree you may be imagining. I would describe southern Ontario this way:
Somewhat like Florida, except definitely much colder in the winter, similar in the summer, but with far fewer lunatics year-round, without the hurricanes and gun violence, and with Frenchmen from Quebec standing in for Latinos from Cuba.
I understand the feeling, but I also understand the concern about pump’n’go. When vehicles now have tanks that can take away $150 worth of gas (query: What are you driving, @Spoons ?), I see the need for pre-authorization before the gas starts flowing.
Slight tangent that came to mind when reading the OP, given that I’ll be in Houston in a couple of weeks, and have never been there before. And it’s been years since I’ve been to a gas station. Is my credit card going to get flagged for suspicious activity?
Which made me wonder further–I bought the plane tickets with the same card, plus hotel rooms. Maybe they’re smart enough to figure out that I’ll be there.
As it happens, the answer is yes. Just today I got an email from my credit card company making a note of my upcoming trip and that they’ll add a travel notice to my account automatically. Neat.
A 2012 Chevy Tahoe, that has a 97 or 98 liter tank. Locally, prices are about $1.49 per liter, so running the tank dry would about hit the $150 authorization, but obviously, I try not to run the tank dry. Still, at today’s prices, a fill-up will cost me close to, and often over, $100. So, I hit the “Authorize to $150” button.
), then the pump asks for my PIN, and it then checks for authorisation for that amount. Once authorised, I can pump up to the amount I’ve chosen. If I don’t need that much (eg tank is full at $55), that’s all I get charged. It stops at $60, even if the tank isn’t full.
I prefer to fill up and then go inside to pay. But yes, the one time I was forced to use pay-at-pump, I recall having to enter a dollar amount. Which was not quite enough to fill the tank, and when the amount was reached, the pump shut off.