Beware of excessive holds at Love's Travel Stops
Beware of excessive holds at Love's Travel Stops
So I had to travel across Ohio yesterday to pick someone up unexpectedly. The person I had to pick up was waiting at one of those Love's gas stations and I need to put some gas in the car to have enough to return home. I have a sedan and put in about $30 worth. I check my credit card online to plan how much I need to set aside to pay off my credit cards and they placed a $175 hold for that $30 purchase of fuel. This post is to warn everyone else about these holds. There is a class action lawsuit on this as well.
It used to be common.
And it's not really brand dependent. Some speedways used to do it. While another a block away didn't.
They blame it on the pay processors, but I think it's really about the specific kind of pump used, so it's really down to the location owner to update their pumps.
Which is why now a days it's more likely to happen at large truck stops where there's a lot of pumps to update. Or out of the way rural stations where there's just no bother.
If I'm rembering right, it's because they designed it so you swipe first (to prevent drive offs) but the card machine can't delay the payment request till youre done.
So it would run more than the biggest full tank as a hold, turn on, and keep pumping.
Which wouldn't be that bad really if they then immediately changed the hold to the real charge. But for whatever reason it can take days or longer.
The whole time that hold is on your account.
This is correct. $100 used to be the standard, and a notice on many pumps still says that. If you are using credit, it shouldn't be a big deal. You really shouldn't be using credit right up to the limit anyway, so a few days shouldn't be a big deal.
OTOH, if you are using debit (or similar), that's actual money out of your pocket that you can't spend.
I recommend using a credit card anyway, since there are many with completely free rewards. Some even have 5% cash back, which is money right back into your pocket.
My recollection is that Visa did a $75 hold and MasterCard did $50 or vice versa. Then came really expensive gas and trucks with 40 gallon tanks, so they upped it significantly.