Kroger Fuel - hold amount

[ICF]

That is true but that might not be a great option with the surcharge on credit card purchases being enacted in many places.

Have you actually seen any yet? I've heard the talk, but still not seen a sign saying they are charging the fee.

 

[Swimalie]

Have you actually seen any yet? I've heard the talk, but still not seen a sign saying they are charging the fee.

I haven't seen any place enact the fee yet. I use my Am Ex when ever I can and supposedly they are exempt but we'll see. I just bought gas for my car about an hour ago. The usual hold of $125 has been put on it and no additional fee.

 

[Fire14]

I pay at pump with Debit card run as cc freq. only had 1.00 hold on card. I don't have CC anymore d/t job loss and credit taking mega hit. I even had few times where hold has fallen off and charge hasn't gone thruy yet.

 

[4HppyCamprs]

Have you actually seen any yet? I've heard the talk, but still not seen a sign saying they are charging the fee.

Nope not yet, that is why I said it "might" not be a good option. I don't like using my debit card with pin because if I use it as visa then I get better consumer protections. Using as debit might solve some problems but might create other and vis versa using it as credit.

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[Tarheel girl 1975]

I work at a credit union. We place a $26.00 hold if you use your card as credit. If you use your card as debit the hold amount will only be for the actual amount of the transaction. We used to only place a $1.00 hold for credit, but too many people were putting their accounts in the negative.

 

[bengalfreak]

I haven't seen any place enact the fee yet. I use my Am Ex when ever I can and supposedly they are exempt but we'll see. I just bought gas for my car about an hour ago. The usual hold of $125 has been put on it and no additional fee.

Any business that expects any kind of repeat business would be foolish to Levy that fee. I predict you will see that fee very, very little.

 

[mrsheppo]

DH is on a trip and one of the gas stations he went to put a $150 hold on his credit card. The total was $30 for gas. I filled my car up yesterday and I was only charged the correct amount on my card.

I use our credit cards to pay for almost everything and pay off monthly. I only use my debit card at Costco or to withdraw money at the ATM.

 

[bumbershoot]

There are signs on the pumps around here that they may put a large hold on your card.

Our Fred Meyer (which is Kroger here) gas station has big signs on their pumps about the holds they put on cards. Right in my eyesight as I used my CC etc.

 

[tripletots]

I'll actually have to look for a sign the next time I fill up at Kroger. I used my Amex so the hold didn't hurt me. But it really scared me because if I had used my debit card I could have gotten in trouble!

 

[Mom_Rides]

I only use my debit card and the debut function st Kroger. It takes the money immediately from my account. They have signs posted at the pumps about holds being placed by the banks/card issuers.

 

[Tinkerbellie16]

I work in finance at my company and part of that is dealing with credit card payments. We, the business, decide what to authorize. At a gas station, they may decide to authorize a set amount and then when the transaction 'settles', the authorization is null and only the amount is charged. This is more typical for debit cards. The reason is that if the request too little ($1 let's say) then the person pumps $50 of gas, they are at risk for $49. For debit cards, there is little motivation to put $49 in the account before the authorization expires ( currently set at 7 days for visa/mc). They can continue to attempt to reauthorize but after awhile you are paying way more than $49 with carrying and collection costs. Multiply that by hundreds or thousands of transactions.

When the exact purchase is not known in advance, you have to estimate. So you set it at the top amount for gas that drivers might use. It's an issue for any transaction like this. For instance, restaurants 'may' choose to authorize at a 20% uplift. If they don't and it doesn't settle with the tip amount, the business is only due what they requested during an approved authorization.

The issuing bank only approves, declines, or approves with exception. They do not force a business to authorize for certain amounts. They may however charge a lower fee to the business if they use this practice - but that is a guess on my part since I don't work in the fuel business. I can assure you though that if the business did not get enough authorization, they would pay for the loss, not the bank.

 

[JB2K]

Putting a hold on one's funds while paying at the pump has been commonplace for many years -- it's only been during the past couple of years where it gets really expensive.

More often than not, the amount being held is usually a dollar (just to verify the card is valid), while there are other instances where a lot more $$$ is held for 48-72 hours. Not a whole lot can be done about the policy, as "drive-offs" in the era of $3-$4 a gallon gas are more prevalent than ever.

There are a couple of good work-around solutions for those who would rather not fool with a credit card:

• For those who have a pass-through card (PayPal MasterCard) linked to their PayPal account, I have found the hold to be only a dollar, plus, you have the added benefit of the final transaction taking a few extra days to hit your bank account -- plus, you get 1% cash back, while not much, could add up if you're a heavy user/filler-upper.
  
• Go inside the store (or to the "hut", outside) and pay in a normal manner using your credit/debit card, or cash.

Honestly, paying at the pump has its' risks, as a lot of those card readers on the pumps often get tampered-with, which sets the user up for serious identity theft. Best solution, there is to look for a well-known, reputable convenience store/grocery store -- those places inspect their readers frequently, and put a numbered "seal" on the pump (if the seal is broken, then someone's been fooling with the pump/reader).

 

[jgreco]

I always use a Kroger gift card (which I load in the store) to buy gas. This would get around that. I do it because 5% of everything goes to a fundraising obligation and I use my blue Amex to load it for another 6%.

That is a brilliant idea since the Blue AMEX only gives 3% at the pump, but 6% at grocery stores.

 

[Swimalie]

[*]Go inside the store (or to the "hut", outside) and pay in a normal manner using your credit/debit card, or cash.
.

This is a good idea but a heads up that if you use a card that has rebates for gas purchases, going in to a convient store to pay may negate the rebate amount. I was warned of this when I got my True Earnings Am Ex.

 

[North of Mouse]

On Monday I went to Kroger to fill up since I had 30 cents off that had to be used by the end of the month. I only put in $43.?? because I wasn't on empty. On Tuesday I was checking my Amex account and noticed that I had a pending for Kroger Fuel for $150.00! I freaked out since I couldn't find my receipt. I am so use to only having a $1.00 hold.

I googled my problem and come to find out that's what Kroger has been doing. If I had used my debit card, which I sometimes do, I could have gotten us in big trouble. The hold fell off on Wednesday and the $43 appeared but there was $150 held for 2 days.

Has anyone else experienced this with Kroger? Any other stations doing this amount besides $1.00? What happens if you use your debit card as a debit instead of a credit. Is there a hold or does it automatically deduct the amount charged right away? I need to avoid this happening in the future.

Never had any holds put on my card for fuel, but then I've never used Kroger. They are consistently higher here than I can get it elsewhere.

There was an article in our paper (I think it's where I saw it) that warned about using debit cards at outside fuel pumps, as there has been instances where the *readers* have had something added to them where people can read your card and use them.

 

[carymomof3]

We actually just had this conversation at our house. DH and I routinely buy gas at many different stations in three cities. We both use our debit cards, but I run it as a credit and he runs it as a debit by entering his PIN. We've never seen a hold on our account until last week when a $100 hold was added when he used his PIN. We will both be running the card as a credit from now on.

I have to wonder about the statement that it is the issuer that demands the hold as we have only had this happen at a single station. Why wouldn't it happen at every station if that were true?

We'll have to figure it out because I do not go inside gas stations to pay. I often have a disabled child in the car and I'm not leaving him at the pump while I go inside. It's a matter of safety.

It seems no one knows the real story here. I would be interested in finding out the facts on debit vs. credit at the pump. For what it's worth, we bank with a credit union.

 

[angwill]

Wow it sounds like I have been lucky because I have never run into this issue. I have only had hotels put a hold on the card.

 

[4HppyCamprs]

Also adding that Amex does routinely hold for fuel purchases. We ran into that one time when fueling up at Costco. We had run up the card much to high (since rectified) the transaction was declined because the 125.00 hold amount was not available. We called Amex and they explained it is Amex that required the high hold amount on fuel purchases. They said if we went into Costco and purchased it through the store we would not run into the hold issue (it was a really roundabout manner so we didn't bother).

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[Tinkerbellie16]

We actually just had this conversation at our house. DH and I routinely buy gas at many different stations in three cities. We both use our debit cards, but I run it as a credit and he runs it as a debit by entering his PIN. We've never seen a hold on our account until last week when a $100 hold was added when he used his PIN. We will both be running the card as a credit from now on.

I have to wonder about the statement that it is the issuer that demands the hold as we have only had this happen at a single station. Why wouldn't it happen at every station if that were true?

We'll have to figure it out because I do not go inside gas stations to pay. I often have a disabled child in the car and I'm not leaving him at the pump while I go inside. It's a matter of safety.

It seems no one knows the real story here. I would be interested in finding out the facts on debit vs. credit at the pump. For what it's worth, we bank with a credit union.

I went into detail in a previous post but it is the business that determines authorization amount - all in an effort to mitigate risk.

I highly recommend using a good rewards credit card that does not cost anything (like Discover or Chase) IF you are able to pay it off in full each month. If you don't have that discipline and are concerned with the 'pre' auth on a debit card, use cash.