when you pay for gas with a credit card how does the pump authorize your card first?

Question

it authorizes my card then i pump my gas then it charges my card?how does it work i mean if i have ten dollars on my card and i pump 20 does it stop me at 10 or let me keep going wat does it do when it authorizes my card first. sorry i cant explain any better. best answert ten points

and just curious, if u get gas and your card is rejected what does the gas station do?

Answer 1

It's amazing how little people know about how credit card works. Here's the REAL TRUTH.

When you swipe the card at a gas station, the gas station automatically puts a "hold" on your account for $50, or $75, or $100, depending on the station, the region, and which card (VISA, AMEX, MasterCard, Discover) you use.

What this "hold" means is exactly that: it tells the bank please set aside this amount for us. Don't pay us yet, we just want to be sure this amount is available to pay us when we're done.

AFTER the transaction is concluded (you put the pump back) the actual transaction amount is transmitted, deducted from the hold amount, the rest is returned to the account.

This also means you can only fill up to the max limit of the hold amount. Though you are allowed to swipe the card again and make another purchase.

If you only have $10 on your card your card will likely to be rejected, but some may accept , then your bank will charge you an overdraft / overlimit fee as the over amount is so small, so it's not a major risk for them.

Answer 2

Whatever amount you tell them will be taken off your prepaid card. If you say $40 and only use $20, then they will verify that once they process all the transactions. The $40 will put on hold on your card. You should be as accurate as possible how much money you want in gas, always try to low ball it. How about $30 instead? That way if you need more you can always add $5 more of gas. Cheers!

Answer 3

It just makes sure you account is open, and has at least $1.00 in it. It will let you keep going. It only authorizes a dollar no matter how much it is. After a few days the spent amount will post your account. It will say pending for $1.00 till that happens. It will get rejected in the beginning before you pump so you leave. Once it is authorized that is it you will not get declined later. But this only works at the pump, not in the store. just get the money in your account asap so you don't have an overdraft fee. Oh and it is $1.00 not .50... Ive been watching the answers on this one, Trust me I have had to make money stretch... It isn't 100.00 or 75.00, If it was it may max some one out and they will not have any money to spend.Or if you only got 5.00 worth of gas you would have $100.00 pending in your account for a few days. That is alot of money hung up. I had my credit card stolen and the person would go from pump to pump checking to see if it was still activated before they used it at a store. My card had like 6 $1.00 pending transactions. Thats how I learned how it worked. You know I was thinking though, it depends on where in the world you live. I live in the U.S.

Answer 4

as long as you have 50 cents on your card it will get authorized because they dont know how much you are getting ready to spend now as for as the rest goes about once its authorized you can go over what you have on your credit card but you will get cherged like 3xs that amount on what you spent say you have $10 dollars but you put $20 dollars the credit card is going to charge you a fee for going over then the gas station is going to apply a fee to your credit card because they are going to get charged a fee i have done that before when i was experincing some hard ship i just filled my truck up knowing i only had like $17 dollars on the credit card i put $65 dollars in but i sent the money off quick but still got stuck paying more back but if i had to do it again i really mean had to i would gl

Answer 5

When the pump authorizes your card, you can pump as much
as you wish....If you only have $10 in your account , you can still
pump $20 worth of gasoline.....You will overdraw your account
by $10 and your bank will probably charge you for an overdraft.

Answer 6

it's magic.