Gas station limits credit card purchase to $50

[ultrarunner]

Not to hi-jack my own thread but you have a point on criminal activity...they call it "Petty" theft and it seems to me that merchants and local police would rather look the other way.

Case in point...within the last 12 months, I was grocery shopping at the local Safeway store on saw teens shop-lifting. The last time it was so brazen that 3 teens filled a shopping cart to overflowing with meat, snacks and pampers and then ran pushing the cart right out the store to a waiting car.

I reported a description of the car to the store manager and he said it happens all the time and Safeway policy is that it is not worth stopping them for fear that a employee of customer gets hurt and sues??? He said he is required by fire code not to lock any of the secondary doors so it makes it easy for shoplifters to walk out.

I guess the local Service Stations limit fuel purchases to limit losses.

 

[Bird]

</font><font color="blue" class="small">( a couple drive offs a week )</font>

I suspect a lot of towns have large numbers of drive offs reported. Now the police don't want to "look the other way", they'd like to see the thief caught and punished. However, in the vast majority of the drive offs reported in Dallas, the clerk could give either absolutely no description of the person or vehicle, or only a color of the vehicle. Such vague descriptions, or lack thereof, left the police with no clues to follow up on. It also seemed that a majority of the drive offs reported were reported as happening just before the end of the clerks' shifts. /forums/images/graemlins/tongue.gif So, going on the theory, whether right or wrong, that many of the reports were actually to cover thefts or shortages by the clerks, many years ago Dallas quite taking reports of drive offs unless the clerk had the license number of the vehicle. The number of drive offs reported declined drastically, but of those reported, the culprits faced theft charges.

 

[Joe1]

I finished a 9,400 mile RV trip in October. It took quite a few swipes or a trip inside to top off the 75 gallon gas tank at $3.00 per gallon.

I'm not sure how 3 or 4 individual fuel transactions vs one large one prevents theft. They check the card and authorize the purchase ahead of time. The card was refused at the pump several times but it worked inside OK.

Bottom Line. What a magnificant country we live in. God Bless America.

 

[George2615]

When I spoke with the manager about drive offs he said they have to turn the pump on at each fill up then over the P.A. system tell the person at the pump to begin filling. At the end of the fill up the pump stops running and they get a signal for that pump. At that point they look out to see if the person is coming in to pay or driving off. If its a drive off they get a description of the car. Also, the cameras read the front and back of each cars plates and each sale is dated and time stamped for reference on the video. P.D. gets the info from the video and description by the employee. The registered owner either gets a visit from the P.D. or a letter and is told to pay up or be prosecuted. The manager says that this new system has worked very well so far and hasn't had to go to court yet.

 

[Bird]

That's a good system, George. I think more and more of the stations are going to something similar, or at least to the cameras. Like anything else, it just depends on how much security you can afford.

 

[George2615]

Bird,
That's why the first station lost my business. $50 limit. or prepay inside. They have no outside cameras so that's why they stick to this rule. At the new place I do business I'm sure that having cameras facing 16 pumps and cameras inside the store at numerous locations and the date / time stamp video recording equipment involved must have cost a few bucks but it probably helps prevent other lawsuits and employee theft and maybe they get an insurance discount as well.

 

[rox]

I don't understand why the $50 limit on the credit cards. I think Visa pays the merchants 100% if they ahve authorized the sale.

What is with people anyway, filling up with gas then running off an not paying? I remember when we were younger, we ahd bought a home and then my husband got a better job and we had to move. We rented out our home, and the rent didn't quite cover the mortgage payment, + we were paying rent. We found a budget home which would have a cheaper mortgage payment than our rent.

We scheduled the closing for the day we got paid, a Friday. That whole last week before closing I ended up taking the city bus to work becasue we needed every penny for closing on the house and I couldn't afford to fill up the gas hog, beater 2nd car station wagon I was driving. Instead of filling up the car I took the bus to work for a week. Are there no values any more? A couple people a week driving off without paying for gas? It's really sad isn't it? Actually call me niave, I am shocked. It's like that all over the USA now? Sad very sad /forums/images/graemlins/frown.gif

 

[thatguy]

I may be wrong.. But I always thought the limit was because they but a hold (pre-authorization) on the credit card credit line to ensure payment... So if they put a $30 hold and you only purchased $10 it may take a day or so for the balance of the $20 'hold' to be released - so that part of your credit line was available.

Now with the price of gas/diesel so high, they had to raise the limit so ppl wouldnt go over the previous limit.

Just my thoughts.. ideas...

I have a dodge diesel truck and so far I havent run into the limit even with $60 fill ups...

 

[thcri]

</font><font color="blue" class="small">( I may be wrong.. But I always thought the limit was because they but a hold (pre-authorization) on the credit card credit line to ensure payment... )</font>


The only time I ever ran into it was out in Washington. I was told at that time it was because of authorization. The credit card companies will let you go to $50.00 without pre-authorization. In other words the credit card companies guaranteed up to $50.00. Pre-authoriziation takes a long time and most don't want to go through it. But that was ten years ago I was told that.

murph

 

[ronjhall]

My personal vehicles hold 25 gallons each. I usually fill when they need less than 20 gallons. There may be stations that limit their card purchases to $50. But I do not get that much gas so I do not see it.