Random $1 charges against credit card

1 | 2 | 3

kingjj

Baby Get Shaky!
816 posts

Ultimate Geek

Subscriber

Reply # 715322 10-Nov-2012 21:52
gregmcc: so thinks about this, you head on down to the gas station to top up the gas tank in your car, you want $20 of gas. The guy at the counter says "pay first", "no problem, here use my eftpos card to take $20". You hand off your eftpos card and notice that that only $1 is showing on the eftpos machine, the gas station guy says "Yeah, we just want to make sure that you have a valid card before we do another transaction for $20, we will do a reversal in 1-7 days". Would anybody be willing to part with $1 on every eftpos transaction for 1-7 days?, I think not! SNIP It wasn't too long ago that when you used your CC at certain Petrol Stations they would put a hold on your card for up to $150 which would sit there for a few days (no matter what value you ended up pumping). I remember when Pak n Save Moorhouse in Christchurch introduced self-serve fuel pumps this was standard practice and caused a lot of grief. Not the case as far as I know these days.

BDFL
44244 posts

Uber Geek

Administrator

Trusted

Geekzone

Subscriber

Reply # 715367 11-Nov-2012 07:52
johnr: richms: Me too, $1 charge but this was on an unsucessful topup done online via my account to a new prepay number with my loaded card. Now have $5 or $6 of vodafone charges and no credit on the phone. It's not a $1 charge as such I need to find the link in the help section but it's a pre auth cause the credit card is not registered, If you only going to charge the card for a one off payment THERE SHOULD BE NO AUTH transaction. As I said, charge it. If it pass, done. If it fails, done. The AUTH transaction is bad because Serves no logical purpose in one off transactions Reduces the customer credit for that amount until the money is released from hold Happens every time the customer topup In other words, whoever wrote the Vodafone topup used the same routine for both payment type (registered and one off) and screw up. Mauricio Freitas (Geekzone Admin, Devil's Advocate, my blog, technology disclosure, my tweets, Web Performance Optimization) Geekzone Price comparison \| Amazon Kindle order page \| How to get the best out of Geekzone \| New Zealand IT Jobs \| Geekzone News \| Jinglebugs

838 posts

Ultimate Geek

Trusted

Subscriber

Reply # 715380 11-Nov-2012 09:07
gregmcc:so thinks about this, you head on down to the gas station to top up the gas tank in your car, you want $20 of gas. The guy at the counter says "pay first", "no problem, here use my eftpos card to take $20". You hand off your eftpos card and notice that that only $1 is showing on the eftpos machine, the gas station guy says "Yeah, we just want to make sure that you have a valid card before we do another transaction for $20, we will do a reversal in 1-7 days". Would anybody be willing to part with $1 on every eftpos transaction for 1-7 days?, I think not! Like a previous poster said make the full charge, If it works good, if it doesn't too bad, if a company want's use of the money for 1-7 days then they need to pay for that use and seen it's your money or your credit card balance then you get to set the terms not the gas station or the phone company I agree that it is a stupid way to do this, however a credit card is very different to a eftpos card. It isn't your money, it is the credit card companys. Unless your stupid enough to use a debit card (isn't the whole point of a credit card to borrow their money for free instead of risking your own) Even if you make multiple payments, if your going to make more than 10 wouldn't you save it so you didn't have to keep reentering the number? If so then only 1 auth, if not then $10 across the month. Shouldn't you just make sure your credit limit is high enough? Hmmmm

BDFL
44244 posts

Uber Geek

Administrator

Trusted

Geekzone

Subscriber

Reply # 715396 11-Nov-2012 09:54
Vodafone doesn't have the money. The AUTH transaction is a hold in the account but never leaves the account. The $1 never leaves the account but it's unavailable, that's all. Mauricio Freitas (Geekzone Admin, Devil's Advocate, my blog, technology disclosure, my tweets, Web Performance Optimization) Geekzone Price comparison \| Amazon Kindle order page \| How to get the best out of Geekzone \| New Zealand IT Jobs \| Geekzone News \| Jinglebugs

1 | 2 | 3