Question About Debit Cards

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I have a debit card. And the point of a debit card is to draw money directly from your bank account, so you can't overdraw, right? Well yesterday, I was filling up on gas. One weird thing was, that it kept turning off like my tank was full, even though it wasn't. So I had to hold the handle half-way until my tank was full. So then, I drive off, but forget my receipt. But then, I'm looking at my bank statement (online) and there's no mention of the gas fill up. And it's still not there this morning either.

So, does it just take a while for it to come out of my bank account, or did I successfully get away with a free tank of gas?

I just don't know if they're going to take it out or not, as debit is supposed to be instantly.

EDIT: And come to think of it, I never put my PIN in either. WTF?
 
Gas stations usually take about a week to pull the money. Restaurants can take as long as well. Usually they put a hold on your account until it gets pulled though. My bank lets me see my current balance (money in account) and available balance (money in account minus money in a hold).

But I would expect it'll get pulled out today or next week.
 
Interesting. Though it is not fair to the gas station, as that would be a major set back for them, since they don't make much, especially when you use credit/debit cards. It wouldn't be your fault though, since you legitimately thought you had paid.
 
Well your edit just solved it.

If you don't put in a pin it means that the place did not use it as a debit card, but as a credit card. Does your debit card have one of the credit card company logos on it (MC, Visa, AMEX)? If so then your debit card can be used as a credit card, and it takes an additional 2-3 days for a transaction to go through.
 
[quote name='Access_Denied']I have a debit card. And the point of a debit card is to draw money directly from your bank account, so you can't overdraw, right? [/quote]


Beware: you can overdraw funds from a debit card.
 
[quote name='seanr1221']Every gas station that I've used my debit at always asks if it's debit or credit. I'm assuming yours didn't?[/quote]

This.

Also, you definitely can overdraw with a Debit Card, so watch out.
 
[quote name='Access_Denied']I have a debit card. And the point of a debit card is to draw money directly from your bank account, so you can't overdraw, right? Well yesterday, I was filling up on gas. One weird thing was, that it kept turning off like my tank was full, even though it wasn't. So I had to hold the handle half-way until my tank was full. So then, I drive off, but forget my receipt. But then, I'm looking at my bank statement (online) and there's no mention of the gas fill up. And it's still not there this morning either.

So, does it just take a while for it to come out of my bank account, or did I successfully get away with a free tank of gas?

I just don't know if they're going to take it out or not, as debit is supposed to be instantly.

EDIT: And come to think of it, I never put my PIN in either. WTF?[/quote]

(All of a sudden Flint from G.I. Joe shows up!)

"Does your Debit Card have a Visa or MasterCard logo on the front? If so, the pay at the pump may very well treat it as a credit card. If that's the case, there won't be a hold on the account and the credit will process in a few days.

The bad thing is, if you don't account for that charge coming out down the road and use the funds that are in your account before the charge goes through, you will get an overdraft charge and/or the gas payment may or may not be paid by your bank.

Now you know, and knowing is half the battle!" :bouncy:
 
Do you not use your card often? Tons of places take a couple days or so to process. Just keep checking online daily and it'll show up. If you really want to keep track of everything, write it down as you go along.
 
What my Mom told me was that many gas stations will put a $50 hold on your debit card if you use one. I heard about one person in my area wanted to buy gas and groceries with what she had left. She went home to check and it said she had a negative balance, so she looked into it and come to find out, they put a $50 hold on it.

That's one reason I dunno if I'll ever use a debit card.
 
Here's a tip. If you're asked to use debit or credit by the card reader, pick debit. Why? Because many gas stations charge extra for using a credit card. You want your $4 a gallon gas to cost even more?
 
[quote name='The Mana Knight']What my Mom told me was that many gas stations will put a $50 hold on your debit card if you use one. I heard about one person in my area wanted to buy gas and groceries with what she had left. She went home to check and it said she had a negative balance, so she looked into it and come to find out, they put a $50 hold on it.

That's one reason I dunno if I'll ever use a debit card.[/quote]

it ranges from $25 to $75 depending on the station. If you use it as a debit and enter the pin, a hold isn't placed on the account. If you don't enter your pin, it goes thru as a credit transaction and a hold may be placed on your account.

The issue I have with holds, when using my debit (as a credit) card is the hold will be for $50, and the gas stops pumping once I reach a $50 sale. It is a pain in the ass, and I have to redo another transaction as my suv holds 22 gallons.
 
Seriously? I've used my debit card at a lot of places and never encountered anything like that. At the most, I've seen a dollar hold, but nothing anywhere near $25. Is this just at gas stations, because I usually pay cash at those.
 
Every time I've used my debit card to purchase gas, the station authorizes $1 against the card. When the charge goes through, it goes through for the amount of the purchase. I've not seen one be for the $25-$75 range that some places do.

If you put in your PIN at the pump or inside, it'll do the transaction as a PIN-based transaction, which will allocate the purchase amount at the end of the sale, and it'll be unavailable funds. If you do it without the PIN at the pump, it'll do an auth against the card for the $1 (as seems to happen to me), for some other amount that might be more than the purchase (the $25-$75 situation), or the amount of the purchase. If you do it inside, it normally just auths the card for the purchase amount.

Due to the high prices, sometimes, the pump will shut off, due to a spending limit being reached. From most places I've seen, it's been $50-$75 for the magic amount that shuts the pump off. If you need more than the limit, it'll do a second auth at the time of purchase to cover the difference, and then you can fill up past the pump's limit.

In any case, yes, you can overdraft your account, unless you have overdraft protection on your account from another funding source. All the debit card does it give a regular ATM card the ability to be used at anywhere that takes the type of credit card it's branded with, MC or Visa. You could easily overdraft it in the $1 gas pump auth scenario, or for other debits that hit your account before the debit card charge. The gas station might've had an issue with processing the debit on your card, though I'm sure it'll be showing up in a few days after you pumped your gas. Should be 3-4 days.
 
I quit using my debit card years ago. Just seemed stupid when I could use a credit card and earn some rewards. Of course, that's dependent on your ability to treat your credit card like real money and not run up amounts you can't pay off in full each month.

Definitely don't use it now as my current checking account (free, no minimum balance etc.) charges me 50 cents everytime I use my visa check card as a debit card.
 
[quote name='shrike4242']Every time I've used my debit card to purchase gas, the station authorizes $1 against the card. When the charge goes through, it goes through for the amount of the purchase. I've not seen one be for the $25-$75 range that some places do.

If you put in your PIN at the pump or inside, it'll do the transaction as a PIN-based transaction, which will allocate the purchase amount at the end of the sale, and it'll be unavailable funds. If you do it without the PIN at the pump, it'll do an auth against the card for the $1 (as seems to happen to me), for some other amount that might be more than the purchase (the $25-$75 situation), or the amount of the purchase. If you do it inside, it normally just auths the card for the purchase amount.

Due to the high prices, sometimes, the pump will shut off, due to a spending limit being reached. From most places I've seen, it's been $50-$75 for the magic amount that shuts the pump off. If you need more than the limit, it'll do a second auth at the time of purchase to cover the difference, and then you can fill up past the pump's limit.

In any case, yes, you can overdraft your account, unless you have overdraft protection on your account from another funding source. All the debit card does it give a regular ATM card the ability to be used at anywhere that takes the type of credit card it's branded with, MC or Visa. You could easily overdraft it in the $1 gas pump auth scenario, or for other debits that hit your account before the debit card charge. The gas station might've had an issue with processing the debit on your card, though I'm sure it'll be showing up in a few days after you pumped your gas. Should be 3-4 days.[/quote]


Without a doubt, the majority of them only do a $1 check on your account but not all. In my area, Hess, is by far and away the cheapest place, but they place a $75 hold on the account if it isn't done as a debit. That is hess policy, and according to bank of america, the gas limit is applied by the gas station and not the bank. It is attached to the hold they place on your account. I recently spend about 20 min on the phone with bank of america with this.
 
[quote name='dmaul1114']I quit using my debit card years ago. Just seemed stupid when I could use a credit card and earn some rewards. Of course, that's dependent on your ability to treat your credit card like real money and not run up amounts you can't pay off in full each month.
[/quote]

QFT. there really is no good reasons to use debit over credit if you can control your spending. rewards, more secure, single monthly payment, build credit
 
You build just as much credit by not using your credit card.

I haven't used my credit card a single time since I got it 4 yrs ago, my limit has increased from $1,500 to $11,000.
 
They increase your limit, but that doesn't mean your credit score is going up necessarily. That's just the credit card company trying to entice you to use the card, nothing related to the companies that calculate credit scores and affect your ability to get loans, mortgages etc.

You have to establish a credit history of borrowing money (one way is using a credit card) and paying it back on time to get your credit score up. That's only part of it of course, paying utility bills on time, prior car loans etc. etc. all go into it.
 
[quote name='dmaul1114']
You have to establish a credit history of borrowing money (one way is using a credit card) and paying it back on time to get your credit score up. That's only part of it of course, paying utility bills on time, prior car loans etc. etc. all go into it.[/quote]

that isn't 100% correct. Utility bills will only hurt your credit score. Unlike secured/unsecured debt that reports your payment history, utility companies only report when you are deliquent. They don't send info that you paid on time, or that you paid more then what was do, like a secured/unsecured line of credit.
 
True, but doesn't having years of no reports of late bills factor into the agencies when calculating your credit score?
 
Sorry, I was at work. Anyway, yeah, it's a MasterCard, but it's debit, no credit allowed. And I think what happened was they treated it as a credit card, as they didn't ask me for a PIN. Oh well, no free gas. I have plenty of money though, so I shouldn't get an overcharge fee.
 
The Visa/Mastercard check cards can generally be used like a credit card in the terms that you don't need to enter your PIN number if you use it as credit. It just gets taken out of your account just the same.

With my Visa bank card I always use it as credit if I happen to have to use it instead of my visa credit card for some reason--as mentioned before with my checking package I get a 50 cent charge for using it as a debit card.
 
[quote name='dmaul1114']True, but doesn't having years of no reports of late bills factor into the agencies when calculating your credit score?[/quote]


not sure what you meant...but I will try to answer

if you pay your utility bills ontime, then there is nothing showing on your credit report...that is a good thing, as financial inst know that the only time they should see anything from a rental agency (an apt, some do report), utility bill, or cell phone is if you were late. Most of those companies don't report you asap, they give you 30 or 60 days to make payments on your account...some utiliities don't report you unless they are forced to shut you off. It really depends on the individual company. Thats why it won't positively affect your report, as there isn't standards that other companies live by. Credit cards/lines of credits/mortgages all work with the same guidelines. If you are late, it is reported. You pay on time, it is reported, you pay more then the min payment it gets reported.

If you have never had issues with utility companies, and you pull your credit report you most likely won't see anything about them on there. Now not having a credit history will negatively affect your credit score as well as a bank from wanting to lend you money at decent rates. So someone that has paid cash for everything their entire life, and at age 40 wants to get a mortgage for a house may not have as big of a line of credit and/or as good of an interest rate. The reason for this is, when you file for bankruptcy, you will have crappy credit for 7 years. You shouldn't be able to get/build your credit during that time (over the past decade that has changed, they just charge you an arm and a leg interest rate) So if a consumer applies to your bank, and you pull the credit and see nothing, the first thing that should come to mind is that you filed for bankruptcy.
 
Yeah, my point was just that not having late bills does help indirectly improve your credit score as it shows those companies that you haven't been delinquent.

It's not direct like with credit cards where payments etc. are also reported, but not having any delinquent utility bills should help your score some I'd thing (rather than simply not hurting it any). But maybe it doesn't--if so that should change and there should be some points added for every X amount of years without any delinquent bill reports.
 
yeah but not everyone has utility bills. Some apt complexes take care of utilities. In my home, my name is listed with cable/internet/telephone, and my wife is listed with the electric/gas companies. So I shouldn't get credit for not having a deliquent gas/electric bill, as I am not responsible for it. What if someone was 30 and still living with there parents (happening a lot more these days then 10 - 15 years ago). They wouldn't have any negative utility bills showing, but they also aren't responsible for paying them either. They shouldn't get a positive added to the score.
 
Good point. Guess if it was to change the first change would have to be utility companies reporting on time payments as well as delinquent.

Really doesn't matter, people just need to be smart about building credit. I've had a couple friends not get mortgages they wanted despite not having a record of late bills etc. because they didn't have enough credit history as they'd never had a car loan, had barely used credit cards etc.
 
MY bank actually prefers that i use my debit card as a credit card, but i know better. In fact, i don't even like the idea of being able to use the card without the pin, there's no security there. I'd rather you have to use a pin with debit cards.
 
Debit cards and Credit cards at Pay at the Pump have a sort of quirky thing going on. When your card is scanned, it is checked that the account has at least (I think it's) $60 available for Debit and $40 available for Credit, but those numbers could be wrong. Then when it reaches that magic number, it turns off, because that's the amount it was pre-approved for.

So say it costs $90 to fill the tank, it could take two or three transactions to get it filled. But you will be billed for each transaction, you're not getting away with free gas.

And many stations do not require pin numbers for transactions under $X dollars (sometimes as high as $60), so that's probably why the OP didn't have to enter a pin.
 
well if you use the debit card as a credit card, I would assume mastercard/visa make a profit on it..as would your bank.
 
[quote name='JolietJake']MY bank actually prefers that i use my debit card as a credit card, but i know better. In fact, i don't even like the idea of being able to use the card without the pin, there's no security there. I'd rather you have to use a pin with debit cards.[/QUOTE]

I can see that. I almost wish my card was just a simple ATM card as I never use it for anything other than taking money out/making deposits at ATMs.
 
[quote name='JolietJake']MY bank actually prefers that i use my debit card as a credit card, but i know better. In fact, i don't even like the idea of being able to use the card without the pin, there's no security there. I'd rather you have to use a pin with debit cards.[/QUOTE]That what my Mom does, because if she uses it as a debit, she can only use it 5 times a week. If she uses it as a credit, she can use it as often as she wants at no extra charge.

I prefer to just carry cash. I never had a debit or credit card before (I don't have a CC since I don't need to be in debt). I dunno what I'll eventually do. It's not like I carry much $$$ on me, I tend to go to the ATM when I need cash.
 
[quote name='guinaevere']Debit cards and Credit cards at Pay at the Pump have a sort of quirky thing going on. When your card is scanned, it is checked that the account has at least (I think it's) $60 available for Debit and $40 available for Credit, but those numbers could be wrong. Then when it reaches that magic number, it turns off, because that's the amount it was pre-approved for.

So say it costs $90 to fill the tank, it could take two or three transactions to get it filled. But you will be billed for each transaction, you're not getting away with free gas.

And many stations do not require pin numbers for transactions under $X dollars (sometimes as high as $60), so that's probably why the OP didn't have to enter a pin.[/quote]

That last part isn't true around here, if you don't use your pin, that means it was processed as a credit card transaction. As i posted earlier, many stations actually charge you extra per gallon to use a credit card. The reason is that processing credit card transactions costs the stations money, so they charge you to make up the difference.

Plus there's another thing that most people don't realize, gas stations don't make much off of the actual gasoline they sell. That's the reason why most stations have convenience stores these days, it's where they make their money. The problem though is that these pay at the pump setups are keeping people from coming into the stores. That means that the stores aren't making as much off of snacks and things as they used to. Station owners would really prefer people still come in and pay, that way you may pick up something else.
 
An issue totally unrelated to credit/debit cards: The reason the pump kept feeling like it was shutting off, was because their underground tanks were near empty, so there was some air in the line. The bad part of that is that means you get the bottom sediment in your gas tank, which is bad for the engine, I've been told. Whenever I run into that situation, I put very little in and go to another station.
 
[quote name='The Mana Knight']That what my Mom does, because if she uses it as a debit, she can only use it 5 times a week. If she uses it as a credit, she can use it as often as she wants at no extra charge.

I prefer to just carry cash. I never had a debit or credit card before (I don't have a CC since I don't need to be in debt). I dunno what I'll eventually do. It's not like I carry much $$$ on me, I tend to go to the ATM when I need cash.[/quote]
Thankfully my bank doesn't limit the number of times i can use my debit card. Plus i can draw money out of another bank's ATM up to 5 times per month and my bank will refund the other bank's fees.

I :heart: credit unions.:D
 
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