Which gas stations charge $1

I let them know that they do have a responsibility to protect my money, and that they should figure out how to prevent this.

They were doubtful that they would be able to control this. They also mentioned that a lot of their customers have experienced this and are also irate. They mentioned some recent story in the news about it. They said that if they could do something about it, they would have already done it, because they have so many customers who are upset.

Unfortunately, I had no knowledge of this even being an issue. Now I do and I want to make sure that as few people as possible have to go through it as well.

The bank lady was nice. She mentioned a story about a mother recently having the same issue on a weekend when the bank was closed. She had no money in her account the entire weekend and could not buy food or diapers for her children. I think that this is wrong and should not be allowed. So sorry for the long winded email, but it took me by surprise, and I would hate to see someone experience this. Also, does anyone have any knowledge of this kind of thing?

Can they legally do this? The Charlotte Observer explains:. That hold usually lasts for a few hours, but can stretch for a couple of days. The station later debits the actual amount of the gas purchased from the account.

The hold policies can cause financial headaches for consumers in several ways, said Nathan Tothrow, director of marketing for Charlotte Metro Credit Union:.

A debit-card transaction might be rejected even though drivers have enough money in their accounts for the gas they want to purchase. During the hold stage, if you near your credit limit and do not have enough available credit to provide for the hold amount, the credit card company declines the purchase. Both preauthorization and hold amounts remain in place until your credit card company receives and processes the purchase.

The only way you can avoid a purchase decline by preauthorization or hold is to authorize over-the-limit transactions on your credit card. The federal Credit Card Act states that unless you specifically opt-in to authorizing transactions that exceed your credit limit, your credit card company cannot approve these transactions.

If it does, the company cannot charge you an over-the-limit fee. These charges are only temporary and won't appear on your monthly statement. This temporary hold later gets replaced with your actual fuel charge. Say you're using your credit card in a retail store. You select the items you want to buy and take them to a register, where a store employee rings you up.

In a typical credit card transaction, your card information and the purchase amount are submitted to the credit card company electronically. If the card company approves the sale, you take your items and go, and the charge shows up on your statement.