Originally Posted by
cbn42
You have to pre-pay either way. If you pay at the pump, it authorizes your credit card for a certain pre-determined amount, usually $75. If you go inside, it is the same process, only you get to choose the amount. If you do not use the full amount you authorized, you are charged the correct amount and the hold falls off your credit card after a few days. This is the same process that happens at hotels or restaurants, when they authorize your card first and then determine the exact amount later (due to tips or incidental charges).
So all you really have to do is go inside and tell the cashier an amount that is more than what you will need but less than the available credit on your card. This should not be too difficult to do unless you are running close to your limit, which you shouldn't be. I'm not sure why this is such an issue.
Until reading these threads I was under the impression that if I "guessed" I needed $50 but only needed $30 the gas station would get to keep the $20. At no time did any single attendant anywhere tell me that I could come back in again and reverse my previous billing to get a $20 credit.
As I said it's a none issue for me now but obviously is for a lot of visitors to the US.
BTW if you pump and then pay inside in Canada you are not prepaying one cent. You pump first and then pay. No hold on your card, just trust that you actually will go in and pay. The issue and the only issue when south of the border ( and only in the US )is being forced to leave my CC card behind the counter, which happened every single time in the US if I wanted to "fill her up".