Weird CC transaction mixup at gas station!

Well, this is quite bizarre so I thought I share with yall.

I stopped to get gas by the interstate this weekend on the way back from a long road trip. Filled up with my Discover card (5%), took the receipt printout without looking at it and stuff the receipt into my wallet.

So when I sit down to record the receipt (somehow Discover didn’t text me) I noticed that the amount is much higher. I check the amount and it’s like 23+ gallons. My gas tank isn’t even that big. At this point, I panicked a bit. Jumped on Discover site and see that the transaction is still show as “pending” with no amount shown. I check the receipt again and it’s showing the card is a Visa.

Ok, wtf, did I grab the receipt from the car before? I decided to sleep on it and check Discover again today. and… the pending transaction is gone, just gone.

So, I’m not 100% certain yet but it seems my gas ended on the card of the person who filled up prior to me. Even though my card was accepted and pending transaction shown.

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Just because the pending authorization is gone, doesnt mean the charge wont post tomorrow anyways.

And I’m not sure of the mechanics of it, but I have seen some weird things when someone prepays inside and they accidentally apply it to the wrong pump.

Some gas stations I have used slap a $150 charge on the CC automatically, pending the clearing of the actual amount spent on the gas purchase. The monthly statement reflects the actual amount. Margin of safety?

I, too, have had preauthorizations vanish completely from data I’m able to access online . . . . . only to to reappear a day or two later as a charge to my card.

Keep watching your account online and give this a few days.

My guess is that you grabbed the receipt from the car before you. Yours hadn’t printed yet. You saw a receipt sticking out, grabbed it, and while you drove away, yours was probably printing out.

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Not saying this is your case, but I have done similar before (for the generally correct amount of gas) but I grabbed the wrong card from my wallet. Convinced I used the “correct” card for gas and the charge never appeared I thought I got free gas until I checked the less used, “wrong” card for gas only to see the charge posted right on schedule. :slight_smile:

Agree with others though, you probably just grabbed someone’s else’s receipt.

My best guess is that it will likely show up correctly as a posted charge.

The authorizations (pending transactions) you see online are just authorizations. The merchant is essentially asking your bank whether a charge will go through for $x. The bank says yes or no, and the merchant is then able to process the transaction while ensuring that when they actually process the transaction the issuing bank cannot deny the transaction.

For a variety of reasons including missed batching, the issuing bank’s internal practices, and the interactions of various third parties in between the merchant and the issuing bank, authorizations may fall off or appear to fall off before you actually see the charge posted to your account.

Also, the receipt indicating “visa” doesn’t necessarily mean a discover card wasn’t used. This is primarily a merchant processing limitation associated with some processors. The fact that the amount doesn’t make sense though, makes me think the other posters are right that you just grabbed the wrong receipt.

It wasn’t in Oregon was it? I seem to remember you’re from the NW.

If you did it in OR and din’t pump yourself then theres even more ways for the receipts & payments to get mixed up.

maybe, that was my first guess. I’ll keep an eye on the account and see anything shows up in a day or two. This happened on Sunday.

The card is a Visa and the last 4 doesn’t match any of the cards I have. Timestamp is also off by about 20 minutes when I compared to my GPS record.

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Often times the pump will prompt you to push yes or no to wanting a receipt.

Then it’s not your receipt.

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Yes, I always get the receipt, that’s how I roll.

Mystery solved, a charge showed up now so I did end up with the receipt of the previous customer somehow.

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The next customer has your receipt and called the FBI claiming he’s been hacked by some ZenNut who switched the numbers.

The previous customer is having the gas station search video to see who took his receipt…

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And the guy operating the bluetooth skimmer almost peed his pants watching all of this unfold.

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