How the f*** is this legal?

[xCompackx]

Jun 9, 2012 13:25:28 GMT -5 The OP said:

Jun 9, 2012 7:07:24 GMT -5 rapidfire187 said:

I'm getting really annoyed by the "this is your fault" attitudes. It wasn't. I did something reasonable, and it's really annoying that so many users are trying to make me sound retarded in this situation. Holy hell, I've been using debit cards and prepaid debit cards foe years. I've never just had my money froze because i tried to buy gas. I'm sorry, that's just unacceptable to me.

I agree with you. I understand that companies have to protect themselves, but holding a customer's money and not providing service is beyond the scope of what I would consider reasonable. You always assume some level of risk in business and that should be on them, not you.

I'm not saying I like the policy either, but there isn't a whole lot they can do if you're using a prepaid debit card that has no bank to fall back on if you drove off without paying. I don't think people would like if they just didn't accept these prepaid cards for things like gas, hotels and stuff so this is the best they can do. Sucks, but it's what you have to handle if you don't want a bank card.

[Red Impact]

Thing is, the managers at that store probably wouldn't have been able to get you the money back any sooner. At a franchise level, they likely only have very limited power over this, and it's most likely done on a corporate level with an agreement with some company that does things like that at the pump.

The best they could have ever done is to get you gas, but find some collateral or guarantee to get you back to pay it. Like take all your driver's license information and contact information so that they have that info in case you didn't come back the next day to pay for it.

Of course, that's likely against the corporate policy too, so they may not have been able to do anything according to their franchise contracts.

[rapidfire187]

Yea, I'm not blaming my local store really. The manager there seemed to want to help, but she was told by corporate what to do. However, it kind of irritated me the way the cashier treated me when my card was declined. When I suggested that it was a mistake, she closed her eyes., shook her head and said "no honey, it's declined". She's ALWAYS rude though, so it's whatever.

[THE Baldy Kendrick]

You mentioned that you had a bank card before, but you gave it up because of Insufficient Funds fees.

The first thing you should do is GO BACK TO THE BANK CARD.

Bank regulations have changed so that your card will, by default, be declined when a purchase will send you balance below $0 instead of getting approved and then charged an over-balance fee. They'll offer you the option of allowing the card to be accepted in these situations, but you must opt-in to get it.

Plus, if you use direct deposit, most banks allow you to draw a cash advance from your next deposit. It's expensive (my bank currently charges $1.50 for every $20 advanced, so if you advanced $200, $215 would be charged to your account on your next direct deposit), but it's a big help in situations like this.

That, and you don't have to pay to get your money as often as you need to.

[ICBM]

How has this gone three pages?