Preauthorized Holds

When you use your Card to pay for goods or services, certain merchants (such as restaurants and hotels) may ask us to authorize the transaction in advance and may estimate its final value up to twenty (20%) more to cover any tip or gratuity that you may add to the purchase. If this occurs and your total bill, after adding in the additional 20% (or more), exceeds the amount available on the Card, your transactions may be declined.

Accordingly, you should ensure that the Card has an available balance that is 20% (or more) greater than your total bill prior to using the Card for these types of purchases. You may not use your Card at an automated (“pay at the pump”) fuel dispenser. Payments must be made inside. When we preauthorize a transaction, we commit to make the requested funds available when the transaction finally settles and may place a temporary hold on your Card’s funds for the amount indicated by the merchant (which may be more than the final settled transaction amount).

We also may add an amount for certain merchants to ensure that sufficient funds will be available to cover the final transaction. Transactions at certain merchants that authorize high dollar amounts, especially rental car companies and hotels, may cause an “authorization” or “hold” on your available balance for up to thirty (30) days. Until the transaction finally settles or we determine that it is unlikely to be processed, the funds subject to the hold will not be available to you for other purposes. We will only charge your Card for the correct amount of the final transaction, however, and will release the hold on any excess amount when the transaction finally settles.