Murphy USA Put hold of $75. on my account for $30. of gas Harker Heights, Texas

Once at a gas station..also 75 dollars....once at a restaurant for $50.00.

Both occasions could have caused serious financial problems if they had caused overdrafts....but I caught them in time..

If you use your debit card...it seems part of the game is to check the online statement 3 to 4 times a day.

To best protect my money since I do also keep a low balance in the account...is watching it like a hawk...and also I chose to opt out of overdraft protection.

By opting out of overdraft protection..your account is much better protected in actuality from this kind of a hold that you don't know about causing problems..as well as if the card is used unauthorized in other ways...or stolen. If the account is opted out of overdraft protection..the bank must then decline use of the card once the balance reaches zero..and then you won't get robed by owing the bank more then you had or have to fight with the bank to dispute all the fees they will charge you on top of it...which is a 'double" hit of double theft..

Gas stations, resturaunts, hotels, car renteral companies have always placed larger holds on debit/check card purchases.  There is nothing new about this practice.  This insures that the merchant gets paid and the purchaser doesn't clean out their account before the final charge gets submitted to the bank for payment.  The hold usually drops off your account within three business days.

When it is placed on hold it doesn't mean they have taken it out of your account.  It simply means that amount of funds can not be used by you to draw against to pay other debits.  After the hold drops off, it becomes available to draw against.  This is why you should pay cash or use a real credit card for these types of transactions.

Your bank account agreement should have a section in it that warns you of this occurance.

Why would they do it? To protect themselves. When you pay at the pump the gas station has no idea how much fuel you are going to purchase. They also cannot check the balance on your account. So they will authorize an arbitrary amount. In this case that amount is 75$. Once you are finished fueling, your total ACTUALLY purchased goes in to the computer system. Once the gas station submits for final payment that hold is removed and the gas station collects their money. The gas station never had your money.

Simple way to avoid this: Stop paying at the pump. If you prepay for your gasoline, or pump first and then pay inside, this hold will never occur. It ONLY occurs when you pay at the pump.

Ronnie is correct, this can happen at restaurants too, due to them not knowing the size of the tip you wish to leave before authorizing your transaction.

If you have overdraft protection, the hold should not interrupt your banking. You just have to keep track of your spending more closely with overdraft protection. You need to remember that the 75$ charge from the gas station is actually 30$ and note it properly in your checkbook. As long as you don't go below 0$ with money you actually spend, you are fine.

http://articles.moneycentral.msn.com/Banking/BetterBanking/HosedAtTheGasPumpByYourDebitCard.aspx

Another idea is to just use cash for these types of purchases since they are the ones most likely to lead to an overdrawn acocunt.

Instead of just agreeing with you and not really not giving you suggestions on how to actually avoid this particular situation.  Here is what most likely happened and what you can do to avoid this in the future.

You probably used your Debit Card and entered your PIN AT the Gas Pump.  When you do this they place a $75 hold to cover any gas you MAY pump.  If you actually got to $75 you would notice that the pump would have stopped.  Normally this hold should be removed as soon as the final amount was submitted.  However, due to certain circumstances usually with the Gas Stations merchant account processor it may not be removed until a later date. 

In order to avoid this possibility (at any gas station) you need to go inside the station and get the gas for a specific amount.  They will then charge you that set amount with no additional holds. 

By the way this can happen at other places as well.  For example it can happen at places such as Hotels, Rental Cars.  It can also happen at restaurants if you do something like run a tab.  But a restaurant can not over-authorize a card to cover things such as possible tips.

   In order to avoid this, I buy my gas at stations that place a $1 hold, instead of some large, arbitrary amount.    Most of the major gas stations in my area do it this way.  Some of the seedier places use a $50 or $75 hold instead. 

From 24 to 36 hours all Murphy's  do this to all who uses a credit card to get gas and for that amount of time and they can collect a lot of interest off that amount of money...  I have contacted the state of Arkansas about it, and it appears to be legal to steal our money so they can make money from it.  Even Harps is doing it to but at a rate of $65.00.  What alerted me to it was once I a friend used their card and had to go to another pump and use the card again and when we got home looked at her bank statement, she had two 75.00 deductions from Murpy's.