Kroger Fuel Holding excessive funds in my bank account Conroe, Texas

This appears to be a Kroger policy. There have been a couple of reports recently where they appear to be holding $125, and so far people have only made reports on Kroger's. This amount is on the high end as most will be in the $50-$75 range, with an occasional $100.

Now, you may have someone post a picture of a gas station notice that says the bank requests this hold. They will tell you that the notice is evidence and 100% proof positive that it is the banks that set the amount.

Unfortunatly they are not telling the entire story. Banks are not requesting the hold. It is the Gas Station that requests the amount of the hold in anticipation of how much gas someone MAY pump, this is so they know they will get paid when they submit the purchase. A bank is only going to HOLD the amount requested. There is no such thing as a merchant saying I want to place a hold on an account and the bank just picking out an amount. The bank REQUIRES them tospecify how much. Now, when the final purchase goes through the merchant MUST link the purchase to the hold or the bank does not know to release the hold. Since gas stations only send transactions in a batch, this may take anywhere from a few hours to a few days. Now, if the gas station does not reference the hold, or they don't send a batch in time the hold does not just stay there for all eternity. Every bank will release the hold after a certain amount of time. This is where the banks will differ and set their own rules. It can be anywhere from 2-3 days, sometimes more, sometimes less. If you want to know your bank's policies then either go in or call them and ask.

Now, back to the gas station "notice". Why would a gas station post a notice like that? Well you answered that question...

She said she has been cussed out, threatened, and otherwise abused by angry customers

- So that notice serves basically one purpose. It is because the station owners don't want a bunch of irate customers harrassing their minimum wage clerks who probably barly speak english as it is. It is just lucky that the Gas Stations have the banks to use as the scape goat for this.

Now, of course the way to avoid any possibility of a hold is to not use Pay-at-the-pump and actually go in to the cashier. When you do this they will authorize a specific amount, and no additional holds will be placed on your account.