fiberguy
My views are my own.
Premium
join:2005-05-20
| reply to amigo_boy
Re: Didn't notice for a year?
An ACH is different. An ACH, (automated clearing house) is a paperless check and is an 'item' that is 'presented' to the bank for payment. A credit card transaction that is simply declined never gets 'presented for payment'... it's just like calling the bank and saying, "can you transfer $100 from my primary checking to my primary savings" and them saying, "sorry, you don't have the funds.. " and it's over. An ACH is presenting a check.
If you try to buy gas at the pump with $0 in the bank, one of a few things will happen:
1) The pump will try to authorize the transaction. If the account is at $0, you will be declined.
2) The pump may do what's called an off line transaction and "trust" that you are going to approve.. allow you to pump the gas and submit the transaction after the fact. If this happens, you WILL get a bounce fee MOST LIKELY and this is tricky. If you SIGNED for the transaction, you agreed to pay.. money or not, you will over draw, you will pay the amount PLUS it was presented with your approval and you will pay a bounce fee too. IF you did it at the pump, you DIDN'T sign, you COULD have a case to not pay the bounce fee, BUT, you just admitted that you in fact requested the transaction and the bank will hold you to it since you just admitted to authorizing the payment.. ie: I agree to pay the amount below in accordance to the card holders agreement" and so on.
3) Most gas pumps only request a $1 authorization. If your account has that, you pump $30, you pay a bounce. Again, it's how the transaction was done.
But, if you only had $1 in the account, the pump requested an authorization on $0.50 cents, the transaction would decline, never turn on the pump, and the bank would never charge you a fee.
The grocery store example you gave above applies to #3. The transaction should have declined and no fee. He may not have had the money on his check register, pending payments to come out, and it allowed the approval of the transactions. If he got money in the bank that day or before it was presented to his bank, no fee. Besides, why was the guy using a card, debit or credit, either way knowing he had no money? If he used the debit/atm (pin side) of the card, it would decline. If he used the credit side, different clearing rules apply. He still should have most likely declined. (if all pending transactions on his account were in fact already cleared)
It all depends on HOW the transaction was presented to the bank and what was going on with any pendings on his/her account. . |
