Most gas pumps authorize $100. Use a credit card.
With a credit card your maximum liability for fraudulent charges is $50 even if you don't timely report a stolen card or suspect transaction; $0 if you do. For debit cards, it's unlimited.
So, for example, somebody could fraudulently use your debit card number to buy a stick of gum, hoping the charge goes unnoticed. Then, 60 days later, they drain your entire bank account, and possibly other linked accounts if you have automatic overdraft protection. If you failed to notify the bank for the gum purchase, your entire life savings is lost. Even if the bank account is only used for small purchases and only maintains a small balance, it can still create huge headaches.
Debit cards are for ATMs, and preferably ATMs inside bank buildings. Credit cards are for transactions everywhere else.
For similar reasons, you should be careful who you write checks to--because similar rules that govern debit card transactions also govern ACH transactions. And if you can help it, don't link a checking account on which you draw checks and make other payments to any of your other accounts; or at least, don't then enable automatic overdraft protection.
I do not see what the issue is with having a $25 hold? It's not a charge.
I'm still building credit (no history), which is why I'm not using a credit card. I believe holds only take place with debit cards.
Sorry, I assumed you used a credit card.
At least they inform you in most hotels. I have not used Lyft - I would hope they do the same.
Any tips would be appreciated of course.
Uber isn't a cash venture, and several activities in the US require either a credit card upon which temporary authorizations can be placed, or a full (and sometimes, over-)payment on a debit card, the difference being that the debit card isn't backed by a line of credit that becomes due in at least 20 days, but rather it is spent directly out of a checking account.
You need this for:
- gas stations
- hotel stays
- car rentals
- sit-down restaurants or bars
The SV/HN is out of touch argument doesn't fly here. Rather, there is a wide gulf in the spending ability and access to services between a US credit card owner therefore a participant in the mainstream banking system, vs. someone with only a checking account, vs. a person who can't qualify for either and conducts their affairs with cash. This is a problem much older and much more foundational than the Bay Area vs. everyone else and the techies and non-techies divide, and is a significant delineation between the US middle class and lower class.
Is ride-sharing that big of a cost for your day to day?
Truly reliable and useful public transit is a luxury in the United States that isn't available to a huge majority of the country.
Walking also isn't an option for many people due to safety, health reasons, scheduling, childcare needs, and not to mention just too much stuff to carry.
If you got a $25 authorization hold from Lyft there's a couple possibilities that come to mind. The first is that Lyft thought your ride would in fact come somewhere close to $25 (after tip). The second is that if you're a new customer, they likely consider you a much higher risk of fraud, and therefore want to err generously on the side of overshooting the estimate, instead of trying to place a lower hold and risk not being able to capture the real cost of the ride. Also, if you hailed your ride without providing a destination, they wouldn't have been able to produce a usable estimate.
Interestingly, I use Uber semi-regularly, and they don't hold anything. They probably only did it for the first ride.
I would have been happy had they just notified me first instead of my bank. Terrible UX to be frank. I actually got in contact with Lyft support on Twitter, but they did not care and just claimed that it was "standard policy".