Soooo....

[Kevy Baby]

Originally Posted by lindyhop

Did insane mutant monkeys program the grammar program in Word? Tonight they suggested I change "what's" to "what am." What am Microsoft thinking?

Yeah, I run into some really weird suggestions.

[alphabassettgrrl]

Ok, I know it's been a couple of days since I've been on, but three pages of new posts??? Wow. Y'all have been busy.

I am back on the bike today after two weeks of not. Missed my bike.

[wolfy999]

Originally Posted by swanie

Puppy Update time! This should be the last pre-puppy update I'll have.

We found out on Friday that we are getting the little girl we have wanted since the day we started getting the photos from the breeder! The temperament testing was done and both would have been a good fit, but the breeder wanted Girl #1 to come to our house since she's a little ahead developmentally. She's the most mischievous one in the litter so she should fit right in. We will get her at some point on Monday morning and have her home by late afternoon!

Here she is on the left side...


She's on the left side again, ready to pounce her sister...


7 days and counting!

swanie

If you don't mind me asking....how much did this set you back? Wolfette and I have fallen in love!

[swanie]

I'll PM you details.

swanie

[wolfy999]

Thanks for getting back to me....but I'm the cat leader around here....even NA isn't close.

Don't tell Wofette, but I'm starting to ponder the idea of getting a dog....ssssssssssssssssssssshhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!

[BarTopDancer]

If you go to Arco and use plastic (either ATM or credit) to pay, be prepared to have a $75 hold placed on your card.

I went to Arco, made a $10 credit purchase and had a $75 hold placed on my checking account. I understand the hold if you're buying an open ended amount, and even double checked if the hold was going to go on if I made a purchase for a specific dollar amount.

I can't remember the last time I've been to Arco, so I don't know how new this is.

[Alex]

It isn't new. And it isn't unique to ARCO. Generally, if you don't want the hold you can avoid it by providing your credit card inside the store instead of at the pump.

The reason for the hold is a byproduct of gas stations requiring payment (or at least proof of payment) up front instead of after the gas is pumped. Inside the store they just hold onto your credit card and then charge the exact amount afterwards.

But at the pump they need to validate that the card is valid and since the whole transaction could happen without any human interaction at all they want some assurances that the card could fund the transaction. The only way to do that is with an authorization request for a certain amount (this is what car rental companies used to do). Otherwise, you could stick in a credit card with only $1 of available credit, pump $60 in gas and be gone before anybody knows otherwise (and it will cost the gas station much more than $59 to track you down).

The actual duration of the hold will vary from credit card company to credit card company. I believe by law all unrealized authorization requests expire after five days, and because that is the simplest least development solutions some companies will actually just let that happen as the means of clearing it (it should be noted that a hold is not a charge, there are no interest or fees or charges on that balance). Other companies will have been much more proactive and clear the hold as soon as a real charge for a real amount goes through, others will have programmed a much shorter window (a couple hours, 24 hours, etc.).

ARCO is famous for having one of the high authorization holds at $75 which makes it much more noticable than other companies (if the authorization request was just for $25 almost every ends up pumping more gas than that and never even notices) and the reason for it was that, at the time it was implemented, that was viewed as more money than 99.9% of people would ever spend on a single gas transaction. Of course, with $3.50 gas and modern SUVs that isn't true any more and there was actually some kerfuffle a year or so ago about people being unable to fill up because ARCO and some other companies used the authorization request as a hard cap (while others took it as a good faith indicator that you'd be able to pay) requiring some people to pump $75, stop, and then start a new transaction.

But again, avoiding all of this should be possible by simply using your card in side the store.


How's that for way too much detail? Can you tell that I had a project at work a few months ago that required me learning way too much about authorization requests and trying to decide how to handle their expiration?

[cirquelover]

You are always a fountain of information Alex. Thank you

[Stan4dSteph]

Originally Posted by mousepod

Got to have a business lunch with Fee Waybill today. I've been a fan of his since high school, and I must say that I'm impressed. I'm finding that it's a pleasure to talk to rock music veterans (assuming they're not completely burned out) because they have a realistic understanding of the industry and generally a bunch of great stories. A tape of unreleased Tubes songs from the 1970s just turned up, and we're going to be releasing it. I volunteered to write the liner notes for the CD just to get a chance to interview Fee about the songs.

Sweet! The Stanford Band still plays White Punks on Dope. It's a really fun one to play.


Regarding card holds, my account in France is linked to a card with a chip. Makes transactions much quicker. I wonder if banks in the US will go more to that way of things.

[blueerica]

Originally Posted by mousepod

Got to have a business lunch with Fee Waybill today. I've been a fan of his since high school, and I must say that I'm impressed. I'm finding that it's a pleasure to talk to rock music veterans (assuming they're not completely burned out) because they have a realistic understanding of the industry and generally a bunch of great stories. A tape of unreleased Tubes songs from the 1970s just turned up, and we're going to be releasing it. I volunteered to write the liner notes for the CD just to get a chance to interview Fee about the songs.

OK - Way too effing cool.