AMARILLO, TX -- If you fill up your car or even your big rig at a Pilot travel center or Pilot Flying J, you may need to check your bank account because of a authorization fee program where they can put a hold on your account for hundreds of dollars.
If you use electronic means to pay, supposedly only as a credit card, the company can authorize a hold on your account of about 150 dollars for a few days on a passenger vehicle and reportedly 500 dollars on a semi.
Afterwards, the money is returned, but customers like Edna Cuellar say it's wrong and she won't do business with Pilot anymore.
"So, it's unheard of. I don't need them to be holding 151 dollars back. I have things to do with that money."
She says Pilot told her it was her Visa/ATM card, then her bank charging the fees. Amarillo National Bank Electronic Bank Manager, Beth Stewart, says it's not ANB.
"We believe the authorization is coming from Pilot. They control their gas pumps for authorization fees, so we do believe it's Pilot."
This is only supposed to occur if using your ATM card like a credit card, though Edna says that's not what happened in her case, and that she used her ATM card as a debit card.
If you have any problems, you can call your bank and ask them to release the funds for you.
We did try and contact Pilot about their authorization fee program, but they have not responded.
