Buying exactly $20 worth of gas can mean a trip to the cashier or a careful watch on the pump’s spinning total. In a September 29 TikTok post, creator Julissa Cuevas shared another approach: using the pump’s keypad to bring up a preset dollar amount.
Her demonstration moves from the car’s fuel cap to the payment keypad, where a short sequence of numbers brings up a screen asking how much she wants to spend.
The appeal is straightforward for anyone buying a fixed amount of fuel. A preset lets the dispenser handle the stopping point, rather than leaving the driver to release the handle at just the right moment.
Pump manufacturers have offered that capability for years. Whether a particular keypad shortcut works, however, needs to be separated from another concern for drivers paying by card: how much money temporarily becomes unavailable in their account.
At the Keypad
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“You just put 7, 8, 9, 8, 9, and enter and you get it,” Cuevas says. After she enters the sequence, the display reads, “Enter preset amount.”
That prompt gives the driver a place to set a purchase amount at the dispenser. It does not establish that the same sequence works at every station, and the manufacturer’s instructions for a documented preset system use a different procedure.
In its April 2003 Encore programmable pump preset manual, Gilbarco describes a customer keypad with separate dollar and volume selections. Customers choose the appropriate option, enter the desired amount, and dispense fuel after authorization. The dispenser automatically stops at the preset value.
That system also permits a volume preset, so customers can select how much fuel they want instead of how much money they want to spend. The instructions apply to that equipment and installed option.
Check the Balance
A preset controls the fuel purchase. Drivers should not assume that opening that menu also eliminates a temporary card authorization hold.
Visa explains that some card issuers earmark funds when customers pay at the pump because the final purchase amount is not yet known. An account alert or pending amount can therefore differ from the fuel actually purchased.
Those temporarily reserved funds can affect the money available for other purchases. For questions about a fuel-purchase hold, Visa directs cardholders to the bank or other institution that issued their card.
One comment was so me: “What’s the code for free gas?”