Merchant Authorizations Reduce your Available Balance. We post debit card authorizations and settlements from merchants as we receive them and we cannot control when we receive them. Please also note that some merchants may submit authorizations for more than the settlement amounts. For example, your local car rental agency may disclose to you they submit authorizations for $500.00 before approving you to leave with the rental car. If your rental expense is only $185.00 they only send a settlement for $185.00. But the $500.00 authorization reduces your available balance by that amount until we receive the corresponding settlement transaction. The most common transactions that generate authorizations for amounts which difer from settlement amounts are travel and entertainment transactions, such as renting cars and holding hotel rooms. Generally, retail stores know the exact amount of their transactions when they frst initiate your card transaction and send us authorizations and settlements for the same amount. You choose the merchants you do business with, and if the car rental companies, hotels, and other merchants you use do not disclose their authorization policies or have unfavorable policies, you may want to consider using another form of payment, such as your Visa credit card.
