Confusing credit card charge for free charging

[californiaboy935]

I think people are misinterpreting what they are seeing. I'm have a Chase Visa card on file. I'll get a $50 temporary hold whenever I charge, and assuming no idle fees, that temporary charge will go away in about seven days without ever hitting my credit card balance. Now, here's the really strange thing... Normally, that charge would just disappear, and that is that. But, for some reason, Lucid replaces the disappearing $50 charge with a $50 credit, which again sits there for another number of days before it disappears. Again without ever hitting your credit card balance. If that's what's happening, it's really nothing to be concerned about. If it is affecting your balance, then that's a different story.

Please bear in mind that charges like these happen all the time, but the typical pre-charge is almost always followed by an actual charge. This is a rare situation where the pre-charge is almost never followed by an actual charge, so the system keeps waiting and waiting for one to appear, and eventually gives up.

I’d hate to be dealing with all that on the backend…

 

[Barr1722]

Ok
This is just funny now. Changed my credit card from Citi Costco to Capital one to see if fee would fall off faster and I got charged $75 now. This is just comedy now.

 

[californiaboy935]

What?! I have a BofA card too; it’s my highest limit card. Can you post a screenshot of that part of the statement? It should definitely not be getting posted and refunded. If it is, that’s a problem.

 

[californiaboy935]

What?! I have a BofA card too; it’s my highest limit card. Can you post a screenshot of that part of the statement? It should definitely not be getting posted and refunded. If it is, that’s a problem.

I have the Merrill Lynch Premium Rewards Card and its the one where this behavior has been experienced by me.

 

[californiaboy935]

Ok
This is just funny now. Changed my credit card from Citi Costco to Capital one to see if fee would fall off faster and I got charged $75 now. This is just comedy now.

Oh no... this is getting weird!! Any thoughts @borski ?

 

[Buffalo Bob]

OMG! Everybody keeps tossing around $ signs, when the only real issue with these rounded off pre-authorization charges is whether they ever turn from PENDING charges to ACTUAL charges. Regardless of what the rounded pre-authorization amount is, that's the only thing that makes any meaningful difference. I don't think anyone has ever said that they had one of these pre-authorization charges (or credits for that matter) appear on a bill as a charge (or credit) that they were expected to pay. [To be clear, I'm not talking about someone who found out that they were no longer getting free charging. I'm talking about those of us, me included, who are still getting free charging, but for whom these various rounded off placeholder pre-authorizations have started to appear. I just ignore them until they go away, and I will deal with them if they ever actually make it to a billing statement, which so far they never have.]

 

[kort6776]

why is everyone so concerned about those charges?

apparently they are just credit holds that drop off after a couple of days. Lucid is not unique with using credit holds. when you rent a car or check into a hotel similar holds are usually placed, sometimes for hundreds of dollars. these holds would only be a concern for those who have low credit limits or are carrying large balances that limit their access to credit.

IMHO this is much ado about nothing.

 

[Buffalo Bob]

why is everyone so concerned about those charges?

apparently they are just credit holds that drop off after a couple of days. Lucid is not unique with using credit holds. when you rent a car or check into a hotel similar holds are usually placed, sometimes for hundreds of dollars. these holds would only be a concern for those who have low credit limits or are carrying large balances that limit their access to credit.

IMHO this is much ado about nothing.

I have a theory that I think is sound... You're right about these credit holds being very common. Most frequently, people incur them when they buy gasoline, or the pre-tip amount at a restaurant, but you are also right about hotels, car rentals and the like. The big difference is that in all those cases, people, and the credit card companies, EXPECT there to eventually be a billable charge, and there almost always is. It happens within a matter of minutes in the case of gas and restaurants. The pending charge goes away quickly, and (unless you get alerts or check your online credit card account) most people only notice the eventual REAL charge. This is the highly unusual situation where the credit hold is almost NEVER followed by an actual charge, in which case the credit hold hangs out there for as much as seven days waiting for a charge that never comes, but eventually goes away. Complicate that with the fact that, for some totally inexplicable reason, the disappearing Lucid CHARGE for $X amount is followed by a pending Lucid CREDIT for the same amount, which hangs out there for another several days, before it disappears. (I think this CREDIT is a Lucid thing and not a credit card thing. I don't see why they do it.)

Couple all that with the fact that some owners are (in some cases justifiably) worried that the party is going to be over on their free charging, and there is a tendency to get a little unnerved when any charges are seen... even pending ones.

Makes sense to me. I may be wrong.

 

[suchluke]

It looks like the temp hold went up from $50 to $75 recently. It is being applied by Lucid each time the connector is plugged into the car regardless if the session was successfully authenticated or not. If no charges incurred during charging the hold is released later on.

 

[Buffalo Bob]

I meant to add... If anyone ever does have one of these pending charges actually make it to their credit card billing statement, by all means, please post the details! (Of course, that assumes you do not incur an actual idle charge. )

(This request does not apply to debit cards, as in that process, the pending funds are temporarily taken from your checking account balance.)

 

[Halodde]

I agree this has been significantly overblown. My intent when I posted the original message was just to alert people to the fact that Lucid was now putting a $50 hold on your credit card when you charge for possible idle fees if incurred. I'm not concerned with it and I didn't want others to be concerned either. So I posted it to let people know to expect it.

 

[new owner]

I meant to add... If anyone ever does have one of these pending charges actually make it to their credit card billing statement, by all means, please post the details! (Of course, that assumes you do not incur an actual idle charge. )

(This request does not apply to debit cards, as in that process, the pending funds are temporarily taken from your checking account balance.)

I went to an electrify America ( evolve) in NY
And was charged for the charging session
Despite still using my free charging for 9 more months
Never been charged before
Usually charge in MA
And I don’t mean the $50 hold but for the electricity

 

[suchluke]

I agree this has been significantly overblown. My intent when I posted the original message was just to alert people to the fact that Lucid was now putting a $50 hold on your credit card when you charge for possible idle fees if incurred. I'm not concerned with it and I didn't want others to be concerned either. So I posted it to let people know to expect it.

Small correction it is $75 hold now as of yesterday.

 

[Lucken]

Over the past week I’ve had an issue with the free charging plan enrollment. Despite going through this process twice with 2 different credit cards, the app still doesn’t recognize that this process has been completed even though each time it showed the process did complete. When I called, Lucid acknowledged that this has been happening to a few people and they’re trying to figure out what’s been happening.

 

[Buffalo Bob]

I went to an electrify America ( evolve) in NY
And was charged for the charging session
Despite still using my free charging for 9 more months
Never been charged before
Usually charge in MA
And I don’t mean the $50 hold but for the electricity

But, was it for some rounded amount, like the typical credit hold, or was it for the $ amount showing on the charging station as the actual charge amount? If it's the latter, that's a different issue from what I'm talking about. By all means, it may still be a valid issue, but a different one. (BTW, have you verified that the charge has actually been fully posted? I once had what looked like a charge on the station, but it never actually posted to my account.)

I think a lot of people have kind of inexplicably been getting free charging, while others are on structured one, two or three year programs, and others yet are on semi-structured 'up to X dollars or Y kWh free' plans. Depending on your situation, you may want to escalate with Lucid.

 

[Buffalo Bob]

Over the past week I’ve had an issue with the free charging plan enrollment. Despite going through this process twice with 2 different credit cards, the app still doesn’t recognize that this process has been completed even though each time it showed the process did complete. When I called, Lucid acknowledged that this has been happening to a few people and they’re trying to figure out what’s been happening.

Again, still relevant, but the Lucid Charging - Base Plan is a totally different animal from what this thread is talking about.

 

[jpcornett]

I'm sorry if this has been posted somewhere else. But I didn't see it if it was. So I'm starting a new thread to hopefully help other owners from having to deal with an unnecessary situation.

I still have free charging with Electrify america. And just recently within the last month put a credit card into my Lucid wallet. Today when I plugged in to an EA station to charge where I have charged many times before for free, I immediately got a $50 charge notification from my credit card. So I called Lucid customer care and they explained that that is just an authorization charge and not an actual charge. Upon looking at the receipt after charging, he was correct. The receipt for charging clearly shows no charge for my session.

Hopefully others will see this and understand that they don't have to call lucid to find out why they're being charged when they're charging should still be free.

Halodde,
I had same experience, but never saw it hit CC as an "approval"; and not charge resulted. When I called Lucid they could only confirm my end of free charging date which is April 18. I originally thought that showing a charge for charging when it's free was just to eliminate charging envy when others saw no charge on display at EE's. Here on the east coast, it's generally $28-34 to charge to 80%, so not going to be a big issue, but free charging was good for road trips. Cheers from WV

 

[Lucken]

Again, still relevant, but the Lucid Charging - Base Plan is a totally different animal from what this thread is talking about.

Yeah I know it’s not exactly the topic here, but I just thought I’d mention it in case others have had this issue. Lucid is aware of it and trying to get to the bottom of it.

 

[Sandvinsd]

If there were an actual charge, then you would have a $50 credit in your Lucid wallet. The next time you charged your car, they would not have to debit your card as the dollars are still there. That is what happens at charging networks or other debit accounts like toll transponders. They charge you an amount which gets debited as you use the service. When the balance drops below the minimum, or to 0, then they charge you again to build up the balance. For example, on ChargePoint, I currently have a $10.19 balance. The minimum is $10. The next time I charge and the balance falls below $10, my credit card will be charged. Same with my SunPass. I currently have a $19 balance. I can go through toll roads without my credit card being hit until the balance drops to $10. They I will get hit with another $10 charge.

If it is just a pending charge, everytime you charge, you would get hit with one. That is not an actual charge. No money has exchanged hands, just a pre-authorization. They would fall off if you don’t incur a cost such as an idle fee. If you do not have free charging, then I imagine Lucid would actually bill your credit card $50 (or $75 as some are saying) as I described above.

 

[Buffalo Bob]

Ha! I just charged today. Had one immediate connection failure, and the second attempt pinged me to identify the charger station # via the app. The wording suggested the possibility of a charge per kWh, but upon entering the station number, the charge was set at zero. Charged to 80%, and got my receipt for $0.00 both on the station screen and an email from Lucid, but I now have two Lucid charges pending for $75 each. I don't care a bit about them, as I am 100% confident that they will become a misty memory in about a week, other than Lucid possibly replacing them with two pending $75 credits. Now, if Lucid wants those credits to post, that would be just fine by me, but it ain't gonna happen.