When dining out, don’t rely on prepaid debit cards to pay for your meal. They are often rejected by restaurant payment systems.
Restaurant payment systems (and gas pumps) seek authorization for payments without knowing the final total. In restaurants, the system uses the check total as a start point but it has to authorize a total higher than that amount to leave room for the tip. The exact percentage over the the total varies but it’s at least 20%. That means if you try to pay a $50 check with a $50 Visa gift/prepaid card, it will likely be rejected. Even a $40 bill might be declined with a $50 card. There’s no way for your server/bartender to toggle that aspect of the system. They can attempt to run your $50 card for, say, $30 and you can pay the rest with cash/credit, but that’s not always going to work. Using multiple prepaid cards often fails, too.
Save yourself some hassle and don’t use prepaid cards to pay your restaurant bill unless they have a good bit more on them than the check’s total. Allow at least 25% leeway.
Had this happen with my paypal card at the gas pump one day! Even though I knew I wasn't going to go over the amount on my card, I didn't have enough in the account to meet whatever the necessary limit was!
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