What happens if a restaurant accepts your credit card, but the tip puts you over the limit?
Credit Card
Wes A asked:
They already accepted the card before they saw the tip. So does the credit card company pay up, or does the waiter not get the tip?
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They already accepted the card before they saw the tip. So does the credit card company pay up, or does the waiter not get the tip?
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February 28th, 2009 at 6:50 pm
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tip less!
March 1st, 2009 at 1:49 am
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Usually the credit card co. will pay up, but they’ll hit you with an over the limit fee. The fee can be a lot like up to $30 or more, which they do on purpose to discourage this from happening. So it will end up being a very expensive tip for you. If you have enough cash to pay the tip but not the whole bill, pay the tip in cash seperately.
March 1st, 2009 at 9:08 pm
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I didn’t know that it was against the law not to leave a tip.
March 3rd, 2009 at 3:08 pm
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I would be willing to bet that the waiter wins this one - you will probably be charged a fee for going over your limit. Call the CC company in the morning and you might be able to talk them out of it.
March 4th, 2009 at 1:04 am
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I was at a resturant where the authorize the bill plus 20 percent. They alter it to reflect the actual tip but they make sure it goes through so they dont get in a predicament like this!!!!
March 6th, 2009 at 3:12 am
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That means you cannot afford to eat out!
March 9th, 2009 at 7:25 am
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Most processors that have restaurant accounts add a 20% buffer when the card is swiped and authorization given for the card. At the end of the night after the server has put in the actual tip and matches the total up the credit cards are batched and the actual figures are sent through.
If you need more info check out
March 12th, 2009 at 4:03 pm
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What happens when you use a credit card at a restaurant…
You get your bill, the waiter swipes your credit card–when this swipe occurs, the restuarant computer calls your credit card company and asks to “reserve” the amount of your bill from your account, the credit card company “approves” the reserve–the waiter returns your credit card slip and you add a tip, then the waiter goes back to the computer and adds the tip to your “reserved” amount. At the close of the restaurant, the manager runs what’s called a batch report (this is when they actually charge the amount to your account, sending all credit card transactions for the day at one time).
Now…let’s say you only had an available credit on your account of $15, your bill was $12 and then you left a tip of $4, equally $16. Remember…at the time an approval code was given to your transaction, the transaction wasn’t finalized, only hours later does it become final. Why is the transaction allowed? Because every credit card company allows every account holder a percentage OVER their credit limit for cleared purchases. Yes, you heard me right…they will actually clear charges over your credit limit.
What does this mean to you, or to me when it happened…we, as consumers must be very aware of our “true” available credit so that, not only do we leave enough room in our available balance for each months finance charges, but also room for our mistakes of not knowing our true available credit and accidentally over charging.
So in answer to your question…yes the server gets the tip…because they collect the tip before the transaction is finalized during the batch report.
I hope this helps and it makes sense…it can be very confusing. It took me a long time to understand why I use to go over my limit all the time.