Hi Kristi.

I sent an email about this earlier to Renderosity support with more specifics.

First, this isn't a credit card. It's a Debit Gift card. They are very simple and only take zip code entry so there's not much to check. I've been using Debit cards on Renderosity since 2009 when I started in 3D. I use the debit gift cards for safety, as in the issue that Renderosity had with stolen credit card numbers a year or so back. I didn't have to worry about it.

An unnecessary pending hold on a Debit Giftcard can be devastating, however. I see that as Bondware's problem (by the way, Bondware used to show up as the charger, now it is showing as Renderosity, which is new).

The debit gift card companies are not set up so you can easily contact them like you can your credit card bank. They just don't respond unless you initiate a charge dispute and send them your life's history in writing. Then they kick it back and say the same thing, that the merchant can apply to take the hold off. By that time the problem has probably resolved itself so you no longer care until the next time at which point you probably won't contact the gift card company again.

I don't know what an AVS is, sorry. When the sale didn't go through, I reviewed all the information provided and I tried again. It does happen sometimes that I make an entry wrong, and for some reason most usually it is in the expiration date or if it is a second try, in forgetting the cv.

I haven't had this problem before at Renderosity or with any other merchant. Typically the problem is that the transaction simply isn't allowed at all until the system figures out what it is.

I'm told some companies [ccc, banks] actually do this (put pending holds on cards) on purpose because there are interest fees that they get by holding the money. Customers don't see it because the charges don't show up on their credit card statements. To see how they're losing money they would have to calculate what the monthly interest charge should be on the statement and then compare it to what it actually is, which is of course higher due to the practice as interest is calculated on a revolving balance. How many people do this? How many people know how to calculate their monthly interest charge? It also affects credit scores to the effect it lowers your available credit due to the higher balance.

I don't think the companies get any money with my debit card, however, and debit card holders (i.e., me) see this shady practice right away, as in today's example. Although I hope this is an accident and Bondware/Renderosity is not getting into this practice.

If Bondware isn't going to recognize Giftcards and is going to start pulling this on me, my purchasing days at Renderosity will be coming to a close. I can't have pending charges duplicated at random on a card. I just checked the card status and funds remain unavailable. My sale is over. This particular card is effectively dead to me until some nebulus intermediary decides to reverse the charges in a week or so,.

It would help if Renderosity had a mechanism to immediately reverse the false transaction and take the hold off.