Love’s Travel Class Action Alleges Excessive Credit Card Holds

Love’s Travel Stops, a gas station and convenience store with approximately 370 locations in forty states across the U.S., is the target of a recent proposed class action lawsuit alleging that the company places excessive and undisclosed holds on customer credit card accounts.

Plaintiff Kevin Thompson says he purchased $14.75 in fuel at a Love’s Travel Stops in Tennessee using his Visa card. The next morning, Thompson states that he checked his credit card balance and found that Love’s had placed a $125 “hold” on his Visa account, an amount that was nine times more than his purchase. The hold was not removed until approximately 72 hours later, according to Thompson.

The plaintiff claims that he questioned the manager at Love’s Travel Stops where he made his purchase about the credit card hold and the manager told him that “Love’s Travel Stops ‘don’t do that’ and that ‘we don’t own the machines.’” The lawsuit states that passenger vehicles pumping gas have holds ranging from $100 and $500 for customers driving semi-trucks who pump diesel fuel.

The suit claims that when customers make a purchase with a Visa or MasterCard credit card via a pay-at-the-pump machine at Love’s Travel Stops, the company issues a credit card hold to secure payment in full for fuel purchases. However, these holds placed by Love’s are without the customer’s knowledge or consent and the amount of the hold exceeds the actual cost of the fuel purchase by a great deal, the plaintiff claims.

“However, not only are these ‘holds’ exerted by Love’s Travel Stops without notice to, knowledge of, or consent by customers, but the dollar-amounts of these credit ‘holds’ significantly exceed the actual costs of the fuel purchases,” the complaint reads. “Moreover, the undisclosed ‘holds’ result in damages to Plaintiff and Class members, i.e., the loss of access to their credit for several days.”

The plaintiff alleges that Love’s credit card holds constitute violations of state deceptive and unfair trade practice acts across multiple states, breach of contract, fraudulent concealment and claims the company has unjustly enriched itself.

Thompson and the proposed Class seek damages, restitution, injunctive relief, interest, attorneys’ fees and the cost of the suit and are demanding a jury trial. The amount in controversy in the lawsuit exceeds more than $5 million.

Two related potential class action lawsuits were filed earlier this month against Pilot Travel Center, another gas and convenience store chain. The allegations in these lawsuits are similar to the one against Love’s and state that excessive holds are placed on credit cards used at pay-at-the-pump machines and does not inform customers that these holds will be placed.

The plaintiff is represented by Gordon Ball of Gordon Ball, PLLC, Thomas C. Jessee of Jessee & Jessee and Lance K. Baker of The Baker Law Firm.

The Love’s Travel Stops Class Action Lawsuit is Kevin Thompson v. Love’s Travel Stops & Country Stores Inc., Case No. 3:16-cv-00143, in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Tennessee, Northern Division at Knoxville.