Well, that is a crap way of doing things because in credit-card world you can 'hold a charge' for $x rather than actually execute the charge transaction. Holdi

Well, that is a crap way of doing things because in credit-card world you can 'hold a charge' for $x rather than actually execute the charge transaction. Holding a charge checks the credit card can pay the dollar amount and I believe also reduces that against your spending limit - but it doesn't actually put the charge on your bill. It only lasts a short period of time and so if you don't complete the transaction the charge is dropped altogether. It comes down to whether your credit card processor exposes to you such functionality and whether you are smart enough to know to use it.