Pay at Pump Petrol Stations

Super_Ram

Hi there,

Not sure if this is the correct place to post this, but couldnt see anywhere else.

I went to the Petrol Station earlier today and pulled in to use the Pay at Pump at Asda. Now I stuck my natwest debit card in and entered my pin and then it said you can fill upto 70 pounds. Now I knew I didnt have 70 pound in my account at that point so was only filling to what I had, but what I wondered was, if i had of put more petrol in than i had in my bank, I would have gone overdrawn.

Now as i have been careful and budgeting since sorting my debts, I am very careful about not going overdrawn, however I am unsure how this pay at pump works, as I had already put my card in and taken it out after entering pin and then said to fill up, so the petrol would have been in my tank before it I suppose tried to authorise it before it gives me a receipt.

So, I would have either gone overdrawn or t would have rejected me and alerted a staff member and it would ahve been very embarrasing Im sure.

Is this correct or does anyone know how these pumps work if people mistaking.ly go over whats in their account

Cheers

POSSETTE

I believe the £70 is nothing to do with your account balance,its the same wherever you go,i have had this 3 times!

exel1966

The £70 (any) is a limit set by the supermarket and nothing to do with your account balance. Most supermarket chains set a limit like this at 'pay at pump' systems.

Why ? A security measure in case the card is stolen it will limit their losses (the supermarket is liable when accepting a card without pin entry), especially if someone used a stolen card to fill the tank of an HGV tractor unit.

Dr_Hook

I suspect the £70 is the forecourt's card transaction limit - probably what would happen is that the pump wouldn't check your account, the bank would honour the transaction as it is below the transaction limit agreed with the forecourt, and you would be charged an unauthorised overdraft fee :mad:

PaulW922

That's right - If you had filled to £70 and you did not have enough in your account then you would have gone overdrawn. A Natwest UK Maestro card (as opposed to Solo) is a credit product and, effectively, they are relying you to manage your account yourself. If you check your account immediately after filling you will probably find a token payment of £1 has been authorised.

cifpower

I think the system authorises £1 and then lets you fill up before debiting your account a few days later. When I fill up at Tesco the limit for me is £59

bert&ernie

The terminal doesn't know how much petrol your are going to pump into your car, so it pre-authorises the card for a set amount. This amount should be reserved by your bank or card issuer until the transaction, for the actual amount of fuel used, is presented for settlement. The transaction amount will post to your account and the remaining pre-auth should be released.

Your bank will make a decision when asked to pre-authorise the transaction - it may allow it even if it takes you over your account limit. It depends on the type of account you have and the banks strategy for dealing with over limit authorisations e.g. if you basic account with a solo, electron or non-embossed Visa debit, then its unlikely to accept an auth that would make you overdrawn. Even if you have an account with credit facilities or a credit card, then the issuer may well refuse an authorisation based on the value of other pending transactions or your recent behavioural history.

hippey

bert&ernie wrote: »

The terminal doesn't know how much petrol your are going to pump into your car, so it pre-authorises the card for a set amount. This amount should be reserved by your bank or card issuer until the transaction, for the actual amount of fuel used, is presented for settlement. The transaction amount will post to your account and the remaining pre-auth should be released.

Your bank will make a decision when asked to pre-authorise the transaction - it may allow it even if it takes you over your account limit. It depends on the type of account you have and the banks strategy for dealing with over limit authorisations e.g. if you basic account with a solo, electron or non-embossed Visa debit, then its unlikely to accept an auth that would make you overdrawn. Even if you have an account with credit facilities or a credit card, then the issuer may well refuse an authorisation based on the value of other pending transactions or your recent behavioural history.

This is correct, the SACAT terminal will authorise a set amount i.e. £70, sometimes dependant on card type, then at the end of the transaction it should confirm the amount and submit the total, however some terminals are set up slightly differently depending on risk, aquirer and retailer. Some online authorisation only cards (Solo / electron) used to have lower limits as some UPTs were polled, so the authorisation would be outstanding for a couple of days or so, this stopped the whole amount being a problem.

Some cards will force the terminals online to gain a full authorisation and then the amount will only 'drop off' when the terminal is polled or end of day completed.

Suprisingly the actual method of transaction can be very complicated and as a rule the terminal will seek an authorisation for the full amount (£70 or so) and will not work until this is gained. Some will check L/S hotcards (auth for £1) and complete the sale later, some do something inbetween.

POSSETTE

at least £70 would let you get around 3 gallon now and not just 1!!!!:rotfl:

space_rider

POSSETTE wrote: »

at least £70 would let you get around 3 gallon now and not just 1!!!!:rotfl:

I can now fill my car with petrol now. When it was expensive I refused to put anymore than £50 in and left my car at home when I could.

[Deleted User]

Here's my understanding of it.

Let's say you have £85 in your bank account. It's all available to spend, you haven't used your debit card recently.

You go to a petrol station, and put your card into the pump. It authorises £70. This means you can spend upto £70 on fuel. You only spend £20.

You then go into the main store, and try to spend £30 on food. This should be OK, because you should still have £65 in your account after that petrol spend. BUT - shock horror - your card's rejected. This is because the authorisation was for £70, meaning only £15 was available to spend.

Later that day, the pump tells your bank that the £70 authorisation only resulted in a £20 spend. The authorisation disappears, you have £65 left in your bank account, all available to spend.

Next time, you go to the pump again. It tries to authorise £70 again. One of two things happen:

1) The authorisation fails. The pump then tries a lower amount until it finds one it can authorise.
or:
2) The authorisation succeeds for £70 - even though you only have £65 in your account. If you spend more than £65 on fuel, it'll let you, but you'll go overdrawn and get hit by penalty charges.