Pay at pump £1 pre-auth

EssexExile

Surely it's just checking the card is real & valid, it doesn't know or care how much is in the account, that's up to the customer. Service companies do the same thing, if you call out British Gas to repair your boiler they'll take a tiny amount from your card before they come to make sure it's valid.

chambta

glentoran99 wrote: »

Online ordering with Tesco does similar, money doesn't come out when you order it comes out when the shop is done

The difference being that if your card doesn't cover the full payment you won't see your shopping!

As for the OP's friend. What a greedy fool, thinking he was getting one over on the retailer only to find out he was paying the actual price of the goods he was purchasing.

He has three cars and no money too? How odd.

piehole

On the flipside...

I may have, say, £12 in my bank / credit cards (I run my credit cards to the limit and track with YNAB so i'm aware what is available) and want to buy £10 of petrol. Your way would see me refused when it came to paying at the pump.

Frankly, the pump nor the company you're purchasing off should be babysitting your financial situation. In my humble opinion.

knack92

chambta wrote: »

The difference being that if you're card doesn't cover the full payment you won't see your shopping!

As for the OP's friend. What a greedy fool, thinking he was getting one over on the retailer only to find out he was paying the actual price of the goods he was purchasing.

He has three cars and no money too? How odd.

Where did it say that? If I filled up all three cars in my household using the card I normally use for such purchases I would also go over my overdraft limit. Doesn't mean I have no money.

PinkPig

The authorization system is supposed to reassure businesses that the transaction will go through - as a customer, you're expected to know how much you're spending and only spend what you can afford.

Remember that once upon a time, authorizations didn't exist at all!

mel48rose

jonesMUFCforever wrote: »

Tell your friend to sell one of the cars then pay the funds into his account to repay his overdraft.

:rotfl: :rotfl: :rotfl:

takman

knack92 wrote: »

Where did it say that? If I filled up all three cars in my household using the card I normally use for such purchases I would also go over my overdraft limit. Doesn't mean I have no money.

But the OP said he "got himself into a bit of trouble" so if he had the money elsewhere he could have transferred it over the same day he went over his lomot before he incurred and bank charges. So he wouldn't have been in trouble.

Biggles

MamaMoo wrote: »

Now, after having explained this to him, he thinks it's a very silly system that could ruin people.

What IS silly is trying to steal from a petrol station and blaming them when you are caught out.

knack92

takman wrote: »

But the OP said he "got himself into a bit of trouble" so if he had the money elsewhere he could have transferred it over the same day he went over his lomot before he incurred and bank charges. So he wouldn't have been in trouble.

Ah yes; I overlooked that.

norm_

What about one of those prepaid debit cards? If you only loaded £10 on it you could extract the fuel and you couldn't be charged any more than what's on the card?

You'd likely be reported for theft at a later date nonetheless ...