Credit card charged twice at BP Garage

CorianderTom

Long time reader, first time post-er.

I logged into my Santander online banking and was interested to view my spending over the weekend (read: the extent of the damage sustained to my balance). The weekend's transactions didn't appear on my "Recent transactions" page (apparently it's too recent to appear here) but at the foot of this page there was an option to view "Authorised payments that have not been billed yet".

It was here I noticed two identical lines in the "Pending transactions" table: same date (4th Dec 2015), description and amount (£31.80), which was the cost of fuel at the BP garage at Membury services off the Westbound M4.

My question is: what's the process to challenge the duplicate charge? Part of me (optimistically) assumes the billing folk at BP Headquarters will instantly recognise that they've charged me twice for the same transaction (it must happen to others) and reconcile this error before it hits my statement.

In the event this doesn't happen, I assume I should contact BP, but I'd be grateful for any advice. I kept the receipt for this transaction, but it only proves I made one purchase at the garage; it doesn't prove I didn't insist on paying twice for my fuel! (I didn't)

Many thanks!
Tom

SnowTiger

Wait a few days. One of the transaction will probably move to the recent transactions list and the other will disappear.

If they both move to recent transactions you can take it up with Santander. They'll do a Chargeback.

agrinnall

Whatever you do you shouldn't contact BP, just because a garage has a BP sign doesn't mean BP have any responsibility for it's operation. If you really wanted to do something other than the correct action that SnowTiger has advised you could contact whoever owns and/or operates the garage.

chattychappy

Do nothing. There isn't a "charge" yet.

I've had duplicate authorisations. Sometimes I've had a real charge and a parallel authorisation. They've always dropped out without any intervention from me.

It is only an issue if they are locking up credit limit preventing you from spending further.

eskbanker

CorianderTom wrote: »

....

This will sort itself out over thyme, but chargeback will resolve if duplicated charges do cumin to play, so you won't need to bay twice on your cardamom....