Halifax \ Bank of Scotland basic account - pay at pump

mwarby

Does anyone have either basic account and confirm whether or not the visa debit card works at pay at pump.

20aday

If the Halifax Basic Account is similar to the former EasyCash Account then I'd imagine the Visa Debit cards offered are "online only" and therefore would be declined for Pay at the Pump transactions.

If at all possible take a look at Nationwide's FlexBasic account; it comes with a contactless Visa Debit card and therefore could be used for "offline" payments.

debtorwithaquestion

I have the Halifax basic account (opened 01/2016 and it DOES work at pay at pump. I tried it when I had just £1.00 in the bank and it allowed me to take a full tank of fuel.

(I obviously transferred the funds needed to cover the amount that was then debited a day or so after- but I was testing if the card worked)

However when I had a pending pay at pump transaction it would not authorise a second (the next day)- despite the balance being £50+. Presumably this is because there was a current pending transaction for pay@pump)

The basic account from Halifax is great. Esp the mobile app where you can set up a new payee (and it is saved for the future) by authorising with your password in app (no OTP or card readers or 4 digit pin telephone authorisation calls)!!!!

mwarby

20aday wrote: »

If the Halifax Basic Account is similar to the former EasyCash Account then I'd imagine the Visa Debit cards offered are "online only" and therefore would be declined for Pay at the Pump transactions.

If at all possible take a look at Nationwide's FlexBasic account; it comes with a contactless Visa Debit card and therefore could be used for "offline" payments.

As I understand it some banks are doing online contactless cards, I suspect nationwide are doing the same

Anthorn

Oh I though online and offline cards have disappeared at least for bank debit cards and most credit cards. They are online when the terminal is online and offline when the terminal is offline. Certainly, I don't get the characteristic 2 day delay of an offline card when a card is used in an online terminal any more.

mwarby

I think whats happened is that card machines have moved from dialup to always on connections. This will have reduced cost and delay of getting authorisation, which would lead to lower floor limts and more transactions being authed in realtime

One of the nice things about bank of scotland\halifax\lloyds is that they show each transaction online within a few minutes(assuming it goes online at retailer of course)

20aday

Anthorn wrote: »

Oh I though online and offline cards have disappeared at least for bank debit cards and most credit cards. They are online when the terminal is online and offline when the terminal is offline. Certainly, I don't get the characteristic 2 day delay of an offline card when a card is used in an online terminal any more.

I work in a petrol station and our Pay at Pump terminals are offline; people who use certain debit cards from NatWest, RBS and Barclays are unable to use it.

For some reason business debit cards from NatWest/RBS are 'online' only (but not all of them).

Anthorn

20aday wrote: »

I work in a petrol station and our Pay at Pump terminals are offline; people who use certain debit cards from NatWest, RBS and Barclays are unable to use it.

For some reason business debit cards from NatWest/RBS are 'online' only (but not all of them).

Thanks for that reply. That clarifies the situation.

20aday

Anthorn wrote: »

Thanks for that reply. That clarifies the situation.

No problem. I *think* Tesco Pay at Pump (and Morrison's) also conduct their transactions offline too.

System

Neither of you are correct - pay at pump authorise a nominal amount (usually £1) online and later debit the actual amount.

All debit cards (in theory & with £1 available funds) will therefore work but some banks such as RBS have setup their online debit cards to decline all Pay at Pump transactions.

Visa Electron is setup to auto decline Pay at Pump transactions.