Asda Pay Pumps

OceanSound

Uxb wrote: »

Many hotels have been doing this for years......

That's for incidentals, like, if you choose to raid the minibar in a drunken stupor.:)

System

Uxb wrote: »

Many hotels have been doing this for years - the earliest I can remember it being done to me by an hotel is in the late 1980's.
The difference now is that it is being applied to a much wider section of the population and those don't have a buffer available - or a credit card with a large-ish limit.

The system wasn't designed with debit cards in mind. It was designed to be used with a credit/charge card where it's normally not an issue.

I had a Solo card on a Savings account many moons ago and (with solo only) ASDA used to reserve a fixed amount (£30, I think) and suggested you fill up to that limit - that would be an obvious option.

soulsaver

joncombe wrote: »

Why does this only apply to pay at the pump? I've never been asked to prove I have sufficient funds before filling up when paying in the shop, so why do it for pay at pump?

Because if your debit card transaction gets declined for lack of available funds you're still there to make good the payment by whatever alternate means...

18cc

The solution is to implement the technology to release the £99 block as soon as payment it made. Doing it the next day or several days later is simply not goid enough.

eschaton

eskbanker wrote: »

Nice - let them eat cake, eh?

That was a crass and unnecessary comment you made - there are many people for whom routine (and arguably unnecessary) reservation of £99 from available funds is indeed a big issue, of course especially so if they have other cashflow problems to contend with, so it wouldn't surprise me if some found your sneering remark offensive or insensitive....

No one is making anyone use pay at pump. Plenty of alternatives.

EachPenny

soulsaver wrote: »

Because if your debit card transaction gets declined for lack of available funds you're still there to make good the payment by whatever alternate means...

...and failing that there will be a member of staff on hand to call the Police.

eskbanker

eschaton wrote: »

No one is making anyone use pay at pump. Plenty of alternatives.

Mostly true (albeit unmanned pumps are becoming more commonplace, as per post #11 above), but you could obviously have chosen to respond along those lines before if that's the (different) point you'd wanted to make....

OceanSound

EachPenny wrote: »

...and failing that there will be a member of staff on hand to call the Police.

Only if you persistently 'forget your wallet at home'

EachPenny

fernandes wrote: »

It doesn't sound like any affected customer was told in advance their card would have a £99 hold, therefore ASDA were breaking the law, their decision to review / act in customer interest doesn't come into it.

I suspect if customers had a closer look there was a sign explaining that the terms and conditions of using pay at pump required the customer to accept the £99 temporary hold and that by continuing the process of dispensing fuel they were agreeing to this hold being applied to their chosen payment card.

The usual problem is people don't bother reading the small print.

BTW, it generally isn't a good idea to definitively accuse someone or a company of breaking the law unless you are very sure of your facts and would be willing to defend your opinion in court. Just saying.

OceanSound

Asda didn't give-up on this pilot pet project because they couldn't adequately inform customers of the change (or because customers had not read the small print), it's because it would 'risk harming [their] customers' trust in [them].