Pay at pump barclays

Mandifuters

Barclays Bank have put a message to say that from July all pay at pump transactions will be subject to available balance. However this balance does not take into account any overdraft facility. This could be an issue for people who use their OD by end of month and rely on car to attend employment. Why have they done this??

user1977

What's the consumer rights question?

MattMattMattUK

Mandifuters said:

Barclays Bank have put a message to say that from July all pay at pump transactions will be subject to available balance. However this balance does not take into account any overdraft facility. This could be an issue for people who use their OD by end of month and rely on car to attend employment. Why have they done this??

Largely because of the way the pay at pump systems operate. When you put your card in the card pre-authorises an amount, usually £100. You then fill your card with fuel and the transaction is processed, using an amount from the pre-auth, the balance of the pre-auth is then released. However to release those funds as available again can take a while and it likely causes problems with pre-auth pushing people into overdrafts, where fees apply, is the person in their overdraft if the pre-authorisation is the thing pushing them in etc. This was all much easier before the ombudsman got involved and broke overdrafts with their daft meddling.

Aylesbury_Duck

Mandifuters said:

Barclays Bank have put a message to say that from July all pay at pump transactions will be subject to available balance. However this balance does not take into account any overdraft facility. This could be an issue for people who use their OD by end of month and rely on car to attend employment. Why have they done this??

Probably easier to ask Barclays, but at a guess, maybe people have been (inadvertently or deliberately) abusing the system.

Presumably those people in the situation you mention could just attend at a time when the shop is open and pay in person, so the limit isn't a problem.

visidigi

Mandifuters said:

Barclays Bank have put a message to say that from July all pay at pump transactions will be subject to available balance. However this balance does not take into account any overdraft facility. This could be an issue for people who use their OD by end of month and rely on car to attend employment. Why have they done this??

For the same reason Tesco is going from a £1 authorization to a £99 authorization shortly - people have abused the system and used it as a buffer as the exact amount isn't charged.

OD is at the discretion of the bank, they can set any terms round it, pretty like a warranty which is in excess of your rights.

pbartlett

it will be worse than that. Say you have £100 in your account - that will be pre-auth and even if you only buy £20 of fuel you won't have access to the remaining £80 until the pre-auth is released.

this means if you then do shopping the payment will come  out of your overdraft rather than from the £80 balance unless the p-a has been released

p00hsticks

pbartlett said:

it will be worse than that. Say you have £100 in your account - that will be pre-auth and even if you only buy £20 of fuel you won't have access to the remaining £80 until the pre-auth is released.

this means if you then do shopping the payment will come  out of your overdraft rather than from the £80 balance unless the p-a has been released

I may be wrong but I don't believe that would be the case - it may be that your card is declined at the till because the shopping pre-auth shows you have an available balance of £0, but if the transaction is accepted the actual payment will come from the £80 that is actually in your account.

My understanding is that no money is physically taken from your account in a pre-auth, it simply reduces your 'available balance', and that it is the 'actual' rather than 'available' balance that would determine if your overdraft actually kicks in or not.

tasticz

pay at desk then...

68ComebackSpecial

tasticz said:

pay at desk then...

Some stations are Pay At Pump only - my local Asda one is.

tasticz

68ComebackSpecial said:

tasticz said:

pay at desk then...

Some stations are Pay At Pump only - my local Asda one is.

then find a new pump where you can pay at desk 

68ComebackSpecial

tasticz said:

68ComebackSpecial said:

tasticz said:

pay at desk then...

Some stations are Pay At Pump only - my local Asda one is.

then find a new pump where you can pay at desk 

I don't need to as there's always money in my bank account and ample on my credit card.