Pay at the Pump pending money

NewOutlook

Hello everyone,

I would appreciate any information about who is responsible for this situation? The shop blames my bank, my bank blames Visa, and Visa's website says retailers have up to 72 hours to release pending money after the transaction completes. My bank/building society (Nationwide) says this is 7 days and has nothing to do with them.

I used a pay at the pump, ignorantly unaware of a recent change in policy where £100 is now pending when you use this facility. However, following a call to the retailer and my bank, I was reassured that once the transaction was completed (which happened the next day), then the remaining funds would be unfrozen. This did not happen and I have £80 still pending exactly a week later. Very frustrating and stressful as I only bought a small amount of petrol because I had other things to pay for and I don't have much money or any available credit. Obviously I would have paid in the shop if I had known this would happen and will do from now on.

Any knowledge of this would be appreciated. Ultimately I blame myself for not knowing/being aware of this new policy.

Many thanks.

mab3000

https://www.visa.co.uk/pay-with-visa/pay-at-pump.html

This website should be of use for you. In particular, it mentions at the end that the pre authorisation of funds should be reversed once the pump confirms how much petrol you have actually put in, and happens in real time, and if it doesn’t to contact your bank. 

I don’t think that Nationwide is necessarily to blame for what has actually happened. However there are ways that they can help you with this, but for some reason haven’t. 

NewOutlook

Thank you mab3000 for your reply.

Yes, I found those pages and despite relaying that to my bank they disputed the 72hr thing. Banging my head against a brick wall but as long as it unfreezes soon, lesson learnt about using pay at the pump.

Thank you!

mab3000

Can’t see anywhere that it mentions anything about a 72 hour time period in the link I sent…

If you are happy to wait until the pending transaction reversed, pending transactions have a purge date, which is around 10 days but does vary, so if the funds haven’t been claimed by the retailer after this purge date the pending transaction drops off. 

Brewer21

Well that doesn't happen at Asda pay at pump. There was a big outcry about them doing the £100 pending on accounts a while ago. Mine now checks the card and authorises £1, that's the amount that shows pending on my account. Later, maybe up to 3 days the £1 drops off and the full amount shows up. 
Never been refused a fill up and I've used accounts that had sometimes less than £50 to do a fuel top up of say £30. It'll show a pending £1 on my account.

oldagetraveller1

Is this higher pre-authorisation only applied to credit cards?

Like Brewer21, I used my NatWest Visa debit card at Tesco, pay at pump, on the 3rd. A £1 pending charge appeared in my account that day and disappeared yesterday at the same time the fuel payment appeared.

sheramber

Apparently, the card checks how much is available on the card and will restrict your purchase to that amount. So if you only have £30 available then you will only be able to buy up to £30. 

Not all supermarkets have rolled out this £100 system yet.

NewOutlook

That you everyone for replying.

I called Morrisons first and they blamed "the bank", when I asked if that was their bank or mine, they said mine. My bank then blamed Visa for changing their policy and that they can't do anything about it. I haven't tried called Visa because their website clearly describes the process. It's just hugely frustrating for me at the moment. My purchase was last Wednesday morning so it surely has to be a mistake by someone otherwise it's quite unacceptable to freeze money 6 days after the transaction for the correct amount has been processed.

Thank you for all your input though!

PRAISETHESUN

It might be worthwhile looking into using a credit card for situations like these where a deposit is required to be held - petrol pumps, hotel deposits, etc. That way the money is ring-fenced from your available credit limit rather than stopping you from using your actual money in your bank account. Doesn't solve your problem for now I'll admit, but might avoid the issue in future.

born_again

NewOutlook said:

That you everyone for replying.

I called Morrisons first and they blamed "the bank", when I asked if that was their bank or mine, they said mine. My bank then blamed Visa for changing their policy and that they can't do anything about it. I haven't tried called Visa because their website clearly describes the process. It's just hugely frustrating for me at the moment. My purchase was last Wednesday morning so it surely has to be a mistake by someone otherwise it's quite unacceptable to freeze money 6 days after the transaction for the correct amount has been processed.

Thank you for all your input though!

Pointless ringing Visa as they can not do anything. They will just redirect you back to your bank.
The root cause is retailer merchant bank. But staff at retailers have little or no knowledge of banking process & will always blame your bank.
What your bank can do is remove the outstanding authorisation from your account. NOTE THIS DOES NOT REMOVE IT FROM THE PAYMENT SYSTEM. Just allows you access to the funds. But you will be warned that it can still debit, but if you know it has already debited that is not a issue 👍

If the amount is causing you a issue (hardship) then raise a complaint. Should see them sort it. Even if it means they put the money in your account & then take that out once the auth has gone.

But I have known people kick off about things like this when they have thousands in their accounts & it would not make a difference to them to wait a few days. 

[Deleted User]

born_again said:

NewOutlook said:

That you everyone for replying.

I called Morrisons first and they blamed "the bank", when I asked if that was their bank or mine, they said mine. My bank then blamed Visa for changing their policy and that they can't do anything about it. I haven't tried called Visa because their website clearly describes the process. It's just hugely frustrating for me at the moment. My purchase was last Wednesday morning so it surely has to be a mistake by someone otherwise it's quite unacceptable to freeze money 6 days after the transaction for the correct amount has been processed.

Thank you for all your input though!

Pointless ringing Visa as they can not do anything. They will just redirect you back to your bank.
The root cause is retailer merchant bank. But staff at retailers have little or no knowledge of banking process & will always blame your bank.
What your bank can do is remove the outstanding authorisation from your account. NOTE THIS DOES NOT REMOVE IT FROM THE PAYMENT SYSTEM. Just allows you access to the funds. But you will be warned that it can still debit, but if you know it has already debited that is not a issue 👍

If the amount is causing you a issue (hardship) then raise a complaint. Should see them sort it. Even if it means they put the money in your account & then take that out once the auth has gone.

But I have known people kick off about things like this when they have thousands in their accounts & it would not make a difference to them to wait a few days. 

The OPs bank may remove the earmark as a one off but issue needs resolved at the source. 

It's not really the OPs bank at fault - it is the retailer/retailer's bank at fault. I agree that complaining at your local store will have little traction but I would approach the retailer's head office (directly or via the store's customer services desk) as they will manage the merchant services including removal of the authorisation.