Pay at the Pump pending money

ZeroSum

It's why I never use it. Always pay at the till. Plus I don't trust it that there won't be a computer glitch that takes more than it should.

MrsPanscrubs

I wondered when this was coming in. I last used Morrisons in November and it was still the £1 thing. I used a credit card. Wasn't this the issue a few years ago with Asda holding £99 until the actual amount purchased had been deducted from the bank/credit card account? 

I'll do as a PP, pay at the kiosk
 

I hope you get it sorted, OP. 

Ergates

What *should* happen is that when you first put your card it, it submits an authorisation for £100.  Then, when you finish fueling and the pump knows how much fuel you've used, its should send a reversal for the original £100 and send a second authorisation for the actual amount.   Then the following day, the posted transaction comes through and the money is deducted from your account.

For all that to work it requires the vendor's POS system (i.e. the pump) and the vendors bank to send through the reversal (rather than just leaving it to die of old age) AND for *your* bank to successfully process the reversal (and match it to the original auth).   If any of that doesn't happen, then the initial authorisation will sit on your account until it expires.

born_again

Ergates said:

What *should* happen is that when you first put your card it, it submits an authorisation for £100.  Then, when you finish fueling and the pump knows how much fuel you've used, its should send a reversal for the original £100 and send a second authorisation for the actual amount.   Then the following day, the posted transaction comes through and the money is deducted from your account.

For all that to work it requires the vendor's POS system (i.e. the pump) and the vendors bank to send through the reversal (rather than just leaving it to die of old age) AND for *your* bank to successfully process the reversal (and match it to the original auth).   If any of that doesn't happen, then the initial authorisation will sit on your account until it expires.

All of course subject to no glitches in the transmission of the details.

To be fair it is very rare that this situation happens. But when it does, the last thing you need is loads of finger point as to the error. It just needs the customers bank to sort quickly. Which is very easy, well it is once you get to the team that can deal with it, rather than most of the front line staff who often have no idea how or even if it can be sorted 🤦‍♂️

redux

The worst time I had with this, I tried to buy fuel on the edge of Calais.

It gradually became clear the underground tanks must be nearly empty, as I and some Italian caravanners tried several pumps and only got a few cents worth from each.

All the provisional transactions stayed on the account for 6 weeks, causing about £400 worth of overdraft for just over a quid worth of fuel, even after I rang up the head office of Carrefour and complained, and they totally refused to do anything.

I've never bought fuel from any Carrefour forecourt again.

The other time was at a hotel near Eindhoven, using a prepaid debit card. I thought I'd paid on check-in at midnight, but it turned out this was a pre-authorisation, and they wanted the actual payment in the morning.

I got out my computer and checked my account. Then went back to reception and asked them to cancel the first transaction, as I needed to put fuel in the car in the next few minutes. The receptionist spent a few minutes on the phone and got it struck off.

born_again

Europe has had a 120 Euro pre auth for many years. Catches a lot of British out who travel in their car's and find that they run out of available balance.

nyermen

Thing is - if these were unstaffed forecourts I'd understand the pre-auth, but if not, what is the difference when paying with a card, between no pre-auth and then paying at pump vs no pre-auth and then paying at the till?

username

I suppose it's how the banks differentiate the transactions (they will have different merchant IDs for automated and in the shop), and are treated differently.

Paying in the shop is just a normal retail transaction, the till will know how much to charge your card, so does not need a preauth.

Whereas with pay at pump the quotient of fuel drawn is unknown - it does not know how much you will be filling up with, so therefore charges the max.

I don't think I have ever filled up (in all my time driving) using a debit card, thus avoiding this problem. Always used a credit card, and it makes it the bank's issue.

Plus you get airmiles/avios/cashback etc with the right card on your everyday spend.

p00hsticks

nyermen said:

Thing is - if these were unstaffed forecourts I'd understand the pre-auth, but if not, what is the difference when paying with a card, between no pre-auth and then paying at pump vs no pre-auth and then paying at the till?

As far as I can recall from my days working in credit card processing, Pay at Pump will be classed as a CAT (Customer Authenticated Transaction) while paying at the till is POS (Point of sale),  and it wil laffect how the two transactions are handled.  

born_again

username said:

I don't think I have ever filled up (in all my time driving) using a debit card, thus avoiding this problem. Always used a credit card, and it makes it the bank's issue.

Go over your limit & it's your problem... 

Just because it's a credit Card, does not make it the banks problem. You have agreed to pay back what you borrow 👍