Esso - Ring Fencing account

trancebabe

Sorry, Newbie here...

if this has been done before but a colleague of mine came in this morning complaining that on paying at the pump for her £30 transaction, Esso had ring-fenced £60 from her account leaving her unable to draw against it.

I have heard that the hotel industry does this and can actually freeze bank accounts but Esso ??

It's going to take 5 days to release the money.

Is that legal ??

thanks for reading and any information would be gratefully received

olly300

It is legal.

Internet transaction companies such as Worldpay openly advertise they can do this for merchants who use their services

Not only car hire places and hotels but internet companies i.e. online supermarket deliveries, and companies that provide personalised services also do this. It's a fraud prevention measure.

I suggest your friend pays by credit card if this affects her cash flow to much in these situations. (For some reason I always do if I use these sort of pumps as I'm scared of them chewing up my debit card.)

Mikeyorks

olly300 wrote: »

It is legal.

Internet transaction companies such as Worldpay openly advertise they can do this for merchants who use their services

I'm missing something there, Olly, can you elaborate? Standard procedure to reserve the value of a DC transaction .... but not double the value? There's no benefit to the retailer / Merchant acquirer ..... just irritation to the customer and the likelihood they won't go back for more of the same.

Sounds more like an inadvertent double transaction - with only one of them likely to be claimed. But the other £30 will take up to 7 working days to drop off the reserve list.

Iamthesmartestmanalive

Mikeyorks wrote: »

I'm missing something there, Olly, can you elaborate? Standard procedure to reserve the value of a DC transaction .... but not double the value? There's no benefit to the retailer / Merchant acquirer ..... just irritation to the customer and the likelihood they won't go back for more of the same.

Sounds more like an inadvertent double transaction - with only one of them likely to be claimed. But the other £30 will take up to 7 working days to drop off the reserve list.

She probably used the autopumps

The way they work is check the cards, place an auth on either for £1 or the max (£60) to check the card and that is tied up until the correct amount actually debits

Some do £1, the more risk adverse ones do the full £60 they normally allow

marc.faulkner

Tesco do £1 if you use a Connect (Visa) debit card.

If paying by Solo/electron they do £20...There's a warning sticker on the pump advising of this.

Never used one at Esso, so I can't comment on them,

Mikeyorks

Iamthesmartestmanalive wrote: »

She probably used the autopumps

The way they work is check the cards, place an auth on either for £1 or the max (£60) to check the card

Thanks - that's my learning point for today. Never used one as I vaguely expected the card to come out stinking of diesel.!

trancebabe

Thanks guys... I find that amazing...

She did pay at the pump and she paid by debit card becasue she doesn't have a credit card, but I think it will be the last time, she'll always go and pay at the shop counter next time.

Clive_Woody

I usually pay at the pump at Tesco with a credit card, I never appreciated before why it came up with a Max Spend £60 before. With fuel prices heading up at an alarming rate in a few months time I am only going to be able to put half a tank of fuel in unless they shift the £60 limit upwards.