Petrol pump shenanigans from the Co-op

WillPS

fatbelly said:

We've seen this issue before with 'pay at pump'. It doesn't seem to happen with 'pay at kiosk'

Pay at pump uses a 2 part authorisation procedure - your card is authorised for a certain amount before the pump is enabled, then when the pump is replaced the relevant funds are captured.

When you pay in kiosk your card is just straight-forward charged, as it would be in a shop.

I personally wouldn't use pay at pump with a debit card unless I had no other choice - with a credit card it matters far less unless you live at the edge of your credit limit.

HeparGirl24

Very common for Supermarkets 24/7 pumps in France to reserve the maximum for several days before releasing the "overpayment" .  It happened to us all the time when we lived there. How long they keep it seems to depends on the Supermarket too - SystemU and Eleclerc held it for up to two weeks, Carrefour, Intermarche and Auchan only a couple of days. I'm amazed it's never happened to the OP before. I'm quite surprised the reserve was 600€ though, most of them  around where I lived were around 150€ max. 

HobgoblinBT

Sounds to me like they have pre- authorised enough to fill up an HGV.  Was the fuel pump one for cars only or for cars and commercial vehicles?

Stuart_W

Pay At Pump and Pay In App does this all the time, although 600EUR does seem excessive. For this reason, I always pay for fuel with a credit card so it's only my credit limit that is temporarily reduced until the transaction is processed, and not access to my own money. That way I don't really notice anything.

km1500

yes when I was in France I used a credit card and they pre-authorized about 400 pounds. it didn't matter because it was a credit card but if it had been a debit card then obviously that would have been ring fenced from my current account

it is fairly standard practice in France from what I could see

jimjames

Answer is to pay in the kiosk or use a credit card so it doesn't come out of your current account and could help with cash flow too