Payment pending at petrol pump

MrsPorridge

Not sure where to put this.  For a few years now I have always paid for my petrol at the pump and the correct money has always gone out of my account.  I paid for some petrol yesterday £47 and it is showing payment pending of £100.  Still showing this £100 pending 24 hours later.  I have heard of this before, but its never happened to me.  How long will this payment be pending for?  I'm starting to worry.

Thanks.

eskbanker

MrsPorridge said:

Not sure where to put this.  For a few years now I have always paid for my petrol at the pump and the correct money has always gone out of my account.  I paid for some petrol yesterday £47 and it is showing payment pending of £100.  Still showing this £100 pending 24 hours later.  I have heard of this before, but its never happened to me.  How long will this payment be pending for?

https://www.moneysavingexpert.com/news/2021/07/changes-to-pay-at-pump-up-to-p100-withheld-from-customers-accoun/ explains....

MrsPorridge

I've learnt my lesson - will be going into the kiosk in future.

eskbanker

MrsPorridge said:

I've learnt my lesson - will be going into the kiosk in future.

Or use a credit card if you have one with some headroom?

flaneurs_lobster

Payment pending at petrol pump

Splendidly alliterative post title.

allegro120

MrsPorridge said:

Not sure where to put this.  For a few years now I have always paid for my petrol at the pump and the correct money has always gone out of my account.  I paid for some petrol yesterday £47 and it is showing payment pending of £100.  Still showing this £100 pending 24 hours later.  I have heard of this before, but its never happened to me.  How long will this payment be pending for?  I'm starting to worry.

Thanks.

Happened to me the other day when I used my ASDA credit card at ASDA "pay at pump".  It was showing £99 for a couple of days and then changed into the correct amount. 
From ASDA website -
"Under the new rules imposed by Visa and Mastercard last year, the pre-authorisation amount is changing from £1 to £99. Eventually, every pay-at-pump filling station in the UK will adopt the new system where, instead of £1, up to £99 will be temporarily held while you fill up your car. Once you’ve finished refuelling, the remainder of the unused funds will be released back to your account straight away, and you’ll only be charged for the value of the fuel you have taken."
I normally use my Chase debit card and as long as I have £99 on it, the transaction is showing the correct amount straight away on the app.

sausage_time

I always use a credit card for pay at pump, so I'm not impacted by this.

I wonder if it's down to different banks' debit cards handling of the pending and final transaction?  From above from @allegro120, Chase seem to do the "Right Thing".  Can you say what bank you were using @MrsPorridge?  And which petrol station?  Was that your "usual" fuel stop?

PRAISETHESUN

I agree that it's worthwhile using a credit card for things such as this (hotel deposits are another situation) as it will then ring-fence money from your available credit limit rather than actually freezing money in your account if you used a debit card. In my experience with my local Tesco petrol station, the pre-authorisation usually drops off fairly quickly (sometimes it's gone as I'm driving away) but otherwise it's not uncommon for it to take a few days. Fairly normal thing, if not just a bit annoying

MrsPorridge

sausage_time said:

I always use a credit card for pay at pump, so I'm not impacted by this.

I wonder if it's down to different banks' debit cards handling of the pending and final transaction?  From above from @allegro120, Chase seem to do the "Right Thing".  Can you say what bank you were using @MrsPorridge?  And which petrol station?  Was that your "usual" fuel stop?

Yes, it was my usual fuel stop.  Sainsburys fuel and Santander debit card - card I always use for fuel.

molerat

The pending payment is always there but it usually drops off and is replaced with the actual transaction by the time you leave the petrol station so there has been some sort of system glitch that did not reconcile the transaction in the usual timescale. An unfortunate problem when using a debit card. It should reconcile at the latest within the normal 2 to 3 day timescale as with all card transactions unless there was a bigger problem but that would likely be in the news by now.

Slinky

I had a problem with a Sainsbury petrol station recently. It appeared to not take my Chase debit card payment at the kiosk, I tried again and it still didn't appear to take it so I used a credit card instead. When I double checked, it had taken payments on both cards. I had to phone Sainsbury's and they cancelled the debit card transaction a few days later.