Payment pending at petrol pump

Ergates

Debit card transactions always come in two parts - and authorisation, which happens immediately, and the posted transaction, which are usually processed in batch at the end of the current or next business day (depending on the time of the transaction).  It is not until the posted transaction comes through that money is actually taken from your account.

With petrol pumps, the way they're *meant* to work is: When you first put your card in, an authorisation is sent for £100 to check that sufficient funds are available.  Then, when you've finished taking fuel, a reversal is sent for the £100 and a second authorisation is sent for the actual amount.   The posted transaction will come through with the actual amount too.

Whether all pumps actually work this way is a different matter.

It's possible that some don't bother with the reversal - they just send the authorisation for £100 then the posted for the actual amount.

How this displays itself during the "pending period" to the customer will depend on how the banks have built their transaction processing systems and their banking apps.   However, the final amount taken from the account should always be the actual amount.

SacredStephan

Have you considered using a cashback credit card for your essential purchases and paying it off in full by DD every month? You won't even notice the authorisation amount when paying at the pump.

jadex

Amex adjust frozen amount within minutes.
Asda credit card is the worst one I tried as they took a week to correct the amount even though it was Asda petrol station...