Don't use Esso Pay-at-Pump!!!

Gavioli_UK

Wig wrote: »

But you woud have to agree to the amount. I have never (to my knowledge) agreed to Tesco taking anything other than the price of the fuel I have taken.

And I just checked my CC statements for the time I filled up @ Asda, also only debited (or rather charged) the amount I used.

So I don't understand any of the OP's troubles.

No you don't agree to the amounts. The hotel industry have agreed amounts that the average guest will spend during a stay at the class of hotel you are staying in. This amount is not charged directly to your account, but is "noted" against your account. The only time you know about this is if the "reserved" amount takes you over your credit limit and you use your card somewhere else. If you do a runner, the hotel has money reseved to pay your bill.

Keith

Wig wrote: »

But you woud have to agree to the amount. I have never (to my knowledge) agreed to Tesco taking anything other than the price of the fuel I have taken.

And I just checked my CC statements for the time I filled up @ Asda, also only debited (or rather charged) the amount I used.

So I don't understand any of the OP's troubles.

The Esso garage I've used has a sticker that says

"Please note, £60 may be reserved against your account" when using [EMAIL="P@P"]P@P[/EMAIL], the amount of petrol is then debited from your account and this £60 returned to you within a few days.

ASDA (Watford) used to have a sticker which said this only applied to users of Solo or Electron, and I've not been there since.

Your bank balance I guess loses £60 which sits on hold whilst the actual amount is debited, however, I guess Debit cards work in real time so you'd lose £60 + amount of fuel.

moonrakerz

There was a thread a while back about hotels and this practice.

Wig

Why do the petrol pumps need to do this? I can understand a hotel, but a petrol transaction is done and dusted within a few minutes, there's no need to reserve any amount at least not for longer then it takes to fill up the tank.

michaels

Gotta be worth it anyway rather than spend ages in the queue while some chav buys 5 quid of petrol 2 boxes of B&H and various over-sugered sweets, over-salted crisps and then counts out the coins...I forgot the bit about not knowing which pump they had used

Altarf

Wig wrote: »

Why do the petrol pumps need to do this? I can understand a hotel, but a petrol transaction is done and dusted within a few minutes, there's no need to reserve any amount at least not for longer then it takes to fill up the tank.

Because the credit card processing system was never designed with pay at pump in mind, and for most people its the 'reserved' amount being reversed in a few days is not a problem. It is only if you are bumping up against your credit limit that it will be an issue.

By the way, the 'reserved' amounts will never appear on your statements as they don't relate to real transactions, only to amounts reserved for real transactions.

Thunderbird_2

Hi

I always try to use pay at pump option when filling up petrol in Tesco or ASDA and I have never had anything more than the actual amount of money debited from my account the following day! Plus, I have this habbit of reading all the stickers on the pump machines and I haven't noticed whatsoever anything refering to what the OP saying. I ysyally fill in the West Midlands and Yorkshire.

marvin

Wig wrote: »

I regularly use Tesco pay@pump and have never seen (or atleast never read) any warning sticker about this. I have also never had Tesco debit my account for anything other than the amount of petrol I actually took.

As a starting point for the OP, I would go and photograph the pump you used to show no warning signs/stickers, do it discreetly, otherwise they will ask you to leave. Also photo the entrance to the petrol station for lack of warning signs.

Preferably in your photos have someone holding todays newspaper.

This would only affect Tesco Express stores with attached petrol stations as the petrol side of it is ESSO, this being the reason you cannot get Tesco points on petrol at express stores or use the 5p per ltr off vouchers.

pnx6969_2

Its not just Petrol pumps, as mentioned before hotels do this also hire car companies do it also. It doesnt show on your statement as if you use any of these services and have internet banking, check you account balance and available balance - the available balance will be lower than the account balance, this it to allow for the pre-auth request from these types of transactions, so in regard to the either you are charged or your not - effectively you are. When a pre-auth request is made, if the company does not request this ammount as a transaction in 5 days it is put back on your account, it will NOT show on your statement as no transaction was claimed, but the funds were "put to one side" just incase they are requested, its like the company checking to see if you can pay before you take the goods.

thescouselander

I dont see the problem - it costs almost £60 to fill the tank of most cars anyway.