Pay-At-Pump Took £100 for £40 of Petrol

[Geertsen]

Anyone know the process for sorting this?

I paid at the pump (at a supermarket with an orange logo) for £40.98 with of petrol, just checked online banking and £100 exactly is pending an exit from my bank account / debit card.

Car only holds £45 worth of petrol and the pay-at-pump limit is £99 so this value is impossible.

Pump wouldn’t produce a receipt so I took a photo at the time (I like to keep a tally).

[Super Slo Mo]

It'll refund the difference shortly. It's standard at many places. In fact, some take £120 now.

[ashenfie]

It's the normal process. Reserves £100 and complete the process be debt the correct amount. As others have said this can take a while, but is an automatic process.

[Geertsen]

Thank you. Never seen this before, what a weird way of working.

[cuprabob]

It's always done it but it used to be a £1 but as said it's now £100 for some retailers.

[J4CKO]

How does that work for folk who dont have much left in their account ? You want £40 of fuel but it takes £100, or tries to but you only have £76.50 in your account ?

[MikeGTi]

If you don't have enough money in your account then it doesn't authorise you to pay at the pump

[J4CKO]

MikeGTi said:

If you don't have enough money in your account then it doesn't authorise you to pay at the pump

Ahh ok, so just go inside, fair enough.

[geeks]

cuprabob said:

It's always done it but it used to be a £1 but as said it's now £100 for some retailers.

Yeah I remember when I was 17/18 and I used to get to the day before payday with like £10 in my account, I could go to pay at pump and fill up knowing it would pre-auth £1 and then take the full amount a couple of days later. Now they pre-auth the max you can dispense from a pay at pump transaction then refund the difference.

[S100HP]

geeks said:

Yeah I remember when I was 17/18 and I used to get to the day before payday with like £10 in my account, I could go to pay at pump and fill up knowing it would pre-auth £1 and then take the full amount a couple of days later. Now they pre-auth the max you can dispense from a pay at pump transaction then refund the difference.

I used to pay with a cheque near to payday, knowing full well it wouldn't get cashed until after the weekend and then a few days to clear. Same with car tax. Could almost get a week out of it before the money left!

[ashenfie]

J4CKO said:

How does that work for folk who dont have much left in their account ? You want £40 of fuel but it takes £100, or tries to but you only have £76.50 in your account ?

Depends, If its debt card and the unattended pay system(pump) is online, meaning it connects to your bank and gets an auth code then the transaction will fail. Offline systems the retailer may take the risk and allow the transaction.

[littleredrooster]

This caught me out a few years ago when using a pre-paid debit card in France (the sort you top up with an app).

The 500 Euros I had loaded onto it disappeared in two days because of frequent fill-ups, it took me a while to figure out what was happening.

[Krikkit]

ashenfie said:

J4CKO said:

How does that work for folk who dont have much left in their account ? You want £40 of fuel but it takes £100, or tries to but you only have £76.50 in your account ?

Depends, If its debt card and the unattended pay system(pump) is online, meaning it connects to your bank and gets an auth code then the transaction will fail. Offline systems the retailer may take the risk and allow the transaction.

A lot of them will amend the pre-authorised amount and limit your fill to that figure, same as the higher figure when you try and fill a car with a tank bigger than the value.

[Deep Thought]

Geertsen said:

Thank you. Never seen this before, what a weird way of working.

Its in case someone taps their card, gets accepted, they put £80 of fuel in, the fuel supplier puts through £80 to the card provider but the person only had £20 in their account, so it bounces.

This way they pre approve the max amount, safe in the knowledge they'll get the money.

[Geertsen]

Deep Thought said:

Geertsen said:

Thank you. Never seen this before, what a weird way of working.

Its in case someone taps their card, gets accepted, they put £80 of fuel in, the fuel supplier puts through £80 to the card provider but the person only had £20 in their account, so it bounces.

This way they pre approve the max amount, safe in the knowledge they'll get the money.

Makes sense from their end I guess, especially as they will then have millions of pounds of other people’s money in their account at all times. Must make a nice bit of interest on that.

Might start paying in the shop going forward.

[Krikkit]

Geertsen said:

Deep Thought said:

Geertsen said:

Thank you. Never seen this before, what a weird way of working.

Its in case someone taps their card, gets accepted, they put £80 of fuel in, the fuel supplier puts through £80 to the card provider but the person only had £20 in their account, so it bounces.

This way they pre approve the max amount, safe in the knowledge they'll get the money.

Makes sense from their end I guess, especially as they will then have millions of pounds of other people s money in their account at all times. Must make a nice bit of interest on that.

Might start paying in the shop going forward.

It's only an authorised figure, think of it like being reserved, they won't debit the full amount from your account and refund it. Like if you've got a direct debit coming out your bank will typically do the same kind of function.

From the fuel system provider's end it's because they obviously don't have access to your bank balance.

[Geertsen]

Krikkit said:

Geertsen said:

Deep Thought said:

Geertsen said:

Thank you. Never seen this before, what a weird way of working.

Its in case someone taps their card, gets accepted, they put £80 of fuel in, the fuel supplier puts through £80 to the card provider but the person only had £20 in their account, so it bounces.

This way they pre approve the max amount, safe in the knowledge they'll get the money.

Makes sense from their end I guess, especially as they will then have millions of pounds of other people s money in their account at all times. Must make a nice bit of interest on that.

Might start paying in the shop going forward.

It's only an authorised figure, think of it like being reserved, they won't debit the full amount from your account and refund it. Like if you've got a direct debit coming out your bank will typically do the same kind of function.

From the fuel system provider's end it's because they obviously don't have access to your bank balance.

Thank you.

PistonHeads saves the day again. Was thinking I’d have to drive back to the petrol station or get passed from pillar to post on the phone or something.