Why no ‘pay at the pump’ in UK?

[Enrichetta]

Why don’t we have pay at the pump technology like they have in other countries, for instance the US…

https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2026/jul/21/petrol-theft-crisis-uk

it seems an obvious solution to what has clearly become a real,problem.

That's preauthorisation, as we have in the UK, but in countries where you pay for €50 or $50, before you start filling the tank, does it refund you if you misjudgedhow much space is in your tank and don't fill the full amount you've paid for? You've already paid, not just preauthorised.

Just to add that my local petrol station used to do pay at the pump, but stopped about 5 years ago because they found that people were no longer using the shop and they wanted to sell more stuff!

I prefer not to use pay at the pump because the last time I did (at a Sainsbury’s a couple of months ago) my credit card was skimmed/cloned or whatever the technical term is.

As established we do… you update about people where you live pay in the station… this is because if you pay at the pump you have to present your card, it then ‘holds’ £100 of your money for I think up to 48 hours…. And basically refunds anything less…. So for example - you arrive, you tap your card, it freezes £100 of your money and if you only fill up with £50 then you get the other £50 credited to your account several days later… I refuse to allow my money to be held by the fuel station so I always go in store to pay. The only time I’d pay at the pump is if I were spending the whole £100 or more. Which my car doesn’t take, but I know other cars would!

She doesn’t mean that. She just doesn’t go to petrol stations because she doesn’t have a car so she didn’t know that we had it,

Agree with @DontgetstuckinthepastPay at pump doesn’t solve the theft of petrol unless you have to pay in advance or it cuts off. Op suggested pay at pump as a solution to theft without knowing that it doesn’t work that way here.

I like threads like this.

We do have pay a pump. What the really annoying thing is, that we don't have the little thing on the nozzle that holds it down in the UK. I always get hand cramp when filling, and miss Texas.

I can think of 5 of them near me just off of the top of my head.

Tesco must have had them for nearly 20 years.

Where have you been? I live in Wigan of all places and we have it, and we only just got hummus last year! If it's reached us then it's definitely a thing.

Yes supermarkets have them. I don't have a supermarket with a petrol station near me (sw London) and none of the pumps near me (and there are several) offer this.

We do, and have Pay at Pump for years. Where on earth do you live that doesn't have them?

Ive been using PayPal at pump for abour 15 years and live in a pretty rural area!

Been in Scotland for decades now

Supermarkets have pay at pump but not the more traditional petrol stations like Esso and BP. I've often wondered why and came to the conclusion it was because they want you to come inside to buy extra stuff...but then that would be true for supermarkets too... it's a mystery.

@Enrichetta not sure if someone has explained this but in the USA the difference is you pay before you get the fuel so you can’t steal it. You pay your money and the pump is set to dispense that exact amount. You’ve asked the wrong question.

You must be living under a rock because plenty of filling stations have pay at pump...Tesco, Asda, and quite a few branded stations.

We do? Loads of places have it. We rarely have to go in to pay. What a daft post.

My local Tesco is exclusively pay at pump. Plus the Asda in the next town is the same, that one doesn’t even have staff at the forecourt.

It is a pain for someone like me who doesn’t carry a bank card and just uses Apple pay for everything, so can’t use them as they don’t take contactless payment.

In some parts of Europe you have to go inside and pay then go back inside and get a refund if you paid more than you had space for, they got very confused when I said I just wanted to fill the tank (3 weeks ago) there’s no pay inside button on the pump, you had to go inside pretty much everywhere in Finland because they also wouldn’t accept British debit cards at the pump.

much prefer our system in the uk of preauthorising

One of our local supermarkets has no option other than pay at pump, there’s no people there at all, all the others have it as an option, it’s generally only the non supermarket ones that don’t have it, as others have said, to get you to go in and hopefully buy other things

Thank you for explaining this.

Tesco, Sainsbury and Asda have had pay at pump for many years now.

I suspect that this is related to the issues of burglary under £250 being ignored and shoplifting being effectively decriminalised.

Our rural petrol station has it.

Reporting in from America; in our state you don't have to go into the 'shop' to pay unless you want to. You just get as much as you want on your card. You control the pump. I hear our neighbor, Oregon is now letting you pump your own gas.
It's all different all over the U.S.
In our nearby community, which is the middle of nowhere & the only place you can buy fuel for 50 miles in any direction, you can only use your membership card, unless they happen to be open, which is not often. It's closed late afternoons and NEVER open weekends or holidays. It's an agricultural bulk tank type place. My son often buys fuel for out of town desperate people, if he happens to be topping up the same time. They give him cash and he lets them use his membership card.
American is a vast country, that varies vastly.