Asda pay at pump holding charge

[Zingy123]

I tried to buy diesel at a pay at pump Asda petrol station when the petrol station was closed. The holding payment of £70 that I had in my account was taken. The pump wouldn't give me any fuel.

I then had to put more money in my account and successfully bought £40 of fuel.

8 days later Asda still have my £70 as pending and won't return it. I have been in to the petrol station, called Asda and called my bank and nobody will help me.

Please does anyone have any advice? I need the money back.

Thank you

When you say "nobody will help me" what did Asda and the bank actually say?

@Zingy123

Asda does not have your money and cannot issue a refund, because the £70 pay-at-pump holding charge is a "pre-authorisation hold" mandated by Visa and Mastercard.

Contact your card issuer.

I've contacted both Asda and Nationwide my bank. They are both saying it's the responsibility of the other to release the funds. I have now been without this money for 8 days and have found out it could be up to 30 days.

All pay at pumps are like this now, not just Asda, the system changed a while ago.

I think you will find that it automatically goes back into your account as its still on pending so not really gone anywhere just not available for you to use...........had something similar myself and did go back. Understand that this is not much use to you when you need the money now but for future can you use a credit card rather than a debit ca4d and pay in full each month, this is what I do now for all purchases.

Agree that this is a lot less likely to be a problem with a credit card as they're just holding onto part of the limit, rather than actual cash.

It's massively unfair that this is likely to mostly affect poorer members of society and the card issuers don't seem to understand the potential inconvenience and upset this can potentially cause if they're holding onto money that people need with no urgency in freeing the hold. Doubly so when they freeze £70/100+ of cash and it's more than the amount of fuel people can even buy - my car costs less than £50 to fill for example. The hold should be freed much quicker, ideally the same day or overnight at least, anything longer than that is ridiculous when card transactions generally update in real time.

I had this recently -it will just go back.

Nobody has your money, it’s just on hold. It will ring fence (usually) £99 or your account balance; whichever is the lower

it is supposed to release the hold immediately once you have had the fuel but it can take a couple of days

its neither the retailer nor bank who control this, it’s down to the card provider eg visa

the best way to stop it happening is to pay cash or at a manned station

Asda don’t have it.

I phoned from Portugal when a petrol station there did this to me and Nationwide sorted it right there whilst I was on the phone.

Would love to be corrected but I don’t think you can do anything until the 30 days are up and neither Asda nor your bank can speed it up. It normally only takes a couple of days, but it can take much longer. You’ve had some bad luck.

Nothing you can do now, of course, but for the future, your only option is to refuse to pay at pump and organise your trips to the pump for when they are open. Sainsbury’s take £99. It’s insane that technology can do just about anything, but not allow someone to pay £20 and have a shut off once £20 worth of fuel has been pumped.

I had this with a hotel. They took a holding payment when I checked in - and then when I checked out and paid, they didn't release the holding payment. I had to wait the 30 days. It wasn't Nationwide in my case but I think you might have to wait. It's completely unreasonable.

30 days is ridiculous for a hotel booking but is even more so for petrol. 48 hours should be enough to work out if you bought petrol or not.

That’s utter nonsense. All pay at pumps do not hold your money for 8 days at all. It’s usual for them to authorise X amount and once you have fuelled up they take what you are due and the remaining funds released immediately. Some take longer than others but certainly not 8 days. The fact OP had to restart the transaction to get fuel indicates an error in the first instance.

I meant all pumps now have a holding charge 🙄

I used one on Italy yesterday /okay maybe off topic but accidentally used the wrong pump. Anyway the €6 holding charge for the original pump was refunded before I had even driven away.
May be depends which bank? Mine is Revolut which is generally highly efficient in transactions.

We already know this. Nobody was asking if it was normal for them to do that. How very helpful of you.

Tesco has a £120 holding charge which is ridiculous. Some people can’t afford to have that pending even though it’s not been taken as many of these clever clogs have pointed out.

tesco is £120 but it costs £130 to fill my dh’s car if it’s empty . Pay inside if money is tight

A lot of Asda petrol stations are completely automated so don't have an 'inside'.

So just pay at the cashier then…

That part is often closed. Most petrol stations are trying to move to completely automated so they don’t have to pay for staff.

I refuse to fill up at Asda pay at pump. Every other supermarket does the pre authorisation and the money is instantly released as soon as you’ve finished filling up. Every time I’ve used Asda it can take a week and half for the amount to not be stuck as pending so I refuse to fill up there now for that reason.

I would wait a few more days Op because it will probably be realised soon

😂😂😂 who pissed in your cornflakes this morning? Am I not allowed to respond to those who tag me? Clearly not everyone knows there is a holding charge, and that holding charge can sometimes take longer than usual to clear. How very rude and condescending of you to post as you did.

I’m condescending but you are the one doing the eye rolling. You can respond to anything you want here, but fully expect others to do the same. Have the best day today. Yesterday has been and gone, start a fresh.

My eye rolling was because you clearly didn’t understand my original post, to which you abruptly replied calling my words utter nonsense, which they weren’t. I always have the best day thanks, just the kinda gal I am 😉