Tesco's petrol stations automatically charging £120 per transaction on 'Pay at Pump'

[Silverlog]

Article here in the Daily Fail

Charging you and then refunding the difference. Did you know about this? I didn't. I'd be effing furious if this messed up my banking and the refund wasn't instant. The maximum I ever put in the the car is £40. I prefer pay-at-pump because it's usually faster than going in the kiosk. Aibu?

It's been like that for ages, all credit cards are doing this too. I got a bit of a shock when I last filled up as I saw a pending transaction for £120 plus the actual amount I did spend as I'd also had problems with the pump at the time as well. I did speak to the credit card issuer who assured me it would be removed from the pending and I'd never be charged - he was right and the £120 vanished from the online account

I thought they ring fenced it.
And not just Tescos

So it was just not available to you but they didn't have it either.

I would have thought that it was better for pumps to ask you "what you would like to spend up to" and then ring fence that amount - it happens in European countries such as France.

And why £120? My car doesn't have that big a tank.

I don't understand this. I always use Tesco pay at pump and it costs about 40 to fill up my little car. And 40 goes out of my account, not 100.

Which sort of defeats the argument that it's to stop people driving off.

As you can fill up, and then drive off. Without paying.

In some countries, you have to go to the counter and pay first. Then the pump is ready for you.

It’s been like that for ages near me - all over, not just Tescos. It’s a pain and does put me off paying at the pump although I can see why they do it.

It's not a charge, it's pre authorised as a pending charge. Then when you complete the transaction, the pending charge is cancelled and the real charge is made.

This is not new for pay at pump. The only change is the pre auth amount has been increased.

👆 this. They don't actually take the money, but they do hold it, and release the difference. This is as others have said - so that they get paid for fuel taken. Should be released by midnight.

I'm actually pleased they've raised it from £99 as I couldn't fill my tank for that 😵‍💫

I always pay the cashier now - haven’t used pay at pump for ages. I think it’s outrageous that the take the extra money (they must have your number plate, in case you drive off). I know you get the money back, but it’s always pending for days.

Having the number plate doesn't guarantee payment unfortunately. Stolen cars etc. Prevention is better than the cure as far as the fuel stations are concerned.

I agree that the earlier post was twattish, but essentially, the company is taking a risk by offering this service (ie the risk that people can't pay for the fuel), so they are doing something to mitigate that risk by essentially putting a condition of use on that service. If you want to use this service, you have to meet their condition. If you don't want to or can't, then you pay the 'old' way instead. (I agree that if they only have pay at pump available, then there needs to be an option of prepay only what you need - and that that would be a better system generally.)

I know this has been around for a while. Is it just debit cards?

Yes this problem solved .
it does this at Asda but you aren’t charged £99 it deducts what you use .

I don't think @ArdeteiMasazxu post was bitchy. She is not wring about how way too many people don't use finance responsibly and still act like 18 year old with first cc...

It's a well known issue, there's information on the pumps. However, it's easily solvable for most people, but like many things, unfortunately most likely that the most vulnerable people are the ones who fall through the cracks.

I nearly got caught out once as I went out with just my phone and 'spending' card on me, I don't use phone pay, and don't know if the pumps take this anyway, but I'm also terrible for not buying petrol until I have to, so I probably wouldn't have got much further. My car only costs about £50 to fill up anyway, I had about £70 in the account I had my card for, but it wouldn't accept that because it wasn't more than £120. V annoying, but I could transfer money from my main account to my spending account so the card would be accepted.

Other solutions:

Either make sure you have sufficient money (or authorised overdraft facility) in your account that it doesn't matter, or

Use a credit card that's cleared in full every month - credit cards are very useful for lots of things that are nothing to do with spending money you don't have so get one if you can. Most people can unless they already have a history of bad credit - there's credit builder cards, or you should qualify with the bank you have your current account with.

See if you can get a small authorised overdraft, and pretend it doesn't exist. However, it will allow you to buy petrol, or other things, while the 'hold' is still in place.

Or, pay at the kiosk, not at the pump. Might need some planning/using a different petrol station, as a lot of places are unstaffed, either all the time, or out of 'normal' hours.

They should be used for purchases in which you won’t immediately have what you have paid for eg custom made furniture, holidays, online shopping in general etc.

If something goes wrong with the purchase, the money can then (in most circumstances) be recovered, whereas if paid for with a debit card, it is just lost.

Using credit cards for petrol payments or weekly shops defeats the purpose.

Well that's the thing. It was surprisingly common to take the piss out of the £1 thing. When it was first introduced there was people on here wailing that they didn't have the few days wiggle room anymore.

I tried to understand but I'm if I can't pay for it then I don't do it.

I never use pay at pump as I don't trust it. Far easier just to go into the kiosk and pay normally.

Or you could do it in 2 goes?

I think a sensible solution would be to do as they do in other countries - such as asking you what you would like to spend up to at the start.

Then it preauthorises that amount.

Or takes that amount - and you spend it. If you don't spend it, you then get a refund.

Eh?

What purpose? There's loads of reasons to use credit cards, and using them for all your spending is a good one because:

You can earn cashback, so free money from your normal spending.

It improves your credit rating. Banks see overdraft use as bad and responsible use of a credit card as good. It's also cheaper because spending on a credit card delays the money coming out of your account for a month or two, for free, whereas if you buy petrol, groceries etc from your current account, if you go into overdraft, you pay 40% pa interest for the privilege.

It simplifies your finances because you don't have to mentally think ahead about direct debits that might come out of your account when seeing what money you have as you would if you spent out of your current account. You can just leave it alone and check it on pay day that you have enough for the coming month's direct debits, including last month's credit card bill.

Our Tesco doesn't do that. We just pay for the petrol we have bought. How weird.

There are times I only have £20 in my account before payday . The pump can’t take £100 so will tell you you can only spend £20 . Maybe just have a separate account with just enough for your petrol . I am a sensible adult but my expenses have rocketed much more than my earnings so like many people I often have little spare money .

That's nonsense, you can use a credit card for whatever you choose

How does using a CC for food defeat the purpose of consumer protection? That makes no sense

Section 75 benefits exist for CCs but have no relation at all to what you use them for, I think youre minsunderstanding and potentially missing out on the incentives the card companies offer

What a very odd view.

I use my credit card for everything. I also have a variable direct debit in place on the card so that it gets cleared in full x days after my statement date, so never any issues with late payments and no interest charged.

Effectively gaining 15-45 days free credit (depending on the transaction date relative to statement date) and also collecting points which translate to money off things.

What purpose I am defeating?

Yes we have something similar in the UK. There are pre-specified payment amounts e.g. £10. I believe if you choose one of those (I haven't tried) you just get charged the £10.
I think most people just don't notice the buttons to do it on.

Do they pre-authorise just that amount?
Or do they pre-authorise £120?

I have never used them - but I have seen them