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?

...has made you paranoid.

Me! Well nearly i’m about £110 depending on how empty & the cost of diesel so i usually pay in kiosk as its £99 pre authorised here on pay at pump so i’d need to pay that & put my card back in for the rest but it only charges what you use eg yesterday i put £98 in as kiosk was busy, i was in a rush & a pay at pump was free and thats all thats left my bank.

Loads of petrol stations in some parts of London at night go to prepay and you go up, ask and pay for £xx and they set the pump to dispense that amount.

That would be a much more fair way to do it, especially if the kiosk option is being removed

I am seeing quite a few threads and posts online about this. They won't be able to do that to me, because I will make sure my account never has more than £75 in it when I put petrol in my car at a pay at pump. Like hell am I going to let them hold £120 of MY money hostage for potentially a week.

Exactly this. I can't believe a few posters on here, saying 'oh it's perfectly normal' and 'suck it up' and 'sounds OK to me' and 'grow up and start adulting.' So rude! Many people don't have a pot to piss in, and live from one pay cheque to the next. How DARE people suggest they need to suck it up if £90 to £120 gets held hostage for the best part of a week. That could be their food and travel expenses for the week and their kids school dinner money. You can tell who the over privileged posters are on here.

You will need to pay at a kiosk then.

If the pre with fails you can't use pay at the pump.

Then just pay in store like we all used to before lay at pump. You dont need to pay the £120 deposit. Just pay in the station shop and you'll only pay the exact amount. It is a non issue.

It also isnt held for half a week. You get it back the same day. Occasionally it goes wrong and does take longer, but if you cant risk it then just pay in the shop.

I get points on my credit card so the more I spend, the more I benefit

I don’t get interest on my current account but I do get money if I deposit a certain amount (covered by my salary) and spend a certain amount on my debit card.

I therefore pay for everything on my credit card and pay the credit card bill on my debit card.

It also means I get the s.75 protection which is nice but that isn’t why I do it.

Quite. The anger on here is stupid. If you don't want to risk it then pay in the kiosk.

It's not taken, it's ringfenced. Generally it's all sorted before you even check your account, in seconds. The issues tend to be over the weekend or if filling up in continental Europe, we had over €500 in blocked funds at one point on a road trip last year (motorcycle so fill up frequently but only €30 a time).

In the U.K. you can pay at the shop to avoid normally (not asda, fully automated here)

We get points on our credit card.

It also helps us to manage our money better and it gives you better consumer protection. It gives you a better credit rating too.

It makes zero sense to pay for anything on debit if you have the option to pay on credit provided you always clear your balance.

People who have grown up usually develop a sense of tact and diplomacy too.
Sadly your adulting doesn't seem to have developed either.

I have paid using debit and credit card and any preauthorisation clears within minutes and I use Tesco petrol station about 3 times per week.
If you don't want a pre-authorisation then use the kiosk.
Some people will moan about anything - 99% of people will be able to walk to the kiosk and pay if they need to.

But if out of opening hours then it means you can't use the fuel station at all. £1 pre authorisation charge is too low, £120 (£100 at Asda) is ridiculous
Many people don't have that in their account to just be grabbing £10/20 of fuel

How do you 'walk to a kiosk' when it's unmanned pay at pump only like my local Asda?

100% people using this Asda won't be able to.

I think that complaining is fine on this subject as supermarkets switch to unmanned to cut costs.

It also kinda sucks for the 1% who are disabled who are now unable to get assistance and are very often financially vulnerable to boot, who are particularly affected by this.

It also isnt held for half a week. You get it back the same day. Occasionally it goes wrong and does take longer, but if you cant risk it then just pay in the shop. Not true. The amount can, and often does, show in your pending payments for up to seven days.

I work for one of the major banks and we get no end of queries about this. They can reserve up to £120 and there is absolutely nothing we can do about it, you have to wait for it to drop off naturally after seven days if not before.

It really is best to pay in the shop.

Thanks, I'll let her know about that. She usually takes someone with her when she can or my BIL fills her car up, but that wont always be practical.

Used go be £99 but I guess they've had to put it up as the cost of fuel rises

Then use one account for paying at the pump and only keep £30 in it. The pump will authorise £30. You can transfer more money back into the account as soon as you're done if you want to use that account for other everyday things too. It is a handful of clicks online to open a second free/basic current account but most people have more than one account anyway.

Really is a non issue. There are multiple ways to avoid the ringfencing of another £100.

We have this in France but the money is refunded instantly and lately I've noticed if I only have 50 euros left in my account, the maximum amount of fuel I can take is 50 euros. So the technology is advancing all the time.

I’ve never had that in my state. You don’t put your card in until you’ve put the petrol in here so it only takes the cost for the amount you’ve used.

I'm shocked this is allowed in USA or the UK. My DH has a fuel card account but the only amount deducted is the petrol he puts in the car. I don't have an account and pay by EFTPOS (debit card) or credit card.

Why get refunded for petrol we haven't purchased?

There are also petrol stations with a debit/credit card facility attached to the pump if you don't have a 24/7 station open within a 20 kms radius.

I just find it outrageous they can deduct 120 pounds, which is a lot of money, irrespective of how much they refund you "later".

How you made that link I don't know. I never said they would. I just used it as another example of the pre authorisation process disadvantaging people with less disposable income. It's really not too hard to understand. If you book a 80 pound a night hotel for 4 nights and have saved up 500 for the 4 days holiday and they hold 400 off your card, which would be standard, it ruins your holiday. Fine if you have 1k in your account or can access 500 from another account but not if that is all you have. Especially if you haven't been told about it when you book.

But you have no access to it until the pending is stopped. It should take up to. 60 minutes which would mean you couldn't use it for shopping for an hour, but it can take up to 3 days depending on the banking system. I've had pre authorisations taken out of pending 5 days after over a bank holiday weekend. For most it isn't an issue but for some the access to the difference between what they spent and the pre authorisation amount can be critical and any wait a serious issue.