£99 taken out of bank for £20 petrol Asda

[hellsbells9]

I put £20 in my car on Friday at Asda pay at pump. I know it says something about authorizing £99, however ever since then the £99 has been taken out my bank (it's in pending transactions but the money has still been taken and I'm unable to use it) as well as the separate £20 transaction. This has never happened before and I'm getting concerned now. I don't use this very often so not sure how exactly it works but I really need that £99 now to pay bills and I can't have it just sat pending. Anyone know more about this or what I can do? Is it worth contacting bank?

Best to get a credit card for the future.

Here we go with the 'just get a credit card'. OP has already explained she's on a very low income. Even if she does get accepted for one it'll be at a shit rate - and any spending will have interest added on.

It's a disgrace Asda are holding the payment for so long when it's obvious the £20 has cleared.

Sometimes pending card transactions stick , they don't effectively show as a transaction as such but affect your availability of money.

Phone your bank who will clear it , done it numerous times and I work in a bank.

There are special 'starter' credit cards available if you haven't had one before. Just about everyone can get one unless you've got historical bad debt problems. Or you can usually get one from your bank if you run your account well.

If you pay it each month you don't pay any interest whatever the rate is.

Would solve the OPs problem as a lot of Asia's are pay at pump only.

I rang the bank back and spoke to a much more helpful woman who told me they've had multiple problems with this and took some details then she said since the transactions did match (the first man I spoke to told me they didn't therefore he couldn't help and I needed to contact Asda) she could release the payment, so it's available in account now thankfully. If only I had of spoken to her first it would of saved me hours of stress/hassle. Very pleased it's sorted now though.

Glad to hear the bank sorted it for you

This happened to me today at Asda. No signs said this would happen. Money still not refunded. Hoping it goes back in tomorrow!

I spoke to the bank once about this and they said it is not taken from the available balance. That was HSBC

yes Asda do this authorising the card in unmanned petrol stations apparently

Hi I work for a bank and would advise contacting Asda before considering us as we can’t dispute the payment until the retailer has had 28 days to refund it , we get this exact issue all the time and basically most Mastercards are bringing in a policy Where if you don’t have £99 to authorise you won’t get authorised full stop because so many people were using it as a way to put lost of fuel in there car with 1£ in the actual bank and ending up with bank charges etc it’s to do with responsible spending. It should drop back into your account within a few days but if it doesn’t the bank will dispute it after 28 days , I hope that makes sense and helps

So pleased to hear you've got it sorted

Did you read any of OPs posts?
She contacted Asda several times and they were no help
The bank has the ability to remove the earmark from the payment and that's what they have done

Yeah, I got a nasty shock when I filled up at Costco recently. My fuel was £70-odd and they took something like £120! Thankfully, it was reversed the next day. As if paying for fuel wasn’t painful enough right now 😣

Glad you got sorted OP, what a stress 😩
Note you self; never use those self service pumps ⛽

It is exactly for transactions like this that if at all possible people should get a credit card and pay it off every month. Even a low limit card can be hugely helpful. It isn’t just petrol stations that sometimes place holds on money during a debit transaction.

I read the original post only, different banks have different processes and it’s not something ours can do straight away as people don’t often understand that it’s not us withholding the money it’s the shop etc, just thought it would be helpful to others to explain why it’s now happening with Mastercard when it didn’t use to it’s litteraly just a new form of fraud prevention because people were taking more than they could pay . Glad the op got it sorted tho

Just want to thank you @hellsbells9 for this thread.

I’ve never had this happen but with fuel costs I’m filling up in ‘new’ places and being on a fixed, low income, there are times in the month when £99 being unavailable for more than a day or two would cost me, either in going without a food shop or something in bank fees if d/d or s/o were scheduled.

I know how hard it can be to accept that people can have even lower incomes than ourselves, yet as low as my income is, I know people on even tighter budgets than me - even if they have a ‘bigger’ income than me, they might have higher outgoings that aren’t easily postponed/avoided.

So having a heads up on occasions that we mightn’t realise would fuck up our budgets is really welcome - thank you

No problem at all. Thanks for all those for the helpful replies too. I've never been too keen on these pay the the pump stations but found it easier lately so I don't have to get baby in and out the car, after this experience though I'll be avoiding like the plague incase this happens again and sticking with my local one.

I just phoned my bank after waiting 3 days for Asda to sort the £99 pending out and Bank says they can't adjust payment while still pending. They said Asda may have a blip on their system.

I paid by debit card and still have £99 pending 3 days later ....

The Bank can do something. Depends if you get someone helpful who knows what they are doing as the OP found the last time she called them

I've got the same problem here, I used a bank debit card at Asda last Monday, it's Saturday now and only put £5 petrol in, they've taken £99 out on Monday and yesterday also took the £5, so at moment £104 down for five quids worth of petrol. Waiting at moment to see whether a refund is going to appear.

I always use Asda for petrol and have been keeping a really close eye on this for last few weeks. The pump has a sticker on about £99 hold and says take up to £99 when I've put my pin in, but my account balance only ever shows the exact amount of petrol I've taken. I check my balance every day.

But the point is that it takes the £99 from your available balance making it unavailable for other spending or direct debits.

You say you check your balance every day @PupInAPram but does your actual balance and available balance always match?

But I still maintain that absolutely everyone who can should get a credit card and use it for things like this because there are so many advantages, that have nothing to do with spending money you don't have and very few disadvantages, especially if you only use it to buy fuel, because it completely takes away the problem of the held £99 being unavailable when needed.

This happened to us yesterday at Sainsbury’s £100 pending transaction in our account on top of the transaction for the petrol we bought. The bank, HSBC were completely unhelpful and told us to contact the merchant. With hindsight the bank must know what’s going on because we originally thought it was fraud but they weren’t bothered tall.
Sainsbury’s customer services obviously get a lot of these calls and told us it was a weekend blip, when the in and supposedly immediate out transactions slow down..... we’ll that’s all right then!!
I’ll be on the phone to them again tomorrow if it’s not cleared. I don’t understand why
It’s completely unacceptable that this transaction is still in my account and it has put me off buying petrol there again. I Certainly won’t be paying at the pump in the future. 😡
I hope PPs get their money back soon.

As in my previous post on 06/08 £99 taken and still pending ony debit card on 01/08 and now 14/08 still pending. Contacted bank but can't do anything. Contacted Asda yesterday and they are aware of the issue as many more have same problem, they say they cannot refund as there is a technical issue with MasterCard but have assured it will be refunded but no idea when. Oh well 14 days and counting, waiting patiently.😔

Get back onto your bank as they can remove the earmark from the funds (if you get a helpful person!)