Customers using supermarket Pay-at-Pump services should be aware of a new £100 pre-authorisation charge.
The new requirement has been introduced by VISA and MasterCard. The £100 request will be placed on the customer’s card before starting the fuelling process at self-service pumps.
The Visa / MasterCard requests £100 ring fence from the customer’s bank / credit supplier. If there is have less available, it will ring fence a lower amount eg if you only have £50, it will ring fence £50 and not allow you to spend more.
Any excess amount should be almost immediately refunded once fuelling is complete but some customers have found it taking longer.
This is already in place at Sainsbury’s & Tesco pumps and other supermarkets will also have to comply.
Many customers are unaware until they attempt to refuel.
However, British Retail Consortium said the onus is on card issuers to inform their customers of the change as it is not a charge initiated by the supermarkets themselves.
They tweeted: “Banks and card companies have, so far, failed to effectively communicate these changes resulting in widespread confusion and frustration among pay at pump fuel customers. Banks and card companies must be more proactive.”
Banks and card companies have, so far, failed to effectively communicate these changes resulting in widespread confusion and frustration among pay at pump fuel customers.
Banks and card companies must be more proactive.
— The British Retail Consortium (@the_brc) July 23, 2021
More info here – https://www.visa.co.uk/pay-with-visa/pay-at-pump.html
The easy option is to pay at the kiosk. But this is where this scheme doesn’t make any sense. You’re more less credit-checked should you pay the pump. Whereas when you pay at the kiosk it doesn’t matter how much fuel you have you won’t be prevented from using your card for whatever amount is spent!
Another concern is how long it takes for any unspent funds to be released from being ring-fenced. The card issuers say it could take between 20 minutes and 3 days!! Which means the onus is on the customer to a) check their statement to see if the funds have been released, and b) if funds haven’t been released you have to chase your bank that issues you with the card in question.
I recall this scheme was piloted by Asda back in 2018 and was universally panned and criticised not just because of all the faffing, but also that its rather elitist.
Best thing is to pay at the instore kiosk, although you’ll probably get stuck behind someone with a basketful of shopping!
I haven’t used pay-at-pump ever since my card got stuck in the pump slot (Sainsburys Northfield). There was no indication the pump was faulty – it just accepted the card then locked it in place. It did release the card after about 10 extremely worrying minutes but that was enough for me never to trust pay-at-pump again.
Interesting that VISA in the link in the article say its to ‘improve the experience, and make it easier to keep an eye on your finances’. I don’t believe this at all – there’s probably some element of the current process that’s costing them money which they don’t want to highlight.