Drivers charged £99 to pay for fuel at the pump

Customers out of pocket over ‘deposit’

DRIVERS yesterday condemned a card payment system that deducts an automatic charge of £99 at fuel pumps.

After filling up, the charge should be adjusted to the amount drivers actually bought.

But some customers say this process had taken as long as two days – potentially leaving them short of money.

The authorisation process, used only when payments are taken at the pump, applies to both debit cards and credit cards issued by Mastercard and Visa.

It is aimed at ensuring drivers have £99 in available funds before they fill up. If not, they will be allowed to take only as much fuel as their account can cover. Alternatively, their card could be declined. Details of the system emerged after a driver picked up a ‘mystery’ £99 charge on her bank account after using an Asda petrol station.

Jade Louise, from Dewsbury, West Yorkshire, put only £5 of fuel in her car and was horrified when the transaction for £99 appeared.

‘I rang Asda and a manager said they are trialling this,’ she posted on Facebook. ‘They used to preauthorise your card for £1 but now it is £99. So that is money taken from your account that you can’t use until they release it back once the other payment has cleared.

‘My complaint to them was that they should have notices on the petrol pumps making customers aware of this.’

Her post was shared over 18,000 times, with many drivers saying they would boycott Asda. The same technology is due to be rolled out to other supermarkets and petrol stations.

The IT system of at least one bank is believed to be taking several days to process the payments. While the £99 charge does not leave the customer’s account, it is ring-fenced and cannot be spent. Mastercard said in a statement: ‘A change in industry rules meant that petrol stations with automated fuel pumps were required to pre-authorise a value equivalent to a full tank of fuel, so that customers didn’t fill up with more fuel than they could afford.

‘This is designed to protect them, and the petrol station.’

A spokesman said it also helped customers avoid charges for going overdrawn. He said the payments process should be concluded within minutes and efforts were being made to work out why this was not always happening. Visa said: ‘The way that pay-at-pump fuel payments are treated has been standardised across the industry to ensure security for individual cardholders, retailers and card issuers.

‘Visa has been working closely with card-issuing banks to ensure consumers do not experience delays in the adjustment of the initially-held amount.

‘If initial amounts held against their accounts are not adjusted immediately, they should raise this with their card-issuing bank.’