automated fuel dispensers
Just thought I might share this with anyone touring abroad. This happened to us while we were in France this summer. We stopped at the local supermarket's petrol station to fill up before returning home and used the automated fuel pump, I put my debit card in, knowing that I had sufficient funds available there. The transaction was declined and a ticket was produced to that effect. Thinking there was an error I checked my bank account and transferred some more money to be on the safe side and tried again but with the same result.
We returned to our campsite and on checking my account more thoroughly it transpired that in total the merchant had taken £240.00 from my account but not provided any fuel in return. My bank were extremely helpful, not, and couldn't help because I had entered my pin !!!
The long and short is that with all automated transactions of this nature the machine validates it by taking money from your account, in UK this is £1.00 but elsewhere it takes your balance on account but returns the residual to your account once you filled up.
We were assured that the money would be returned to our account but this was almost a week later
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This is one of the reasons that the pre-paid cards such as Caxton FX can't be used in these machines.
Not sure about the machine taking your balance and then refunding but do know they take a fair amount.
Haven't used one of these for a while abroad.
You may find a moderator moving this thread to the Overseas section where it will be more pertinent.
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Is it both Visa and Mastercard that do this? There may be reasons why you prefer to use a debit card but I do agree with others that by and large using a credit card gets over this problem providing of course you are not close to your credit limit.
David
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We raised this problem way back, and again on recent threads. It's interesting that TSB have just issued revised Ts & Cs which include the following advice:
"Blocking money on your account.
We’ve added a new section into the Personal
Banking Terms and Conditions to explain what
happens when an organisation asks us to block a
certain amount of money on your account to pay
for something with your debit card.
If you agree to make a payment using your debit
card where you don’t know the final cost, the
organisation will ask us to `block’ or ‘earmark’
a certain amount of money on your account to
cover the cost.
Once this money has been earmarked, it cannot
be spent. For example, if you agree to hire a car
but you don’t know the final amount.
When the organisation asks to take the final
amount, and the final amount is lower, we’ll release
the remaining earmarked funds immediately."The problem at fuel pumps is that the amount blocked can be for large amounts, beyond the normal car or motorhome tank capacity! That's why the locals avoid the '24/7' pumps and queue up at the other pumps and wait until the kiosk is open after the lunch break!
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I always use my N and P debit card and it always has enough of a balance to cover any transactions such as this one - it's only when your balance is low that this is a problem - as the OP found when further spending is 'blocked'. The trick is to know what your balance is, and always have enough in the account to cover these charges. They happen in this country too - so it's not just using the card in Europe which can be an issue.
In France the reason why these transactions take so long to 'return' to your account is sometimes the fact that the fuel is bought late on a Friday or at the weekend, before a bank holiday and there are potentially five working days before the electronic balance is done.
I also have a TSB account and have had the same document - it's good that they are one of the few banks to make this process transparent.
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I use a credit card all the time and never knew there was this problem.
But as the biggest Asda supermarket here in Cornwall has had nothing but pay at the pump for years - no kiosk, no shop, no staff ever at all - and their petrol station doesn't seem short of business, a lot of other people seem happy with it, whatever cards they are using.
And it's so much less frustrating than waiting at a pump behind just one car - where the driver has gone inside to pay, and to go to the toilet, and to buy a takeaway coffee, and browse the shop to buy half his weekends groceries, and come out ten minutes later. I love that automated Asda system.
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+1, I seek them out purposefully to ensure 'in & out' quickly. I've never noticed any freezing on any amount of funds, just the cost of fuel within 2 days.
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It's always busy, Euro, so people must be happy, as you said. The automation also helps them be the cheapest for fuel in the area. Win/win for customers.
Added to that, use of an Asda credit card gets a form of cash back as well.
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P5, the jobs were never there to start with. The ones in my area are all 'new builds' if we adopted that attitude in life generally we wouldn't use Supermarkets as they are known for not only losing jobs but whole shops & livelihoods
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A bit like me in the supermarket. I will generally not use self service checkout. Why would I. Are they going to knock something off my bill? Same way as in local banks I will not use machines.
Till operatives and bank tellers need to earn a wage.
The only time I will use a self serve is after I have done main shop and put stuff incar and realise I forgot to buy a single item.
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That's your choice...just keep waiting patiently while the lady with the car in front of you goes into the petrol station shop, browses the newspapers, then decides to go to the bathroom to check her makeup and hair, comes out again, picks which sandwich she wants, then searches her handbag for her Clubcard, finds a debit card as well, asks for £5 cash back, and strolls back to her car. And goes back into the handbag for the car keys.
I'm for automation.
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Yes, he's up thread talking about supermarket shopping, not using auto checkouts or ATMs at banks.
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The 'blocking' of available funds isn't always noticeable unless you're topping up your tank frequently and checking your available funds or credit limit. When touring, we always like to top our motorhome tank at the end of a day's driving ( 100 - 200 miles) before finding a campsite.
However, 24/7 pumps in France tend to set the authorised amount anywhere between 120 to 140€. That's a lot of diesel! Since becoming aware of the problem, we've tried arrive at the supermarket pumps when the kiosk is open!
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