I filled up 47€'s worth of petrol and been debited €130.It was one of these unmanned petrol stations, mistake?

[sony]

It clearly stated fill up to a maximum of 130€ but could only fill up to 47€.

I got a receipt for 47€ but checking my statement online it says it debited 130€!!

There is no way we'll have enough for our holiday now and I'm really worried. Do they pre debit the max amount and then refund the difference??

[Clarkkent]

You may find this of interest:

http://www.completefrance.com/cs/forums/2294587/ShowPost.aspx

[sony]

Thanks for this! But how long will it take them to reimburse the difference?? I was never ever made aware of this!

[nectarine]

I wasn't aware of this either, very interesting. Sony, get in touch with your card company immediately.

[Chancer]

No point getting in touch with your company it is standard procedure, I bet your on line statement didnt show the €130 being debitted rather your available balance being reduced by that amount, it will be temporary.

Here is what I posted on the other thread:

The same procedure occurs when you hire a vehicle, its called pré-autorisation, in the case of a petrol pump €69 (usually) is pre-authorised against your card be it credit or debit, when the final transaction of say €50 of fuel is debitted the pre-authorised amount is cancelled, it does not as you say appear on your statement as no money (the €69) was taken, only reserved if you like for a short period.

One needs to be specially aware whe using a debit card, which has a finite balance (not the huge amount of credit that most credit card providers force us with) to hire a vehicle especially on holiday. I got bit in the bum by this when I hired a fourgon from Intermarché for the afternoon. The card was pre-authorised for IIRC €1500 which was just about all my remaining balance, it meant that I wasnt able to top off the tank as required on its return, in this case I was not able to access my own money for another 2 days.

Editted. To answer your original question, Intermarché did not profit from my €1500 resting in my Nationwide account (it was a flex account debit card) but I ws unable to access it for 48 hours, I even checked my balance on line and it had something like balance £1525, available balance £35 - I cant be ar5ed to do the currency conversion at the rate of that day but I am sure you get my drift.

The correct debit should be made within a few days at which point your available balance will be readjusted. Whilst I sympathise with your problem having suffered it myself I am surprised that you would take a motoring holiday abroad with less than €83 as a contingency fund, as I said all the more reason to use a credit card with a reasonable limit (assuming its not all used up) whilst abroad.

[AnOther]

Pre-authorised €130 worth, who needs that much. That's roughly 100lt of fuel and what ordinary car driver needs that much or could even take more than about 1/2 of it ?

Does it vary by card issuer, using variously a CA debit, Nationwide debit, or NW credit card, I can't recall ever getting more than €90 or €99 authorised.

Must admit it's never affected me and likely never will as I've always got enough in my accounts to cover such things but if someone on a budget were making a long trip requiring several fill ups along the way with €130 blocked each time they could find themselves stranded !

I guess the answer is to buy your fuel during normal opening hours so you pay in the shop for what you've actually had and avoid the 24h card pumps except in an emergency.

[andyh4]

I think it may be a standard ANO.  I filled up last week and the limit was 130€ - CA debit card.  The week before it was a German bank Debit card and again 130€.

 

Unfortunately it is getting easier and easier to fill up to that amount - probably represents an 80l tank on 98 octane at the most expensive filling stations.  So fill the tank and maybe a jerry can as well............................

[sony]

All sorted- it's now debited 47€.

Weird stuff!