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Asda petrol pump charge – what is the £99 earmarked fee for paying at the pump and has it been scrapped?
The new earmarked fee could see some drivers buying less petrol than the earmarked charge to make sure they can afford it
PETROL stations started issuing £99 earmarked checks to see if drivers have enough funds to pay for a full fuel tank thanks to new policies brought in by Visa and Mastercard.
But ASDA has now suspended the charge after a backlash from customers. Here's the lowdown on thr row.
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What is the £99 earmarked fee for paying at the pump?
When buying pay at the pump petrol you have to put your chip and PIN in first before the fuel is dispensed.
A "pre-authorisation" check takes place - this takes money from your account which is essentially put aside to pay for your petrol or diesel once you have finished.
Since the scheme first started most supermarkets would only charge £1 to your account to check for funds, and that money would be refunded once the transaction went through.
In fact, Tesco still runs their pay at pump system with the £1 charge.
But, thanks to new rules from Mastercard and Visa other petrol stations such as Asda and Sainsbury's are starting to use a much larger figure.
Asda is trialling the figure at £99 in a handful of stores before a wider roll out - which shocked driver Jade Louise when she saw the figure on her account statement after filling up her motor.
Jade slammed the store for the fee which left her £99 down for 2-3 days and other drivers have vowed to boycott the store for petrol after seeing her post.
Similarly, Sainsbury's can charge an earmarked fee from £1 to £99 depending on how much drivers have in their account.
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Has the charge been scrapped?
The earmarked charge has been halted by ASDA after it saw a backlash from customers over it and said they had not realised that some banks didn't refund the check charge straight away.
Speaking to the superstore said: "We always want to do the right thing for our customers, which is why we have made the decision to suspend Visa and Mastercard’s pre-authorisation transaction trail.
"The intention of Visa and MasterCard in this trial was to ensure customers had sufficient funds in their account to pay for their fuel, and the £99 would be immediately released back to customers by their bank.
"Whilst we have received very few complaints about this process, until we can be given assurance that all banks are able to comply with the Visa and Mastercard rule change, we cannot continue to implement this change and risk harming our customers’ trust in us.”
However other supermarkets who are believed to also issue an earmarked charge have not said if they are also suspending the scheme.
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Do I get the money back if a earmarked charge is made?
The supermarkets say that they don't get the money from the earmarked fee.
Mastercard argue that the higher charge has been introduced to make sure drivers can't buy more fuel than they can afford.
They added that if drivers don't have the required fund to meet the high figure, then petrol stations can check exactly what funds the customer has available and then dispense a lower value of fuel.
Mastercard said: "While some customers may see a request for a higher amount than the fuel they bought - perhaps on their mobile banking app - these funds are not taken from their account.
"Only the value of the petrol dispensed is withdrawn.”
This means the earmarked charge amount goes back into your account once the payment for the petrol has been processed.
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Do I need an overdraft to use pay at pump?
Some banks have taken to blocking transactions at pay at pump petrol stations for basic account holders - which covers anyone who doesn't have an overdraft.
However, the block isn't enforced by all banks and most that do enforce it only do so for petrol stations that haven't been updated to follow Visa and Mastercard's new guidelines.
According to Halifax, HSBC, Lloyds, Natwest, RBS, Nationwide and Bank of Scotland all block transactions at pumps which don't use the higher earmarked charge, if you don't have an overdraft facility.
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If you bank with Barclays, Co-op or Nationwide you shouldn't have a problem dispensing your fuel at the pump - whether you have an overdraft facility or not.
The banks say the block is to stop basic account holders spending money they don't have - in Santander's case basic account holders can't buy fuel at any pay at pump stations say moneysavingexpert.com.
If your account doesn't have an overdraft the best way to pay for your petrol is to go in and pay at the kiosk as they don't have earmarked charges.
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