Asda petrol pump charge – what is the £99 earmarked fee for paying at the pump and has it been scrapped?

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.

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.

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.