Anger as Tesco starts charging £99 deposit for pay at the pump fuel

The supermarket giant has now introduced a deposit of up to £99 to replace its £1 pre-authorisation charge on its self service pumps

Previously, all Pay at Pump transactions were authorised by requesting a £1 transaction from the card issuer before taking payment for the value of the fuel one to three days later.

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Tesco this month confirmed it would be begin the charge on Mastercard, Visa and American Express customers due to new rules.

The change has been made almost two years after Asda scrapped the controversial charge following concerns about lack of available funds and overdraft fees.

In a statement on its website, Tesco states: "Under new rules implemented by Mastercard, Visa and American Express, we must now request authorisation from your card issuer for up to £99.

“Once you’ve finished filling up, the final transaction amount is sent to your card issuer, and the remainder of any unused funds up to the maximum filling amount will be released back to your available balance. We’ll only ever charge you for the value of the fuel you’ve actually purchased.

"If your account balance is under £99, your card issuer should respond with the lower amount they’ll allow, and the fuel pump screen will show the value you can fill up to."

Tesco added that some card issuers might not allow partial authorisations below £99. and If this happened customers should try another payment card.

The statement adds: “These rules have been changed by Mastercard, Visa and American Express to help cardholders to keep control of their budgets in real time.

“We also know that many customers can’t use our Pay at Pump service because their card issuer declines the £1 pre-authorisation transaction. This change should allow those customers to use this service.

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“There may be a small number of occasions where your card issuer doesn’t update your balance in real time. We’ll only ever charge you for the value of the fuel you’ve purchased, but if you do have concerns, please talk to your bank for further details.”

"If your account balance is under £99, your card issuer should respond with the lower amount they’ll allow, and the fuel pump screen will show the value you can fill up to.

“Some card issuers might not allow partial authorisations below £99. If this happens, please try another payment card.

"For more information about this change, please talk to your card issuing bank or read more from Mastercard, Visa or UK Finance web pages.”

The move caused anger on social media. One motorist wrote; “ I was using the Tesco pay at the pump device to avoid going into the store. I'm done with that now I'll just fuel up and go into the store to pay. I don't like people taking money out of my account for something I haven't even received.”

Another said: “Surely it can’t be? What if I only want £30 worth of fuel, and only have £30 in my bank??

This is never going to work!”