Pay at pump: Tesco makes initial charge of £120 before any fuel flows

Retro

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The article doesn't explain it, but it's to combat fraud. However, if they can take the risk with a kiosk transaction which doesn't have this step, then why not also take the risk with pay at pump?

The bit I don't like is that the temporary transaction takes between 2-48 hours to be reversed and the correct amount taken, during which time, the customer is down by £120 which can impact cash flow and possibly incurr interest charges on a credit card with a balance on it. On top of that, if there's a problem with the refund, then the customer has the bother of contacting their bank. Finally, there are instances where a card can't be used for this (see article) so the customer has to faff around trying another card. And what if they don't have another one? Then they get no fuel.

This is a lot of headache to the put the customer through in order to protect Tesco's interests and other retailers do it too.

This is why I never use PAP, paying at the kiosk instead.

 
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