May petrol stations debit extra money on card?
My daughter went to a supermarket petrol station, took €20 of petrol then found out a little later when she got to a shop to buy something that she could not because €120 had in fact been debited from her card. Is this legal? L.M.
This is a recurrent problem in certain petrol stations where you pay at the pump.
They use a system which makes a check to see if your account has enough funds to honour a certain maximum fill-up amount, from €100-€150, before allowing you to pay (this can also cause problems if your account does not have the required sum, even if you were going to purchase less). In principle this is only a funds check but the system sometimes also temporarily blocks this maximum sum on your account. In theory this is anulled quickly after payment but in practice it can take some time.
Reportedly petrol stations have been advised to update their software to avoid delays. However an expert for consumer body UFC-Que choisir said: “As there are no precise regulations on this ‘pre-payment’ system that the companies use, they more or less do as they please.”
