Intermarché ‘pending’ transaction - beware!

[Gromett]

The system may have changed. But when I was writing software to process online transactions it took place in 2 stages.
Pre-Auth where the money was reserved in the account. For my use case I knew the final bill so I pre-authed the actual amount.
Then there is the capture stage where the transaction is finalised.

In my case I was billing people online for a service and knew the full amount.

In restaurants, hotels, petrol stations where you want to ensure sufficient funds are available you can preauth a set amount then capture any amount under this.
When you capture/finalise a transaction the balance is returned to your available pool. Please note they do not take the preauth amount out of your account it is simply unavailable to spend on any other transaction for a set period 7-10 days.

The problem comes when a transaction fails in the capture/finalise stage. If there is a fault that causes the transaction to fail. Communication issue, bug in the handling software etc. Then the pre-auth amount becomes detached from the transaction.
The sales system thinks it was rejected/declined and marks it as such so never goes to finalise/complete/capture the transaction and the balance is not returned until it expires.

In normal operation, the balance is released back to your account while you are stood at the terminal with your card still in the machine so you never notice the reduced available balance. You only notice it when it fails.

This system applied to both credit card and debit cards.

I wrote and maintained software for this process from 1999-2009. Since then I have moved to using paypal for all online transactions in my business as it means I can skip the PCI/DSS run around. So if things have changed since 2009 then I may be totally wrong in my above description

 

[Janine]

Where is HERE.
If you mean the UK you're sadly mistaken..
3very station I've been to is either fully kiosk or a choice of pay at pump or pay at kiosk.
I've never seen a fully unmanned fuel station

There is a totally unmanned fuel station on the road outside the Bath Marina campsite. It looks like about 4 pumps within a small pull-area on the main Bath-Bristol road. No shop or kiosk, just the pumps.

First one that I have seen but a great idea. The fuel was cheap too.

 

[denisejoe]

Our local Asda has become completely unmanned since it was refurbished earlier this year.

 

[Reallyretired]

Where is HERE.
If you mean the UK you're sadly mistaken..
3very station I've been to is either fully kiosk or a choice of pay at pump or pay at kiosk.
I've never seen a fully unmanned fuel station

Locally I use either Morrisons (pay at pump or kiosk) or Asda pay at pump only. I started using pay at pump during covid and have just stuck with it since.

 

[TDub49]

Where is HERE.
If you mean the UK you're sadly mistaken..
3very station I've been to is either fully kiosk or a choice of pay at pump or pay at kiosk.
I've never seen a fully unmanned fuel station

. . . except after hours . . .

^{_{Subscribers  do not see these advertisements}}

 

[cyberyacht]

I used an ASDA automat fuel station in Leicester just along from the Nat Space Centre about a month ago. That took the £99 pre authorisation. Trouble was, £99 wasn't enough to fill right up.

 

[seesaw]

Asda Inverness is unmanned and takes the pre authorisation.

It quite clearly gives the information on the pump.

 

[gus-lopez]

Its not necessarily Intermarche its more likely the clearing process for card transactions. When you use fuel stations and some other transactions a block for say 100 is added so you can then fill up to 100. If you say only put 90 in then thats the amount that goes through the clearing process which will automatically release the 100. Should take 3 or 4 days but sometimes longer.

I use a carrefour in France which blocks 120€ then when I have finished fuelling the amount of payment is deducted from the 120€ & refunded instantly.

Cash is still best. Find a fuel station with a human cashier.

A super U I stopped at in Podensac which is pay at pump,no staff has now installed the facility to pay with cash. Surprised me:

've never seen a fully unmanned fuel station

All the asda's I use in the Uk I have never seen any that are not pay at pump.no staff.
Here we have pay at pump by " guesswork" . If you want to fill to the brim you have to guess what amount will be too much then it deducts that from your card , Card is then removed ,you fill up & when full the difference is credited back to your card immediately

 

[WoldsSunlight]

The system may have changed. But when I was writing software to process online transactions it took place in 2 stages.
Pre-Auth where the money was reserved in the account. For my use case I knew the final bill so I pre-authed the actual amount.
Then there is the capture stage where the transaction is finalised.

In my case I was billing people online for a service and knew the full amount.

In restaurants, hotels, petrol stations where you want to ensure sufficient funds are available you can preauth a set amount then capture any amount under this.
When you capture/finalise a transaction the balance is returned to your available pool. Please note they do not take the preauth amount out of your account it is simply unavailable to spend on any other transaction for a set period 7-10 days.

The problem comes when a transaction fails in the capture/finalise stage. If there is a fault that causes the transaction to fail. Communication issue, bug in the handling software etc. Then the pre-auth amount becomes detached from the transaction.
The sales system thinks it was rejected/declined and marks it as such so never goes to finalise/complete/capture the transaction and the balance is not returned until it expires.

In normal operation, the balance is released back to your account while you are stood at the terminal with your card still in the machine so you never notice the reduced available balance. You only notice it when it fails.

This system applied to both credit card and debit cards.

I wrote and maintained software for this process from 1999-2009. Since then I have moved to using paypal for all online transactions in my business as it means I can skip the PCI/DSS run around. So if things have changed since 2009 then I may be totally wrong in my above description

….and therein lies the problem if you load up a debit card specifically with your expected budget for a trip, only to find that a chunk of that credit you have put on the card becomes blocked for perhaps 10+ working days…. buggers up your budgeting, but in my specific case it was not a show stopper, rather an annoyance. It amuses me that £130 has been unavailable on my account since 16 September, and I’m writing this reply on the ferry back to Newhaven… the 10 working days is up tomorrow… and all for €0.05 of AdBlu! C’est La vie!