Super U Diesel Warning

[GerTee]

We filled up with diesel yesterday at the Super U in L’Aiguillon-sur-Mer. It was a 24hr station which requires a pre-payment test on a card. Oddly, my Starling card (which has worked fine so far) and the other half's Monzo card were both declined. We ended up using our First Direct debit card which was accepted. Now in the UK you'll often see a £1 charge to your card as the pre-payment check. Super U charged €500!! Still waiting for it to vanish from our account as it has reduced our available balance.

 

[Lenny HB]

Filled up at a Super U a couple of weeks ago no problems used a Halifax Clarity CC.

 

[iandsm]

We filled up with diesel yesterday at the Super U in L’Aiguillon-sur-Mer. It was a 24hr station which requires a pre-payment test on a card. Oddly, my Starling card (which has worked fine so far) and the other half's Monzo card were both declined. We ended up using our First Direct debit card which was accepted. Now in the UK you'll often see a £1 charge to your card as the pre-payment check. Super U charged €500!! Still waiting for it to vanish from our account as it has reduced our available balance.

I have filled ups in France and often saw the 1ero debit as well as a 100 euro debit after I had only taken say 60 euros worth of fuel, then a day or so later a credit to my account to correct matters. I imagine the increase to 500 may be because of the rise in fuel prices, something to be aware of though so need to keep much more money on the card just on case.

 

[Dorwyn]

We filled up with diesel yesterday at the Super U in L’Aiguillon-sur-Mer. It was a 24hr station which requires a pre-payment test on a card. Oddly, my Starling card (which has worked fine so far) and the other half's Monzo card were both declined. We ended up using our First Direct debit card which was accepted. Now in the UK you'll often see a £1 charge to your card as the pre-payment check. Super U charged €500!! Still waiting for it to vanish from our account as it has reduced our available balance.

I had problems last September with SuperU, it seemed very finicky with my cards, on some occasions you had to use a separate machine at the edge of the forecourt. I simply gave up and used another supplier. I shall definitely ignore them next week when we're there. Thanks for the reminder.

 

[Poutie57]

I use Nat west and metro and it nearly always happens to me, when speaking the bank they said the next person who used that pump you then get charged for but it always falls off 3 days later. Once had a charge of €800 when a lorry filled up after me

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

 

[Cal54]

Not just SuperU Filled up at an Inter Marche on Tuesday and my credit card ended up with 2 debits - mine for £95 and another for £153. Thankfully corrected the following day.

 

[Mici]

We are still waiting for two lots of £150 ( pending transaction) to be off set on our Starling card from the beginning of May in France.
These were from 24 hour fuel pumps, one at leclerc and the other at Total.
Does it usually take over a month to stop the pending transaction which is holding £300 worth on our account?
We then opened a euro account on that card as soon as we could ( you can do this easily on line) which we wished we had done in the first place, put some money into it and all transactions( including Tolls and supermarket shops in euros) after that have been fine. All the 24 hour pumps reimbursed the pending amount straight away, at exactly the same time as taking the correct amount we owed for the fuel we had taken.
Is it starling who are holding up the process for the first two transactions ( non euro account) or the merchants I wonder?
Has any one else had to wait this long and what did you do to rectify the problem?

 

[BriannYe]

I still have a pending transaction from leclerc from April 5th. One charge which has completed but also a pending for the same amount. Starling bank will do nothing as it is a pending transaction. I have emailed leclerc but had no response. We are back in France on the 7th June so I will go into the store to try and get the pending transaction cleared.

 

[Mici]

Thank you Hampshire lad , although you have also been high jacked by this situation, it makes me feel better that we are not the only ones !
Starling Bank also told us that it was the merchant we had to challenge! but how? by email, phone , who and what contact numbers do we use?
I will start looking into this and start ringing , emailing around now, as a month is an unacceptable time to wait.
We found that opening a Euro account which is affiliated to the same card was useful, all transactions abroad immediately completed in euros with no fees and the card knows which account to use when abroad.

 

[BriannYe]

Thank you Hampshire lad , although you have also been high jacked by this situation, it makes me feel better that we are not the only ones !
Starling Bank also told us that it was the merchant we had to challenge! but how? by email, phone , who and what contact numbers do we use?
I will start looking into this and start ringing , emailing around now, as a month is an unacceptable time to wait.
We found that opening a Euro account which is affiliated to the same card was useful, all transactions abroad immediately completed in euros with no fees and the card knows which account to use when abroad.

Ah well email does not really exist. On their Web site they have a contact -nous which gives a phone number 0969324252 they also have a form but I have never managed to get it to work as it only accepts French addresses

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

 

[Lenny HB]

Does it depend on the card as I've never noticed any problems using my Halifax Clarity card.

 

[chaser]

Does it depend on the card as I've never noticed any problems using my Halifax Clarity card.

Us neither, filled up at superu a couple of weeks ago with clarity , no problems at all.

 

[Stealaway]

Does it depend on the card as I've never noticed any problems using my Halifax Clarity card.

Or me

Clarity cards work every where

 

[Mici]

We filled up several times on normal pumps ( pay at the kiosk) with no problem, only the amount we spent was taken from our Starling card.
The problem we have is with the 24 hour pumps and other pay at the pump with your card pumps- where you present your card and a pre payment of a fixed £150 is taken straight away ( this is held as a pending payment to make sure you have enough in the bank to pay) Then they take the actual amount as well when you have finished filling! The pre payment should automatically be cancelled ( by the Merchant) as they have collected the true amount from your bank as well.
We are still waiting for two lots of pre payment to be cancelled by the merchant. This effectively means we are unable to use £300 in our account.

 

[Lenny HB]

We only used 24hr pumps like I said never had any problems didn't notice any extra transactions on our card.
With the high credit limits on cards these days I don't see how a few hundred quid would cause any problems unless you are pushing your card to the limit which us oldies don't do.

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

 

[Phill D]

I have used my capital one card for fuel and I still have 1 transaction pending.
But only 1 of the duplicate transaction has been charged.
This was at a hype U.

 

[Floydster]

Happens in the UK too, filled up in Swindon Saturday night in a 24hour station and I had 2x £100 transactions pending until Monday when it was processed.
Nationwide visa credit.

 

[Mici]

Lenny HB- our starling card is not a credit card and plenty of money in the account to pay for petrol and ,thank goodness, the pending payment !!
The Euro account we set up (on the same card) worked fine when we started using it the next week, with the pre payment nullified at the same time as the correct amount taken.
It has only been this trip that we have been stung by these prepayments , never had them before. I think they are becoming more prevalent on the continent and starting in the uk now as well.

 

[gus-lopez]

Has any one else had to wait this long and what did you do to rectify the problem?

get on to the bank.they should have a maximum " transaction pending" before the money reverts to the account if unclaimed. Revolut is 7 days.

I still have a pending transaction from leclerc from April 5th.

get on to them & point out it is a criminal offence the same as issuing a cheque in France without the money to pay it in the account.

Starling bank will do nothing as it is a pending transaction.

As above ask them what limit is classed as "pending" 7 days is plenty

With the high credit limits on cards these days I don't see how a few hundred quid would cause any problems unless you are pushing your card to the limit which us oldies don't do.

I use debit cards. try having 3 'annulled' attempts on the card before you get any fuel & you are 360€ ring fenced before you've started. the French are not only notorious for it but if using foreign cards they are adept at hanging on to the money.

First time I noticed it had happened when checking my spanish account some weeks later I queried it with the bank manager. He told me that spain classes it as a criminal offence regardless of the country the card is used in & if I found in the future that the money wasn't returned within hours to file a complaint with them which they would take up on my behalf. I only ever use spanish cards now or cash. Fortunately I have also ensured that I can, if neccessary ,run right through France without needing fuel, or until I can pay with cashwhere I want.

 

[Mici]

Thank you Gus -lopez- I have just read on the starling bank web that if by 31 days a pending transaction has not been claimed then they cancel it and the money reverts back to the account.
I will wait to see what happens in the next few days ( although it is a bank holiday!) as the time will be up.
Then we will ring everyone we can to sort it out if nothing has happened.

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

 

[BriannYe]

Thank you Gus -lopez- I have just read on the starling bank web that if by 31 days a pending transaction has not been claimed then they cancel it and the money reverts back to the account.
I will wait to see what happens in the next few days ( although it is a bank holiday!) as the time will be up.
Then we will ring everyone we can to sort it out if nothing has happened.

I have just contacted Starling via "live chat"
They have promised to sort it out. Will confirm when it has been sorted out.

 

[BriannYe]

Following on from last post Starling have now reversed that pending transaction.

 

[busby]

Does it depend on the card as I've never noticed any problems using my Halifax Clarity card.

Same here with Halifax..Did happen once in Spain with a self service lpg pump but only for 4 hours..BUSBY.

 

[Mici]

Hurray- as Hampshire lad has done, I went onto live chat with Starling and they have reversed the repayment= no pending payment on my account anymore.
so, the banks can do this and it is worth checking and calling them.

 

[BriannYe]

get on to the bank.they should have a maximum " transaction pending" before the money reverts to the account if unclaimed. Revolut is 7 days.

get on to them & point out it is a criminal offence the same as issuing a cheque in France without the money to pay it in the account.

As above ask them what limit is classed as "pending" 7 days is plenty

I use debit cards. try having 3 'annulled' attempts on the card before you get any fuel & you are 360€ ring fenced before you've started. the French are not only notorious for it but if using foreign cards they are adept at hanging on to the money.

First time I noticed it had happened when checking my spanish account some weeks later I queried it with the bank manager. He told me that spain classes it as a criminal offence regardless of the country the card is used in & if I found in the future that the money wasn't returned within hours to file a complaint with them which they would take up on my behalf. I only ever use spanish cards now or cash. Fortunately I have also ensured that I can, if neccessary ,run right through France without needing fuel, or until I can pay with cashwhere I want.

Thank you. I contacted the bank and got it sorted thanks to your info.

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

 

[Johnen]

I also have had problems with using starling card on automatic pumps. I had two double payments taken and not returned. When I contacted starling they said it can take up to a month for the money to be refunded, I pointed out that it was six weeks ago. I eventually got a refund, but have stopped using my starling card for automatic pumps.