An Asda in Dewsbury, West Yorkshire, has been the source of a motorist’s fury after she was “charged” £99 on top of her £5 petrol transaction.
Jade Louise claims that there were no signs warning customers about the new fee, a policy which has been brought in to ensure that all customers have sufficient funds for the petrol, and that it took almost three days for the money to be returned.
According to MasterCard the money is held by the customer’s bank until the petrol is paid for and does not actually leave the account.
Venting on Facebook, Jade posted: “Don’t go to Asda for fuel unless you can live without £99 for around 2-3 days.
“They’ve brought in a new system that allows them to take £99 out of your account as a ‘deposit’ for your fuel then a second transaction of the fuel you’ve actually taken.
“And they don’t return the £99 until the second payment has cleared, which can take at least two days with Asda.
I rang Asda and a manager said they are trialling this. They used to pre-authorise your card for £1 but now it is £99.
“So that is money taken from your account that you can’t use until they release it back once the other payment has cleared.
“My complaint to them was that they should have notices on the petrol pumps making customers aware of this as they have changed their policy, 5th of may we got fuel and were still waiting for our refund.
“Absolute joke.”
However, a spokesman for Asda said: “Visa and MasterCard have increased the minimum pre-authorisation amount at pay at the pump petrol pumps for all retailers.
“This is an industry wide policy change from MasterCard and Visa in coordination with customer’s banks to ensure that customers have sufficient funds in their accounts prior to buying petrol.
“This amount is ‘ring-fenced’ by banks but immediately made available again to customers.”