EuroTrash

Even on preauthorisations lodged by a French fuel station against a UK card?
If so, that's well worth knowing. Hopefully it would eliminate the inconvenience of using my Wise card for fuel.

baroudeur

Paying at the till solves the problem - there's no pre-auth required.

I have been buying diesel in France with a UK credit card over many years and never noticed any pre-auth problems as it would have been released before I see my next statement. However, as It's now possible to check my account on my phone immediately after using a fuel pump (or any transaction) perhaps I should check and see what pending transacations show up. (Credit Limit minus Available should equal Balance and any difference is pending transaction(s)

EuroTrash

Chance would be a fine thing.
Find a fuel station around here that still has a pay kiosk. Virtually all the supermarket pumps and many other fuel stations are autopay only.
Are there regions where it's still common to find pay kiosks?

dmu

At my nearest (small) supermarket, if for any reason your Bank card can't be used at the pumps, you can go to Reception and pay cash in advance. I've never seen staff helping at the pumps, so presumably they give the customer some sort of card to trigger off the procedure which automatically stops when the sum paid runs out.

EuroTrash

Oh that's good. I didn't know they did that. I always found it a bit scary to think that if you lose your card or it stops working or it expires and for some reason you didn't receive the new one, you might struggle to get fuel even though you have cash and cheques.

dmu

No store accepts cheques in my area (too many bounce), only cash if you haven't got a card.... (which begs the question - how do you pay for an item whose price exceeds the limit for cash payment?)
Apologies for going slightly off-topic....

cyrian

Credit card?
In the UK, I use Applepay on my phone where there is no limit in most stores.
Other such payment methods are available on your phone.

EuroTrash

Not sure French fuel stations accept epay methods do they? Certainily not all do.

cyrian

I was specifically responding to "stores".
Fuel stations shouldn't exceed the limit for cash payment unless your are refuelling your airliner

EuroTrash

c

True but the thread has mostly been about the pre authorisation issue you can hit when paying for fuel at an autopay pump with a UK bank card. It isn't an issue when using a UK card for instore shopping, plus as you say you have a choice of payment methods instore. But card is often your only option for fuel because there are so few fuel stations with pay kiosks these days.

dmu

My posts concerned those who haven't, for any reason, got a Card of any type, either at a fuel pump or in a store. (And, incidentally, not everyone has got an all-singing, all-dancing Smartphone)

Chatter Static

Supermarkets here can use a pre authorisation service for checks, it will alert them to insufficient funds.

CamemBert

Yes, that's a real problem. Once while filling up I was approached by a man who asked if I would let him fill his car up to 50 euros' worth on my card if he gave me 50 euros. I agreed, remembering when people have helped me out in other situations, but was aware that it would make an excellent scam.

bazzer70

Well I’m here in Dordogneshire and was horrified when I got to my hotel tonight to receive 2 emails from my bank stating that I’d authorised 2x €300 at the surermarche petrol pumps! When I used my credit card to fill up (once)
im sure (sincerely hope) it’s a glitch and will sort itself. I’ve just connected to the banking app (8 hours later) and there’s no payments or pending payments showing yet - just thought I’d let the forum know because there was discussion about preauthorisation etc.
whereas my restaurant meal showed up within 15 minutes!

EuroTrash

My experience goes back many years but back then it took days rather than hours for the actual transaction to go through, sometimes more than a week as I recall. I wouldn't hold your breath.
Strange why you have two pre-authorisations though. Are you sure it's 2 pre-authorisations, or just one but they sent you the email twice? Does it have a reference number, was the transaction done at exactly the same time?
Welcome (back) to Dordogneshire! Now go and order your CA card...