Asda in U-turn on plans to charge drivers £99 to use petrol pumps
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Version 0 of 3. Asda has U-turned on plans to charge customers at its filling stations £99 to pay at the petrol pump. The supermarket had planned to impose a temporary £99 fee in order to ensure customers had enough money to fill up. The “pre-authorisation charge”, which was introduced at three of the supermarket’s stores, deducts money from the driver’s bank balance or credit card. Although the charge never leaves the customer’s account, it is held in limbo and only returned once the payment for the petrol has cleared. An Asda spokesperson said: “We always want to do the right thing for our customers, which is why we have made the decision to suspend Visa and MasterCard’s pre-authorisation transaction trial. The intention of Visa and MasterCard in this trial was to ensure customers had sufficient funds in their account to pay for their fuel, and the £99 would be immediately released back to customers by their bank. “Whilst we have received very few complaints about this process, until we can be given assurance that all banks are able to comply with the Visa and MasterCard rule change, we cannot continue to implement this change and risk harming our customers’ trust in us.” |