Used my Revolut for fuel , is this normal?

Bart

Bart

Free Member
Joined
Jun 4, 2016
Posts
3,188
Likes collected
1,398
Location
Northern Ireland
Funster No
43,436
MH
Boxer L4H2 van build
Exp
Since 2016
So yesterday at a Total station we put in 40 euros of fuel and we used the pay at pump method and our Revolut card to pay for the fuel.
I requested a receipt but never got one.
Last night and today so far when using the Revolut app to see the payment . It is shown as 150 euro as apposed to the 40 euro.
Tell me this is standard practice and it will correct it's self.
 
It has been widely reported that fuel stations in France (and other countries) take more out of the card than that that has been delivered as a security measure.

The length of time that it takes to return can vary as well.
 
All continental pay-at-pump machines pre-charge the card before issuing fuel. The pump usually tells you the max value of fuel you can pump. The excess (pre charge minus ciost of fuel delivered) is refunded, always within 24 hrs and often within minutes. I think the variation is due to geography.

I always use Revolute for buying fuel, but usually use a card reserved for that purpose. You can have 3 cards .....
 
Yes that's normal for pay at the pumps they take out the max then when they get your €40 bill they return the rest.
 
Had this happen once on our FairFX Card in France. Apparently, some shops / petrol stations put a minimum stop of €150 on your card before adjusting it to the correct amount.........really annoying as it meant we couldn’t use the card again to fill up.

Subscribers  do not see these advertisements

 
Its because it's a pre-pay card and the pump operators have to ensure that there will be enough credit on your card to pay for the transaction so they take more than they will likely need and then refund.

Martin
 
  • Informative
Reactions: JJ
Your lucky it took a payment on revolut, it normally refuses especially if you don’t have much on the card.... I always try to use stations where someone is in the kiosk if not I use another card for automated pumps..
 
Our local filling station has been like that for a few years now.
 
  • Informative
Reactions: JJ
Ok. Thank you for all the replys
 
funflair said:
Its because it's a pre-pay card and the pump operators have to ensure that there will be enough credit on your card to pay for the transaction so they take more than they will likely need and then refund.

Martin
Click to expand...
No it isn't .It does it with any type of card, debit ,credit & it shouldn't accept prepay for this very reason. I've never know any that accept prepay cards? Mainly because with revolut they can take the money but to my knowledge it cannot be refunded to the card ?
When I paid at a Carrefour counter recently with my Revolut card then had to return the stuff as it was incorrect they could not refund to the card & had to give me cash . So if I was the op I'd be checking with revolut chat as to what the situation is ?
On a credit or debit card It should debit the card 120€ then when transaction is finished release that & debit the actual amount .
Many French stations don't do that bt retain it for some days.So if you abort any transactions, fill more than once a day,,you suddenly find that you can have huge amounts of money 'blocked' off by them,
This is why I only ever use a spanish debit card in France as it is totally illegal to do it & the spanish won't hesitate to take action.

Subscribers  do not see these advertisements

 
gus-lopez said:
No it isn't .It does it with any type of card, debit ,credit & it shouldn't accept prepay for this very reason. I've never know any that accept prepay cards? Mainly because with revolut they can take the money but to my knowledge it cannot be refunded to the card ?
When I paid at a Carrefour counter recently with my Revolut card then had to return the stuff as it was incorrect they could not refund to the card & had to give me cash . So if I was the op I'd be checking with revolut chat as to what the situation is ?
On a credit or debit card It should debit the card 120€ then when transaction is finished release that & debit the actual amount .
Many French stations don't do that bt retain it for some days.So if you abort any transactions, fill more than once a day,,you suddenly find that you can have huge amounts of money 'blocked' off by them,
This is why I only ever use a spanish debit card in France as it is totally illegal to do it & the spanish won't hesitate to take action.
Click to expand...
OK I doesn't quite take the money and then refund, more like reserve an amount that would be maximum delivery at the pump and then once they have taken the correct amount they relinquish the hold on that reserve, I had a similar thing on my Revolute card.
 
Same happened to me a couple of years ago on my CaxtonFX card. Can take up to21 days for refund. Now use Halifax credit card for everything except cash. no foreign currency charges and good rates. Us the Caxton card to withdraw cash.
 
Also while on the subject of fuel , is diesel cheaper or more expensive in the north of Spain compared to the South West of France??
 
It is called pre authorisation and is part of the 2 stage transaction. It is perfectly normal and can happen to any card transaction. When you go to the till in a shop and pay for a specific item of known cost then the 2 stages happen at once for the exact amount.
When the delivery of goods takes place a period of time after the order then the two stages can take place separately. The amount pre-authed can be less than the amount completed.

A pre-auth will expire after a period of time either in full or partially if settlement amount is lower. A pre-auth will make those funds unavailable but won't actually be taken from the account.

Most shops for example will do both stages at once.
Petrol pumps will pre-auth to ensure you have enough funds to cover whatever the pump can supply at most.
Car rental places and hotels may preauth the amount + a % to cover extras/damage etc bu then only settle the amount on the bill.

Hope this helps?
 
Tesco are nicer with this :)
My ~£50 diesel appears as a £1 pre-approval charge in pending transactions on the mastercard.
I expect it would be the same for REVOLUT usage but fuel purchases in the UK isn't how I use the Revolut card
 
Had our Caxton card do this a couple of times but refunds were around 7 days. I'm not too happy about it so now never use it for purchases of any kind, it's just somewhere I keep my Euros until I want them. Never had it happen on any credit/debit cards anywhere, although have had cards refused a couple of times when the automated pumps weren't accepting particular cards.
 
I always use a credit card, the diy pumps usually take for 100 or150L and then the actual amount you spend. The first amount stays on pending, and in France may still appear on the statement for up to a week.
This is why I would never use a prepaid card for fuel, as it could run out of credit quickly, as when heading south I may fill up every day. The credit card I use is used only for fuel so I know there will be plenty of credit on it.

Subscribers  do not see these advertisements

 
Back in March I attempted to use my Revolut in a pay at pump machine in France.
I only had £100 on it. The machine rejected my card stating insufficient funds.
I then used another card with no problem.
However, the machine had attempted to take more than £100 from Revolut so this was showing as pending on my account, even though it had been rejected. This resulted in me being unable to access the £100 that I knew was available on my Revolut card.
Revolut's Q&A state that any unused pending transactions should be reverted within 14 days.
On the 15th day I had to get in touch with Revolut to get the pending money released.
Okay it was 'only' £100 but if I had needed it it wasn't available. Won't get caught like this again.
(For £ above read Euro.....my keyboard doesn't have the Euro symbol !!)
 
I use Revolut abroad but after the first time of them doing this I don't any more as they seem to take days to balance out what they need the funds are still in YOUR account but YOU can't access them
The French do it to ANY card so we prefer those that still actually have a real person in the kiosk

On the reverse edge filled up at Sainsburys Stockport they took £1 until they took the balance 2 days later
 
Madcaravanner said:
I use Revolut abroad but after the first time of them doing this I don't any more as they seem to take days to balance out what they need the funds are still in YOUR account but YOU can't access them
The French do it to ANY card so we prefer those that still actually have a real person in the kiosk

On the reverse edge filled up at Sainsburys Stockport they took £1 until they took the balance 2 days later
Click to expand...
Finding a person on any filling station in France is becoming very rare. It used to be just the supermarkets that were pay at pump but now the independent ones are too. I actually prefer them as SD is so much easier.
 
Never heard of Revolut (must get out more) and reading above don't think i will bother. Continue using my DC & CCs

Subscribers  do not see these advertisements

 
bobsnicholson@ said:
Never heard of Revolut (must get out more) and reading above don't think i will bother. Continue using my DC & CCs
Click to expand...
Revolut is quite different to a "normal" CC or DC it is a cash card that you preload from a bank account or another DC you can then exchange any amount into a different currency of choice, you keep track of all this and make the exchanges on a phone app, you can then spend whichever currency you require so it's great for travelling and when you do make currency exchanges you get the exchange rate at that instant with no commission so it's the best exchange rates you can get.

I exchanged many thousands of £ to € to pay for our new van and saved a chunk of cash on the exchange.

Martin
 
Regardless of what anyone calls Revolut,in my opinion it is simply a multi currency online bank account , transactions undertaken via an app or a debit card.
The debit card is not compulsory, or wasn't when I opened my account, online transactions can be undertaken via the app.
I use the app to transfer euros to European bank accounts fee free which simplifies my life no end, occasionally use the card for cash and purchases, use a CC mostly.
 
bobsnicholson@ said:
Never heard of Revolut (must get out more) and reading above don't think i will bother. Continue using my DC & CCs
Click to expand...
We’ve only discussed a specific issue where fuel stations block off amounts for pre-approval.
Cash cards have a finite amount on them so the blocked off amount can hit that.
A credit card will absorb the block.
Not sure what a debit card will do if you’ve low current account balance on hand. Maybe you’d go in the red 😳

Away from the forecourt, a revolut card is great for avoiding (or at least limiting) currency fees.

edit: Oops! I missed that there were seven similar responses 🤪😎
 
I usually fail to pay for fuel with my Revolut card on the pay at pump, so I’m thinking maybe it’s because I never have enough money to cover the €150.
 
I paid with Revolut at Intermarché this week for Petrol for the Motorcycle. It blocked €100. But was refunded to the correct amount of around €25 the next day.
Not ideal if you are traveling/touring.
But will remember in the future...
But still like and use Revolut..

Subscribers  do not see these advertisements

 

Join us or log in to post a reply.

To join in you must be a member of MotorhomeFun

Join MotorhomeFun

Join us, it quick and easy!

Join us

Log in

Already a member? Log in here.

Latest journal entries

Back
Top