Gas stations: make it possible to pay at gas stations that pre-authorize 🚗

[NFH]

@henrikbjorn

Some airlines uses “Card not present”. Which saves the transaction on the machine until it is online again. And then do the transaction online. So it is delayed really. But yeah it does count as offline.

What happens if you disable your Revolut card before take-off and then pay with chip & PIN while airborne? Does the transaction still go through a few days later, despite the card being disabled?

[Frank]

I just link this post, since it’s somewhat related. Not sure if this was chip + PIN, though.

Ryanair inflight purchases

Just to let users know in case the same happens to anyone else - I paid for food on a Ryanair flight last week (wasn’t bad either!) but when we landed at Stansted and obviously their system synchronised the payments were declined by Revolut due to the geo-location security. I thought I’d bagged a free lunch but you will find Ryanair manage to re-do the transaction a few days later and it was successfully debited 48 hrs later! Still showed as a remote debit (from Dublin when I am in London) so …

[Frank]

The merchant code for unmanned gas stations is not blocked anymore. Good news.

[DeXeD]

Awesome! May I ask where did you find this information?

[Frank]

I read it on Twitter a couple of days ago. Let’s hope I didn’t get that wrong.

[Frank]

Revolut (RevolutApp)

[Regalia]

I never understood why that didn’t work before - I mean you choose that you want to buy gas for 50€ and the gas station blocks the amount of 50€ on your card if you have enough money on it. If you use less you just get charged the amount you took. If you fill up for 50€ then you pay 50€. No real issue there.

[Frank]

Not all gas stations in the UK work like this. It was a UK centric solution for a problem that doesn’t exist elsewhere. More in the article linked in the first post.

[Bereillyte]

Tried in Switzerland. Didn’t used to work. Now it does. I have a pending transaction of 150 francs. I expect it to be updated with the correct amount in the next few days

[Recchan]

That’s still a very large amount held on your card. Revolut should allow you to input the correct amount.

If the account goes into negative balance they should put some ToS that allows them to take money from underlying cards or send it to collection agencies, if not paid within x amount of time.

[DeXeD]

This is too much. I’m not going to lock funds for days while almost every other card doesn’t have this issue.

[Regalia]

The same happens with all cards. You just won’t notice it with a real credit card. That’s just how those stations work.

Back in the days when you received your credit card bill once a month on paper you had no idea how much was reserved or on hold on your card.

Now you just notice it because you can see it instantly.

[Regalia]

Since you authorize those stations yourself there’s nothing Revolut can do.

You could always go to a real gas station you know.

[Frank]

@Recchan

Revolut should allow you to input the correct amount.

There is nothing Revolut can do about it. This is controlled by the gas station operators.

[Frank]

@DeXeD

This is too much. I’m not going to lock funds for days while almost every other card doesn’t have this issue.

This is not related to Revolut. These gas stations work like this: they pre-authorize an amount, block it on the card (shows as „pending“) and when the final amount is presented by the merchant, the amount changes (payment shows as „completed“). All card payments work like this, with all cards. Pending payments always reduce the available balance or credit, and how long a payment is pending depends on how fast a merchant settles the transaction, makes it „final“.

[DeXeD]

The same happens with all cards. You just won’t notice it with a real credit card. That’s just how those stations work.

I don’t own credit cards, only debit and prepaids.
I know how this works and I confirm that Revolut would be the only one that locks funds for longer than some minutes.

This is not related to Revolut. These gas stations work like this: they pre-authorize an amount, block it on the card (shows as „pending“) and when the final amount is presented by the merchant, the amount changes (payment shows as „completed“). All card payments work like this, with all cards. Pending payments always reduce the available balance or credit, and how long a payment is pending depends on how fast a merchant settles the transaction, makes it „final“.

I know, I know.
That’s how it exactly works in Italy:
You put the card in, it will ask you for PIN, it checks if you have at least 101€ on your card, then it will pre-authorize about 101€, when you’ve finished you put in place the “gun”, it refunds to your card the difference between 101€ and the right amount of gas you purchased.
With all my cards the refund is instantaneous and I get notifications for the purchases. I always checked the amount on the card.
What if I purchase gas 3/4 times per week? About 400€ locked in Revolut, waiting for the refund which the gas station already disposed?
I hope the refund will be instantaneous just like all of my other cards. I can understand and tolerate some hours, not days.

[Bereillyte]

Whether it’s reasonable or not, it has nothing to do with Revolut. I have seen the same with my Transferwise card, my swiss bank maestro card, my Swiss credit card. Finally, the correct amount was debited within 24 hours, so not a huge blocking of my card

I would of course be happier if they just treated it like any other credit card purchase, but that is the garage/operator I addres that comment at, not Revolut

[Frank]

I would not rule out that Revolut could improve the situation. Revolut relies on many different 3rd parties, like payment processors … It is not unreasonable to assume that some card issuers are faster in processing refunds / pending transactions than Revolut.

It might not be something in direct control, but there still might be room for improvement.

[Swede]

Refunding should be able to make quicker if funds are locked up for a longer period at the moment?

Here in sweden all the fuel stations started to lock 1500 sek (about 140 eur) no matter what card you use. It’s mastercard and visa that has demanded this https://www.mastercard.com.au/content/dam/mccom/en-au/Merchants/documents/Automated_Fuel_Dispenser_Processing.pdf

I just use a creditcard instead so i know there wont be any funds locked.

[OliverCH]

@Frank

some card issuers are faster in processing refunds / pending transactions than Revolut.

Just to get it straight, the reservation caused by the pre-authorization is not in itself taking anything from your account.
From the payment system as it’s implemented in Switzerland through SIX, after the nozzle is returned, the "pump"completes the transaction with the final amount and the pre-authorization is replaced by that. At that stage the transaction is, as any other, not yet final. Finalization is often done at day end.

That Revolut displays this pre-authorization amount by suggesting a transaction of that amount, which is deducted from you balance. This is not a very clean implementation. It should show still the initial balance with the additional information of the blocked amount, meaning only balance minus pre-authorization amount is currently available to you. There is no money flowing at that point in time. Therefore refund is not the correct description of what happens.
Is my explanation understandable or shall I make an example?