£400+ ringfenced in single transaction at French fuel station

[K8eH]

Yesterday I tried to get fuel at a gazole pump in France. It was declined because I didn’t have £452 in the account but froze the £431 that was there. No fuel…and no way of withdrawing cash either. I realise that this isn’t Monzo’s fault but nobody has replied to my request for help in the app so thought I should warn/remind other users. It’s a whacking big preauthorisation and I have no idea how long it will take to resolve.

[krr13]

Have you tried to reverse the transaction from within the app yourself?

You can do this by selecting the transaction and at the very bottom is a link that’s says something wrong and then questiin this payment. You may have an option to reverse the transaction if the retailer hasn’t claimed the money.

[K8eH]

Thank you, great idea, but sadly it just says payment will be reversed in 30 days. 30!

[K8eH]

Fortunately I’d kept the receipt saying that the transaction had been declined so the Monzo team were able to accelerate the refund and it’s all sorted now. Hooray. Will use a credit card to pay at pump in future!

[Hook85 (Dan W)]

Has somebody from chat responded to you yet? They should be able to reverse this for you.

[K8eH]

Yes, thank you…all sorted now I’m relieved to say.

[Stom23 (Sandy)]

Hi,
I had the exact same issue at a fuel pump near Paris last week. Transaction declined (I also kept the receipt), but €150 were taken off my Monzo account!!
It’s been 9 days now and my account looks like it’s overdraft.
How did you contact the Monzo team to get your money back?
Thank you so much for your advice.

[Revels]

Monzo cannot do anything until the 30 days has passed, but at 30 days you’ll get the money back.

French petrol holding charge

Hi all, 17 days ago I was in France and decided to make the most of the cheaper diesel, so I went to a Carrefour supermarket petrol station. Everything was closed (it was Sunday) but it had pay at pump. I put my Monzo card in, entered my pin, and it said “transaction declined”. So I put my wife’s card in (we have a joint account) entered her pin, and “transaction declined”. Mistake #1 - I didn’t get the receipt for either of these. Then I used my Lloyds card (a Visa debit) and it worked, and I…

[Stom23 (Sandy)]

Thank you so much for letting me know. This is very helpful!!
Will wait and hope that the money will get refunded after 30 days then.
Thanks again

[dinosm]

@K8eH

Fortunately I’d kept the receipt saying that the transaction had been declined so the Monzo team were able to accelerate the refund and it’s all sorted now

@Revels

Monzo cannot do anything until the 30 days has passed

According to the OP’s description, Monzo were able to reverse it within a day, as the OP showed them the receipt confirming the declined transaction, so maybe @Stom23 can try the same?

[Carlo1460]

Please do get in touch via chat and explain what’s happened, if there’s enough evidence to say the merchant won’t collect the funds, either an email conversation, or live chat, and/or a receipt saying it was declined, monzo can sometimes release the pending authorisation.

Sometimes being key word here