Hi Guys I just wanted to ask/WARN anyone who has or plans to use the iPhone/Android App BPme for petrol?
My experience
I used the BPme app to put £30 in my tank and that’s where the problems began.
BPme take a holding payment, in this case, £30 and then they allow you to to top up to £29.50
I was charged instantly a £30 holding fee then a few days later charged another £29.50 for the fuel.
Looking through their T&C’s this is a standard practice and the holding fee will be refunded within 10 days which I think is rubbish but ok.
After 10 days of waiting for my refund, I emailed them and their reply is below. PLEASE EVRYONE BE AWARE THAT IF YOU USE MONZO FOR THIS SERVICE YOU WILL BE FORCED TO WAIT UP TO 30 DAYS FOR A REFUND
Dear Steve
Firstly, we would like to thank you for contacting us with your query.
The pre-authorisation is replaced by the selected/fuelled amount by the bank usually within 24 hours (a couple of minutes in case of unsuccessful transactions).
This can also take up to a maximum of 10 working days (30 in case of Monzo account holders)
If the replacement does not happen within 10 (in case of Monzo card: 30) working days, please contact your bank to resolve it.
If you have any further queries/issues regarding BPme, please do not hesitate to contact us.
Well, if I were you, I’d contact Monzo through the in app chat. Most likely they’ll release the funds straight away. Still annoying, of course!
Out of curiosity, if you don’t mind me asking: what’s the point of using the app? Wouldn’t pay at pump be much easier, and more flexible? (no account to set up, can be use at other petrol stations.)
It should be noted, though, that if you do “pay at pump” they’ll most likely also “hold” up to £100 of your balance, for up to a week. This is not unique to BP or Monzo, it’s standard “pay at pump” practice.
HI @nanos I contacted Monzo cs as you suggested and they have refunded the money to my account . my petrol station doesn’t offer pay at pump just the naff BPme app so I thought I would give it a go it worked very well TBF, but the aftermath has put me off using it again the benefits are similar to pay at pump no need to go into store and It could be a great back up if you forget your wallet and have to top up past the £30 contactless amount. but for now, I won’t be using the app again.
The 30 days in case of Monzo card holders is unfortunately a one of situation due to Monzo’s pre-auth clearance policies.
We would like to advise you to contact them and request the pre-auth to be cleared manually as from experience they may hold on to the pre-auth until you do not request it.
To avoid this after transactions, we recommend using a card issued by other banks, if possible.
Probably this (also see the next few posts in the thread.) :
I have never ever had a pre auth hang for 30 days with any other banks, so I’m guessing Monzo is following the letter of the rules here, while other banks may sometimes be more flexible? (I should say, that other banks usually have no mechanism of allowing you to contact them to manually release a pre auth, so “flexibility” is a relative term!)
It’s odd that they’re blaming us for this one, we’re following the Mastercard rules in this case that state a pre-authorisation (particularly in category codes such as hotels and fuel) should be held for 30 days. Larger banks may take a risk by only holding it for a shorter period of time and I know that we’re not the only bank that follows the rules to the letter but we may be the most obvious.
Ideally, if an authorisation is no longer required, the merchant should cancel it. From experience, there are many key ones that don’t though.
Having said all of that, you can always get in touch with support with proof that a payment authorisation should be reversed (final bills for things such as hotel authorisations are often useful here!) and we’ll take a look at it!
We have a better solution to this in the pipeline but I’m not sure of the release timescale just yet.
I wish MasterCard would crack down on this BS. As per the rules they should update the authorisation to the final amount ASAP, and not rely on the authorisation timing out after 30 days.
There’s absolute zero chance of me ever using an app like this. In my 18 years of driving I’ve never used a pay at pump either. I simply disagree with the whole holding situation.
Not everyone can afford for some of their cash to be temporarily unavailable to them.
Something should be put in place where funds are released a lot quicker than the current timescale
I’m guessing that could be about the only potential upside of this app, when compared to pay at pump: If you actually could say, in advance, I want to get only £30 worth of petrol, then the app would only pre-auth that specific amount, and then collect using the actual pre-auth, rather than in a separate transaction. That way there wouldn’t be the “long term hold” on your money, as is the case with pay at pump.
But, of course, that they have implemented it in this way, really takes the one potential advantage away. Which just means it’s another thing to register, another pin/password to remember, etc.
BP don’t have Pay at Pump in the UK, unless you use BPMe. The cool thing about the app is that you can specify the amount in advance if you want less than a whole tank, and it will physically stop the pump when it gets there. No more “Oops I put £20.02 in”…
Anarchist
(Press ‘Help’ search ‘Contact us’ or email help@monzo.com or call 0800 802 1281)
20
You’re correct. But just to be clear, nobody ‘takes’ the money. The funds are still in your account, just ring fenced; all that’s taken is your ability to spend it.
It’s wrong, but as @anon23935806 has pointed out, there is a solution, but companies are too idle to implement it.
. my petrol station doesn’t offer pay at pump just the naff BPme app so I thought I would give it a go it worked very well TBF, but the aftermath has put me off using it again the benefits are similar to pay at pump no need to go into store and It could be a great back up if you forget your wallet and have to top up past the £30 contactless amount. but for now, I won’t be using the app again.
