so I got fuel for £10. now I knew they do an authorization code request for £1 but never take the £1, but I thought that they then do another authorization code request for the £10 and then actually take the £10 some time later since surely they cannot take £10 using the auth code for the £1 right. however I do not yet see any “kind of” transaction in “any state” for £10 and clearly this is screwing up the real-time budgeting. also does the £1 affect your available balance and for how long and is this fair? I’d be really grateful if someone is able to address these points for me. Thank you so much.
the £1 will be replaced with the actual £ amount you spent at some point later.
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From memory, it’s one transaction that magically changes from £1 to whatever you spent when it’s collected.
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I still think this needs work. We should be able to edit transactions that are known to be pay at pump so we can enter the right values to aid in real time budgeting
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I was thinking the same. You should be able to enter the amount and then if it ends up being the same nothing happens, but you get alerted if it is different to what you had entered.
Editing transactions will never happen because…banking. Whether some form of “expected charge” data can be overlaid while the transaction is still pending, however, doesn’t seem completely impossible.
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Sorry to continue this. I have a few questions.
- what is the “meaning” of the amount in what I understand to be an auth code request resulting in a pending transaction?
- am I right in thinking some merchants are authorized to (or just choose to and take the risk) request funds without an exactly matching / maximum authorization?
- is the £1 auth request essentially just an is this card working “in principle” check? This is hijacking something not design as far as I can see. For those with disabilities and/or very low funds / fed money from a support worker, who run a no overdraft bank account closed to zero most of the time, 2 & 3 can cause big problems (the impact is not so much just £1, but eg the prevention from a critical spend of £50 due to funds down to £49, which those who always run their account in significant credit or have significant overdraft and maybe don’t use Monzo, are often completely unaware of.
- is there no way to help us manage these anomolies in our budgeting? For this first discovery I added a note to the transaction but something better would be good.
Sorry, only been at this < a week, so still building a mental picture of how it all hangs together, which will eventually become second nature.
EDITED/UPDATED
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For 4 there’s nothing to do. They get replaced with the right amount so it’s not really an anomaly. It’s a card check so you can get fuel at the pay at pump usually.
That is what I meant. Sorry that it wasn’t clear. I am not proposing that the stored value changes, but that you can overlay it with the value you are expecting (but have this feed into summary as well so that it is showing the correct amount).
Yeah, you’d need to get it into Summary and potentialy some sort of variant balance at the top of the screen (pulse etc.) at which point it becomes more messy since I wouldn’t want to lose the “actual” balance in favour of the “expected” balance. Hmmm,
The £1 is going away anyway… it’ll soon be £100 but with confirmation of the transaction within minutes, which is a huge improvement.
What do you mean “soon”? Is there a regulatory change coming/change to the system at most petrol stations?
Maybe this is a stupid question - but if the account accuracy is so important (which I totally understand, it is to me too), why not just pay inside the petrol station and get the correct amount charged immediately.
(I’m not a driver so forgive me if this is wrong)
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Brilliant!
Still surprises me that pay@pump isn’t done after you fuel, i.e. if every pump is kitted out with a pay@pump card reader all you’d need to do is fill up (as always) and then either walk to the kiosk or stick your card in the reader and pay the exact amount you owe, none of this £1 today, the rest tomorrow logic 
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If we all knew how much fuel (in £ and litres) we needed, it could work well. Punch in how many litres, pay, and fuel dispenses.
The whole £100 pre-auth is kinda crappy, what if I need £10 of fuel to get me to work and back, only have £12.72 in my account and get paid tomorrow? I’d be screwed.
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It will try an preauth smaller and smaller amounts until it hits a limit. As long as it goes as low as £10 you’re sorted.
I have more faith in the system then, as long as it then fixes the amount pretty quickly.
Another thing that could happen…
Account balance - £63.38
Auth of £50
Fuel dispensed - £15
Need to buy something after for £40
Clutching at straws here, but hopefully they do get corrected within the planned time.
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I think you’re all thinking way way too much into this.
For me, Tesco Pay at Pump always takes £1 instantly and then the next 11pm-midnight it will update to the correct price.
(e.g. I pay at pump at 1am, I have to wait 22ish hours for it to update on my feed but I pay at 5pm and it updates in around 7 hours)
If you are seriously having issues remembering that you have a pay at pump transaction (even though you can see the £1 on your list) then you should just go into the kiosk and pay after you have fuelled up.
The £99 authorisation thing is definitely a whole different discussion but I agree with the posts above that it could be a serious issue for people who just want some fuel to last them a day or two… but again, this issue can be avoided by just paying in the kiosk.
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