[Santa]

Almost everything I buy these days is tap and go. The exception is at the petrol pump where I have to stick my card in a slot. The pumps were recently replaced so it's not that they are old and out of date. I can T&G in the shop, but not at the pump.

Is this the same everywhere? And does anyone know why?

[Mark07]

Talk about a coincidence. I stopped at the petrol station and saw that they've added a contactless payment option, so I took a photo.

It seems, that paying by contactless will reserve £100 whilst if you pay by chip and PIN, it'll reserve £120.


(reposted with a smaller image)

[Mark07]

This is a really good point.

I’ve never seen a contactless option, but i hadn’t noticed.

[Santa]

A thought came to me that it might be about pre-authorisation and putting a "hold" on the card.

When you book into a hotel, they will put a hold on your credit card for their estimate of the final bill. (This can be problematic for people with maxed-out cards). I think that putting my card in the slot on the pump does the same up to the maximum shown on the screen - usually £99 or something. Of course, if you don't pay at pump, they rely on you going into the shop to pay, so it's a bit of nonsense really.

[Mark07]

I think the max contactless payment is now up to £100. I guess they can't (yet) put a hold on a payment without a PIN.

I'm not sure it'd speed things up in a significant way, but it'd be more convenient for the customer.

[Drivingforfun]

The ones I use pre-authorise £120 ever since the fuel prices went up last year or whenever, so above the contactless limit

[Drivingforfun]

Great find, Mark!!

[Santa]

@Santa Coming to a pump near me then I guess 😎

As an aside, I recently enabled T&G on my phone. I have been a little reluctant to do it before but after hearing a discussion on the radio I realised that it is actually more secure than a card. This is because anyone who acquires my card can use it, but my phone needs to be logged in first.