An angry driver is urging people not to use Asda petrol stations after claiming one had charged her £99 before she'd even filled up her tank, as part of a new authorisation scheme.
Jade Louise, who hails from Dewsbury, West Yorkshire, apparently only wanted to put £5 worth of petrol into her tank, but was horrified to find out that £99 had also been taken out of her account.
Advert
It is thought that the money was taken out of her account as part of Asda's new authorisation charge scheme, which acts as a sort of deposit to try and stop motorists with insufficient funds from getting fuel without paying.
The money can apparently take up to three days to refund.
Asda confirmed it is trialling the charge, with a spokesman saying: "It's as a trial that it's in place. As far as I'm aware it's other retailers too."
Advert
Sharing a screenshot of her bank statement on Facebook, Jade wrote: "Don't go to Asda for fuel unless you can live without £99 for around 2-3 days.
"They've brought in a new system that allows them to take £99 out of your account as a 'deposit' for your fuel then a second transaction of the fuel you've actually taken."
She added: "I rang ASDA and a manager said they are trialling this. They used to pre-authorise your card for £1 but now it is £99.
Advert
"So that is money taken from your account that you can't use until they release it back once the other payment has cleared.
"My complaint to them was that they should have notices on the petrol pumps making customers aware of this as they have changed their policy, 5th of May we got fuel and we're still waiting for our refund. Absolute joke."
Jade's post has now been shared over 18,000 times, with countless people saying that they will no longer be buying petrol from Asda petrol stations.
One wrote: "The f***, thankfully I don't go to Asda for petrol cause most of them are drive throughs."
Another said: "I won't be going there then."
Advert
One simply wrote: "What a joke."
Someone else questioned the legality of the scheme, writing: "If it is true I wouldn't have thought it legal."
Some also sympathised with Jade and other people who may not be able to afford to lose £99 from their account for three days.
"It's not like we have £99 for them to take in the first place," one social media user wrote.
Advert
A spokesperson for Asda told LADbible: "To clarify, this is an industry wide policy change from MasterCard and Visa in coordination with customer's banks to ensure that customers have sufficient funds in their accounts prior to buying petrol.
"This amount is 'ring-fenced' by banks but immediately made available again to customers.
"The money is never taken or held by Asda."
MasterCard also released a statement to explain the situation, which read: "Last year a change in industry rules meant that petrol stations with automated fuel pumps were required to pre-authorise a value equivalent to a full tank of fuel, so that customers didn't fill up with more fuel than they could afford.
"This is designed to protect them, and the petrol station. If customers don't have the required funds in their bank account, a further step is available to petrol stations which allows them to check what available funds a customer has, enabling a lower value of fuel to be dispensed.
"While some customers may see a request for a higher amount than the fuel they bought - perhaps on their mobile banking app - these funds are not taken from their account. Only the value of the petrol dispensed is withdrawn."
Featured Image Credit: Deadline News/PATopics: UK News, UK, Asda, Cars