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Paying at the pump has brought a lot of convenience into the lives of motorists.

No longer do you have to fight off the temptation to pick up a Snickers while waiting for the bloke in front of you to pay, nor have the last minute panic over precisely which numbered pump you used.

Nope, now you can simply drive in, fill up and head off, without having to say a word to another soul - and you can do it 24-hours a day too.

Glorious.

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The trouble is that it has now emerged that the way those payments at the pump are handled could leave drivers seeing much higher than expected expenditure on their bank statements.

And that’s led to a rage among some drivers not seen since Chris Evans’ spell as host of Top Gear.

The use of ‘earmarked’ fees

(Image: AFP)

Paying for your petrol at the pump is a different process to going via the kiosk - you have to stick in your card and PIN before filling up.

As a result, the petrol station will want to ensure you actually have the money in your account to cover the cost of your fuel.

So a ‘pre-authorisation’ check takes place, with money from your account then essentially set aside to pay for your petrol or diesel once you’ve finished.

Previously, most supermarkets would only charge £1 for this, with that money then refunded once the transaction went through. Indeed, that’s what Tesco still does.

But thanks to new rules from Visa and MasterCard , others are now using much higher figures.

At Sainsbury’s for example, the earmarked fee can range from £1 to £99, while Asda is currently trialling the £99 figure at a handful of stores ahead of a larger rollout.

You give me road rage

(Image: Jade Louise/Deadline News)

Jade Louise bought £5-worth of fuel from Asda in Dewsbury, West Yorkshire, but when she later checked her bank account online found that £99 had been ‘earmarked’ to cover the transaction.

"I’ve always used Asda because it’s usually cheaper and very convenient as it’s close to me. At my local Asda there is only the option to pay by card at the pump, it is not manned," she told the Mirror.

"As a mum of two children £99 is a lot of money. While this money is being held you are not allowed access to it obviously so can not spend it."

She described the process as an “absolute joke” on Facebook, adding: “Don’t go to Asda for fuel unless you can live without £99 for around 2-3 days.”

Her post has now been shared more than 18,000 times, with other users now vowing not to buy petrol from the supermarket.

Has my money gone?

Jade Louise got her money back eventually - but not at first.

"I only went in to top my tank up as I like to keep it full when I have the funds to, the rest of the money was to spend on my children over the bank holiday, to be left without that for 3 days meant me and my children really felt the loss," she told the Mirror.

"I never meant for any of this to go so viral I just wanted to let my friends and family know of the issue I had and urge them not to go as I know many of them can not afford to be without £99 even if it is only for 3 days."

The supermarkets emphasise that they don’t get that money.

Asda told Mirror Money: "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."

Here’s how Sainsbury’s explains it: “The ‘earmarked’ value is never actually taken by the bank, or touched in any way by Sainsbury’s.

"It’s put into a ‘holding’ position before it’s replaced by the amount you paid for your fuel, and then disappears from your statement.”

MasterCard also argued that this has been introduced to ensure drivers can’t buy more fuel than they can afford.

A spokesperson said that if drivers don’t have the required funds in their bank account to meet this higher figure, then petrol stations can check precisely what funds they do have available, and then dispense a lower value of fuel.

They added: “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.”

Who to contact if the money isn't paid back immediately

While in an ideal world the money would come back straight away - the world isn't always ideal.

“When an individual chooses to pay at a pay-at-pump fuel dispenser, an initial amount is held against their account while they dispense their fuel to ensure that they have sufficient funds to pay for the cost of their fuel. This initial amount should be adjusted immediately after fuel is dispensed to reflect the actual cost of the fuel," Visa told Mirror Money.

“Visa has been working closely with card issuing banks to ensure that consumers do not experience delays in the adjustment of the initially held amount, however if consumers notice that initial amounts held against their accounts are not adjusted immediately, they should raise this with their card issuing bank in the first instance.”

But Jade Louise struggled.

She told us she contacted her bank, who told her to contact Asda, who told her to contact her bank

"I was being passed from pillar to post basically over money I never gave permission to leave my account or was made aware that it would leave should I purchase the petrol," she explained.

"In my opinion £99 is too much money to preauthorise a transaction for fuel. It used to be £1 there were no signs anywhere notifying customers that Asda had introduced this change, now they’re taking what they think a full tanks worth would be and from what others are telling me that’s anything up to £99 depending on what you have in your account," she said.

And some people can't get petrol out at all.

Basic account holders blocked from paying

(Image: Getty)

This system has caused particular problems for the millions of people with basic bank accounts, which don’t have overdrafts.

Because many forecourts haven’t actually got round to introducing the new rules from Visa and MasterCard, which require these larger pre-authorisation checks, a number of banks have elected to block these account holders from being able to pay at the pump entirely, in a bid to stop them spending money they don’t have.

For example, Santander has banned basic account holders from using their debit cards to pay at the pump, while other banks - including Halifax and Lloyds - have banned them from using pay at pump facilities which have not been updated to meet the new requirements.

Pay at the kiosk to beat it

The obvious way to avoid this problem is therefore to pay at the kiosk.

Yes, it’s less convenient and you will have to sidestep the siren call of the chocolate bars, but you will sidestep any issues associated with these larger authorisation checks.