This afternoon on my way to Koblenz at 14h30 I stopped to fill up the tank at the petrol station in Untersiggenthal. Since the litre of Bleifrei 95 costs CHF1.68/l, I usually go there to tank. Today instead of paying with cash, I paid with my debit card and in total the petro-meter displayed CHF93 for c.a. 55 litres, as I stood. I did not get any receipt. I did my shopping across the border, came back home and attended to admin and bills as usual. I saw the provisional booking statement from this tanking station reflecting CHF150. WTF! That's another CHF57 or 33 litres extra which my car wouldn't be able to gulp - no way. Tomorrow I want to pay them a visit but where is the proof of the transaction?

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Your car tank capacity can be an evidence i guess.

Lesson of the day:

Always ask for the receipt.

How is he supposed to ask a machine for a reciept

Don't some machines have a little button which one can push to 'request' one?

Hardly ever required one as there's never been a problem before up until today. Last time I paid cash there and the tank took less fuel then the note's value put. Immediately raised the issue and the owner of the shop gave me change.

I noticed that once as well and called up my bank. Don't worry you haven't been ripped off

I'm not 100 percent sure how it works but from memory the tank station automatically shows a bill of fr150. For some reason it can't tell the bank straight away how much you actually paid. Because of this it deducts Fr150 just to be sure and then a day or two later the petrol station tells the bank how much you actually paid.

I'd wait a couple of days and you should then see the right amount

Here you go. I've got a good memory

http://avia.ch/de/fragen


Frage: Ich habe an einem Automat mit meiner Kreditkarte/ EC-Karte bezahlt, und mir wurde CHF 150. –abgezogen.

Antwort:
Wenn ein Karteninhaber bei einem Tankautomaten Outdoor mit seiner Maestro Karte tankt, erfolgt immer eine Autorisierungsanfrage im Betrag von 150.- CHF. Dieser Betrag entspricht der statischen Autorisierungslimite der Maestro Karte am Outdoor-Tankautomaten und ist unabhängig davon, für welchen Betrag anschliessend Treibstoff bezogen wird. Bei Banken mit Online-Autorisierung werden somit auch 150.- CHF provisorisch auf dem Konto blockiert, da die Bank zu diesem Zeitpunkt noch nicht weiss, wie hoch der effektive Bezug ist. Wenn anschliessend das Bankkonto via Internet oder am Bancomat überprüft wird, erscheint der Betrag von 150.- CHF bis zum Transaktionsclearing (i.d.R. in der folgenden Nacht) als Vormerkung. Beim Clearing wird der effektive Betrag dem Konto belastet und die Vormerkung gelöscht. Zwischen Autorisation und Clearing können einige wenige Tage vergehen.

I'm sure a whole load of folk DON'T know about this so I've changed the title in the hope that anyone having a similar experience and scanning the list of Threads might realise someone else had written about it before. Do you think it might be better in Transport or something?

exactly same thing happened to me and made an angry call to the station owner.....only to apologize after the explanation

Hey that must be it !
That's rather interesting ...

Probably transport will suit the purpose better. I wil follow up on this thread in few days and provide my feedback (hopefully positive)

Now I feel like a newbie who first time came here and can not tell kak from shoe polish - seriously it has never occurred to me that it works this way when one uses a debit card

This is extremely interesting. I have never paid for gas with a Maestro card but now I never will.
Basically the explanation above is that there is an automatic debit of 150 which is later adjusted based on the actual amount.

Jacek, thank you for posting this and yjt for the explanation. This is really interesting.

I also found this report from kassensturz:

http://www.kassensturz.sf.tv/Nachric...der-Tankstelle

This deduction only applies for unmanned tanking stations where you pay before hand. If you pay in a shop afterwards it doesn't block Fr150

The explanation for why they block fr150 is logical. When you want to fill up you authorise the payment before tanking. As they don't know how much your gonna fill up they block 150 as no one is really gonna use that much. I don't get why they can't amend the amount straight afterwards though. According to the Kassensturz report. The machines are getting replaced and in 3 years the money won't get blocked

That CHF150 can buy you tank full of fuel for a... Ehm... military tank

Btw: The tankstation was Avia so the mistery is solved now

Funnily enough I noticed it with an AVIA station as well. I went to fill my car up today at another petrol station today. I wanted to check if it deducted 150 Fr as well but I've seen my bank wisely waits a day before showing any details.

Well at least your giving out saved you a trip tomorrow.

Speaking of petrol stations, you might wanna pass by these guys. They've got quite a few stations around your area. Around Aarau at least they are normally a couple of cents cheaper than AVIA. With their client card you get an extra 2 cents of and you can pay with LSV

Edit: Here's the link http://www.voegtlin-meyer.ch/site/in...Tankstelle.cfm

Great findings and much appreciated inputs on fuel prices in various cantons as well. There are iPhone apps that help to find the tanking stations but I thought it might be cool to create a thread on the EF to share the posters experience. Similarly to e.g. weather channel thread it will be regularly updated. And the winner of the day is... Station "x" in canton "y" with prices "z"

I've seen it several times on my bank statement, always corrected a day or two later. I can't remember if it's just avia now or not... i'll have to look at out last few diesel purchases.

I bet 150CHF wouldn't fill the tank of a hummer though. Saw a bright orange one today, which couldn't be more "look at me!" if it tried.

Andrew.

As promised to provide my feedback... Just to let you know that the correct amount has been debited CH93 as of today (after CHF150 was blocked for two days).

Let my example serve others who also might be fooled by wrong figures blocked on their accounts on the day of the transaction but few days later it would be rectified.