[TheFastCharge]

Hi all!

So, I was taking the Zoe on a little road trip to see the folks on Saturday and stopped by Chippenham where there's a lovely bank of Ionity chargepoints.

All worked a dream, got an email invoice for 25 minutes (which came to about £10) however, I checked my bank account today to find Ionity (or 'Has To Be' as it says) have since taken two payments of £67 as an 'authorisation'.

I've asked their customer services team what in the name of Beelzebub's armpit it is but am awaiting their response. Anyone else ever experienced this? I presume (hope) it's just a simple mistake.

 

[Blurb]

I think that's Ionity's "normal" pre-authorisation for the credit card. I'm guessing you had two attempts at charging before it worked, hence two pre-auths, and should be refunded in due course.
It is an extortionate amount, and if you're on a road trip could add up very quickly.
Ionity just don't want anyone other than their subscribers to use their chargers.
You'd think it would fall foul of some anti-competitive law, but I guess not.
"It's not personal, it's strictly business" Michael Corleone

 

[Tall Phil]

Yes, I have had this issue. It was a pre-auth payment that was only ever pending on my account and was never taken. When I enquired, I never got a response. Good luck.

 

[alegar]

Known issue with Ionity. Not only is expensive but they’re pre-authorisation is large. I think using RFID cards on roaming solves it (octopus electric juice for example?)

 

[farmergiles]

Preauths do not remove funds from your account, they are just marked as unavailable to the account holder. If the payment is not confirmed the funds are released, usually within a day.

Your thread heading is therefore incorrect because you were never charged £134.

 

[ElectricBeagle]

Could be worse. I got charged ~£138,000 for a lamburger, and a pint, the bank refused to authorise it, but it does give you a sinking feeling.

 

[Electrohead]

Yup Ionity pre-authorise £67 for each charge and they will hold onto it for a week before they charge you the correct amount so that's £124 of your own money you won't have access to for a week. One more reason to make them the charge point of last resort.

 

[TheFastCharge]

Preauths do not remove funds from your account, they are just marked as unavailable to the account holder. If the payment is not confirmed the funds are released, usually within a day.

Your thread heading is therefore incorrect because you were never charged £134.

Ok not charged - thankfully - but I think having £134 locked for using a service is mental.

 

[farmergiles]

Yup Ionity pre-authorise £67 for each charge and they will hold onto it for a week before they charge you the correct amount so that's £124 of your own money you won't have access to for a week. One more reason to make them the charge point of last resort.

They don't hold onto it, it never leaves your account so it's there to guarantee payment.
It's just frozen in your account until the actual amount owed is taken.

 

[farmergiles]

Ok not charged - thankfully - but I think having £134 locked for using a service is mental.

Yes, it's not a perfect system and I have had to wait a few days before I can access my own money.
I'm guessing that the amount has been determined to cover the largest possible charge any EV could take.

 

[Electrohead]

They don't hold onto it, it never leaves your account so it's there to guarantee payment.
It's just frozen in your account until the actual amount owed is taken.

Which takes them a week if my last experience of Ionity charging is anything to go by. Like I said they prevent you using a significant amount of your own money for 1 week! Its absolutely ridiculous. Ok Instavolt also pre-authorize but its only £10 and they charge you the proper amount within 5 days.

 

[farmergiles]

Which takes them a week if my last experience of Ionity charging is anything to go by. Like I said they prevent you using a significant amount of your own money for 1 week! Its absolutely ridiculous. Ok Instavolt also pre-authorize but its only £10 and they charge you the proper amount within 5 days.

I'd have a word with your bank or credit card company because it should not take 1 week for them (the bank or CC) to release the funds. Ionity cannot block the release unless they were very slow in actually taking the payment, which should happen as soon as the charge has finished.

 

[Electrohead]

I'd have a word with your bank or credit card company because it should not take 1 week for them (the bank or CC) to release the funds. Ionity cannot block the release unless they were very slow in actually taking the payment,

I bank with a major high street and online banking group and have never had any problems like this with any other vendor. Probably doesn't help that the Ionity subsidiary that takes the payment is situated in Germany

 

[Mtcm]

This is industry standard for taking payments when the value isn’t certain at the point of transaction, the maximum cost is pre-authorised to ensure you have the funds. Ecotricity did the same (can’t remember the value but I remember I “lost” £200 for a few days after a few failed charges), Sainsbury’s reserve £100 at petrol pay at pump etc.

This seems to get noticed more with chargers due to making multiple transactions a day so there’s potential to block a reasonable amount of funds.

 

[Hitstirrer]

This is why I never use a debit card for such transactions. It can seriously screw up your domestic accounts if things like direct debits are unpaid due to a few days lack of available funds. And incur bank fees. I always use a credit card with a big margin of limit over the normal balance level and just let those pesky pre-auths run off without even noticing.

 

[Duncan]

Known issue with Ionity. Not only is expensive but they’re pre-authorisation is large. I think using RFID cards on roaming solves it (octopus electric juice for example?)

Chargepoint is another one that will let you use Ionity. Not only do you not have to risk the preauth but they also only charge an arm or a leg instead of both (by which I mean its about 10p cheaper per kWh).

 

[Aragorn]

There was a big shitstorm in the news a few years ago when a few of the big supermarkets changed to preauthing the full £99 on pay at pump petrol stations. Many stories of skint folks having put a fiver or tenner in their car, and then been unable to buy the weekly shop because the bank had held the full £99.

They quickly walked it back after the bad press. I believe since then they've worked with the payment processors to have a much faster reconciliation process, so the transaction clears down immediately after you finish filling up, rather than sitting there for days and days.

Clearly if that is possible with fuel pumps, they should be able to do the same thing with a chargepoint.

 

[MrMoonUK]

There was a big shitstorm in the news a few years ago when a few of the big supermarkets changed to preauthing the full £99 on pay at pump petrol stations. Many stories of skint folks having put a fiver or tenner in their car, and then been unable to buy the weekly shop because the bank had held the full £99.

They quickly walked it back after the bad press. I believe since then they've worked with the payment processors to have a much faster reconciliation process, so the transaction clears down immediately after you finish filling up, rather than sitting there for days and days.

Clearly if that is possible with fuel pumps, they should be able to do the same thing with a chargepoint.

New visa/MasterCard rules mean they must pre-auth £99 now

also just use a credit card, hardly an issue then

 

[WonkoTheSaneUK]

Using Ionity with an Octopus Electric Juice card not only omits the pre-auth fee, it also gives a 5% discount.

 

[b789pilot]

There was a big shitstorm in the news a few years ago when a few of the big supermarkets changed to preauthing the full £99 on pay at pump petrol stations. Many stories of skint folks having put a fiver or tenner in their car, and then been unable to buy the weekly shop because the bank had held the full £99.

Looks like they are trialling the £99 pre-auth again...

Drivers left fuming at £100 ‘pay at pump’ charge at Sainsbury's & Tesco stations

DRIVERS have been left fuming after having £99 withheld from their account when paying for fuel using pay at the pump. The system is called a “pre-authorisation check” and is aimed at s…

www.thesun.co.uk