Motoring|A large cover charge can surprise the motorist.
Cover reservation: 150 euros.
From Vantaa Jukka Heikkinen he was very surprised when he got home and found that the St1 gas station had made such a large margin on his account.
“I had bought gas for 20 euros.”
Heikkinen is not the only one who has been puzzled by the large reserve amount. Among the frequently asked questions on the St1 website are: “Why has a margin reservation of €150/€50 been made on my account when refueling?“
St1’s sales and network director Juha Vanninen confirms that the payment terminals at St1 gas stations automatically make a margin reservation of 150 euros if the customer forgets to select the maximum amount of his gas purchase in advance. In local payment, the deposit is 50 euros.
The sum of 150 euros for the excess can seem large if you fill up with gas for only 20 euros.
According to Vanninen, the amount is intended to ensure that the customer can fill up the tank if they wish.
Large however, the cover charge can surprise the motorist.
If there is a lot of money in the account, a margin of 150 euros will not ruin the economy, but if the money is low, a margin of several days can be a disaster. Although the margin reservation is not a payment transaction, the money in the margin reservation cannot be used.
For example, a cover reservation made at the weekend may not be released until Wednesday in the worst case.
“If you’re a pensioner with a low income, and you have 160 euros in your account, then you have to make do with ten for several days. It doesn’t sound good for the consumer,” says Jukka Heikkinen.
of St1 Juha Vanninen agrees: “It’s unfortunate, it annoys me too.”
However, according to Vanninen, the problem is usually not in St1’s payment terminals, but in the banks’ systems.
“Unfortunately, banks’ systems don’t always work smoothly,” says Vanninen.
He adds that sometimes there may have been a problem with St1’s equipment, but most of the time the delay is caused by the banks’ systems.
Normally according to him, the customer does not notice the margin at all.
“The margin should be discharged already at the point when the transaction is done and the customer pushes the gas gun back into the device,” he says.
In some cases, however, the reservation has been left hanging on the customer’s account.
Vanninen emphasizes that the money from the margin reservation will not come into St1’s possession at any point, but it is a reservation made by the bank.
According to him, the problem does not concern a specific bank either: Delays sometimes occur in the systems of all banks.
No feedback According to Vanninen, St1 receives cover bookings relatively rarely, not even daily.
“Unfortunately, a lot of them hurt compared to the fact that they shouldn’t hurt at all.”
He is also unable to promise on behalf of the banks that the problem would go away.
“However, I can promise that no one’s money will get stuck in the margin. All reservations can be released,” says Vanninen.
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