Italy Petrol Stations Credit Card Fee

Posted by jotan71 on 08/14/24 02:11 AM

Hi All,

Wondering if anyone has had a similar situation to us when filling our rental car with petrol driving around Italy recently. The self service machines require you to put your credit card in before using the pumps ..it charges your card straight away $103 Euros, You then fill your car. Obviously our car did not require that much petrol and we only spent about $56 Euro. When wondering how to get back the remainder of the money charged to our account we spoke to the attendant. He advised us that our banks would credit our account with the remainder we did not spend. We were travelling from Australia so no idea how our Australian bank account is supposed to know to refund us the difference !
Any advice from anyone as to how we might get over AUD$300 back we got charged using these machines 3 times ??

Posted by Larry

08/14/24 02:40 AM

2841 posts

I cannot say for certain about your situation. I can say that when I credit card which I always do) at a pump a hold goes up for a larger amount than I need, likely what it would figure is a full tank. And I can see these on my account for a couple days, they drop off when the actual sale is fully posted. So, one, check your account. Two, hopefully you had printed receipts for each transaction so that if there is an issue you there is proof to show the bank what you actually purchased. Presumably your receipts show the actual transaction and not 103 euro.

Posted by jotan71 OP

08/14/24 02:51 AM

3 posts

Thanks for your info Larry. It has been 2 weeks since our trip and there is no credit showing in our account. We have receipts from only 2 of the 3 transactions . Yes the receipt does show a certain amount we spent as opposed to what was charged on our credit card...but I am not confident that our bank will refund us the extra amount based on this ?? Im curious as to why this seems to not have happended to anyone else ??

Posted by lachera

Firenze, Italy

08/14/24 06:18 AM

1635 posts

I do not know how it works with a foreign credit card; with an Italian credit cards, it first blocks about 100 euro, but as soon as you put the hose away, the correct amount is charged.

Posted by Tassie Devil

Hobart Tasmania

08/14/24 08:02 AM

397 posts

@ Jo

Just spent 5 weeks around Italy, and you are right it can be a little confusing at first.

Larry explains it well. Remember our country is in the vanguard of implementing technology. Our afterhours petrol pumps have more advanced options, safeguards, and procedures.

As Larry points out initially the €103 or whatever, is a hold to make sure there is enough credit on the card and is not maxed out and Visa or Mastercard will honour the transaction. When you have finished pumping the petrol and replace the nozzle in the bowser, you should be able to read on the screen the € amount pumped and follow instructs if any to get the receipt. There should be a union jack somewhere if you cannot read Italian.

When you log on to your bank to review your credit card transactions you should see a hold amount, which will remain until the bits and bytes of the fuel company and your credit card bank and Visa or Mastercard companies talk and sort it out. At some time before your billing cycle concludes the hold should disappear, and the correct amount should appear, assuming you followed the correct instructions at the pump. Easy if one has a basic understanding/reading of Italian. If you did not follow the instructions, then I do not know what happens.

Remember CrowdStrike made a horrendous stuff up and buggered things up. The intermediatory businesses may take some time to fix things up. Just keep logging on to your bank and checking. 3FA will require a verification code to your mobile from your bank at home as per normal. Make sure your mobile is set to receive via SMS the verification code.

Regards Ron