Tesco has issued a statement on the future of fuel filling after it emerged that motorists will soon be charged a £99 deposit at petrol stations across the UK.
The retail giant has announced plans to replace its £1 pre-authorisation deposit charge at its Pay at Pump facilities to a £99 charge instead.
According to TeesideLive, the changes – which are currently being piloted at several stores across the UK – have been made because the rules have been changed by card companies including Mastercard, Visa, and American Express.
If the trial is successful, it is understood the changes will be rolled out across the UK later this year – not just at Tesco.
The announcement of the plans has seen the supermarket chain inundated with angry messages from customers who had discovered the new deposit system when refuelling their vehicles, and social media has been full of users alerting others to the changes over the past couple of days.
The £1 pre-authorisation deposit charge at Pay at Pump facilities will increase to £99 / Credit: Wikimedia Commons
Now, Tesco has had its say.
ADVERTISEMENT
“Under these changes, the customer’s bank will pre-authorise £99, with the unused amount released back to their account within the hour,” a Tesco spokesperson confirmed.
“All supermarkets are making these changes following amendments to the rules by Visa and Mastercard [and] we’re definitely not taking a deposit.
“An amount up to £99 is ringfenced in the customers’ account, with the unused sum released immediately.”
ADVERTISEMENT
Here’s everything you need to know.
___
What are the changes and why are they being made?
A Tesco spokesperson confirmed: “Under new rules implemented by Mastercard, Visa and American Express, we must now request authorisation from your card issuer for up to £99.
“Once you’ve finished filling up, the final transaction amount is sent to your card issuer, and the remainder of any unused funds up to the maximum filling amount will be released back to your available balance [so] we’ll only ever charge you for the value of the fuel you’ve actually purchased.”
Tesco also confirmed that the rules have been changed to help cardholders keep control of their budgets in real time.
ADVERTISEMENT
Will my statement show a £99 transaction? But what if I don’t have £99 in my account?
Tesco says it will only ever charge drivers for the value of the fuel they have purchased.
The supermarket added that if your account balance is under £99, your card issuer should respond with the lower amount they’ll allow and the fuel pump screen will show the value you can fill up to. However, some card issuers might not allow partial authorisations below £99 and the advice then is to try another card.
You are also advised to talk to your bank if they have concerns over the changes.
The changes will affect motorists with Mastercard, Visa and American Express cards / Credit: Tesco (Twitter – @neskatxa)
What about other supermarkets and Pay at the Pump facilities?
The changes will be brought in to cover all pay at the pump petrol stations as they are being driven by card companies.
According to the Mastercard website: “The way you pay for your fuel at an automated fuel pump in the UK is changing.
ADVERTISEMENT
“Your card issuer/bank will temporarily reserve up to £99 of your available balance while you fill up [and] then when you have completed fuelling, you’ll be charged for the correct amount of fuel you have used and the remainder of any reserved funds will be released back to your available balance.”
Featured Image – Freepik
UK News
‘The average cost of a pint’ in the UK by region, according to the latest data
Danny Jones
Does it feel like pints keep getting more and more expensive almost every week at this point? Yes. Yes, it does, and while you can’t expect a city as big as Manchester to be one of the cheapest places to get one in the UK, we do often wonder how it compares to other parts of the country.
Well, as it happens, someone has recently crunched the numbers for us across the nation, breaking down which regions pay the most and the least for their pints.
The data has been examined by business management consultancy firm, CGA Strategy, using artificial intelligence and information from the latest Retail Price Index figures to find out what the ‘average cost of a pint’ is down south, up North and everywhere in between.
While the latest statistics provided by the group aren’t granular enough to educate us on Greater Manchester’s pint game exactly, we can show you how our particular geographic region is looking on the leaderboard at the moment.
That’s right, we Mancunians and the rest of the North West are technically joint mid-table when it comes to the lowest average cost of a pint, sharing the places from 3rd to 8th – according to CGA, anyway.
Powered by consumer intelligence company, NIQ (NielsenIQ) – who also use AI and the latest technology to deliver their insights – we can accept it might seem like it’s been a while since you’ve paid that little for a pint, especially in the city centre, but these are the stats they have published.
Don’t shoot the messenger, as they say; unless, of course, they’re trying to rob you blind for a bev. Fortunately, we’ve turned bargain hunting at Manchester bars into a sport at this point.
We might not boast the lowest ‘average’ pint cost in the UK, but we still have some bloody good places to keep drinking affordable.
London tops the charts (pretends to be shocked)
While some of you may have scratched your eyes at the supposed average pint prices here in the North West, it won’t surprise any of you to see that London leads the way when it came to the most expensive pint when it came to average cost in the UK.
To be honest, £5.44 doesn’t just sound cheap but virtually unheard of these days.
CGA has it that the average cost of a beer in the British capital is actually down 15p from its price last September, but as we all know, paying upwards of £7 for a pint down that end of the country is pretty much par for the course the closer you get to London.
Yet more reason you can be glad you live around here, eh? And in case you thought you were leaving this article with very little, think again…
Tesco are introducing ‘VAR-style’ self-checkouts in the UK
Danny Jones
Many people think VAR has already gone too far and want it gone from football full stop, and we’re here to tell you that you’re a fool; your hopes are in vain, and the technology is only going to become more common as time goes on. Sorry.
So much so, in fact, that Tesco look are bringing in their own virtual referee into self-checkout systems in shops. You could say the ‘game’s gone…’
Of course, we’re being a bit flippant here, but if you have seen ‘VAR’ and ‘Tesco‘, you’re not seeing things: this is genuinely a thing that is being rolled out here in the UK, with video footage of the supermarket chain’s next self-checkout technology going viral online.
Thought you’d got away with sneaking an extra little something in the bag without paying? Think again.
— UB1UB2 West London (Southall) (@UB1UB2) May 28, 2025
We’ll admit, this was the first time we’d come across the technology, but as it turns out, the updated self-checkout service has been in place for a while.
Similar VAR checkouts have already been installed at other retailers, Sainsbury’s and ASDA, although some reports claim that while stores capture footage of shoppers to check if they’ve scanned all of their items, it is thought that not all of these self-service tills show a playback when an error is detected.
Although this particular speculation has sparked some uproar and debate online, many have quite rightly pointed out that CCTV records your movement in any given shop.
Regardless, it’s fair to say that aside from the obvious memes and people poking fun at the new system, many on social media have shared some pretty strong opinions on the matter.
Not that it matters much – it’s likely this will soon become increasingly the norm, with the likes of Sainsbury’s having already introduced barriers which require customers to scan their receipt in order to leave at branches such as the site on Regent Road Retail Park over in Salford.
As yet, it’s unclear how many of these new self-service tills are in operation and whether they are limited to larger supermarket locations of their Express convenience stores, but don’t be surprised if you come across one.
Put simply, if a barcode isn’t registered before being put on the scale and/or set aside to be packed away, the Tesco till will read: “The last item wasn’t scanned properly. Remove from bagging area and try again.”
Addressing these new VAR-style checkouts in an official statement, a company spokesperson said: “We are always looking at technology to make life easier for our customers.
“We have recently installed a new system at some stores which helps customers using self-service checkouts identify if an item has not been scanned properly, making the checkout process quicker and easier.”
What do you make of the new Tesco and their new VAR self-checkout technology?
Emily Sergeant -
1st July 2021 
