This is just a word of warning to people who may use an English debit card at the Intermarché fuel pumps at Chalus, dept 87. I was travelling North on Friday 22nd and stopped to fill up with fuel, but my debit card was refused. I tried a second time and it was again refused. Having arrived back in England I went to my bank to find out what the problem was. My account showed an available balance of £0, and a pending transaction to Intermarché Chalus of £258.47. Also on the statement was a previous amount deducted but repaid immediately, for £261, also to Chalus Intermarché. The point is, I didn't actually get ANY fuel as my card was refused. My bank says the first amount was more than I had in the account (fortunately I only use it for travelling, so don't keep a lot in it, just in case something like this happens), and so the transaction was reversed. The second time it was for the exact amount in my account and I have to wait till Saturday to see if it is reimbursed. I have spoken to Visa, my bank and Intermarché, all of whom say wait and see what happens. Interestingly Intermarché said yes, this happens with foreign cards!!

The above was on a local forum, Bryn

I don't understand how inter can say such a thing. They must have better explanation than that! Who did you speak to?

This has been on the local forum, below is a possible explanation, but I have heard of it happening with UK cards

This will only happen if you pay with a Visa DEBIT.
Most of the card in England are.
If you happen to have a credit card that won't be the same.
We don't have visa debit in France.

So obviously we can blame Brexit

I have had this happen twice when buying fuel at supermarket pumps in France, in both cases the pump dispensed the fuel but my debit card account was debited by a larger amount. When I queried this at the customer services desk I was told it was normal and the balance would be refunded automatically, in one case it was the same day the other took a week.

My mobile was set up to send me a text alert on any transaction so I knew the debit was taken before I put in any fuel.

Are we saying then that this can be avoided by not using a Visa Debit card? Is it a simple as using a credit card instead?

I think, as a general rule, credit card refusal is a thing of the past, the French having finally moved on from their insistance of a 'Carte Blue' being the only piece of plastic they seemed to trust...

I believe this is quite normal.
The card is checked and agreed before you fill, they simply grab a large amount to cover you filling a huge fuel tank!
In the UK many pumps state ' fill with up to £99 of fuel' I am pretty sure that they too have debited your card for £99 and they then adjust it when they know how much fuel you took.

With a credit card its not much of a deal unless you are close to your credit limit (and most credit card companies simply increase your limit if you are spending lots- they are more interested in some eventual interest payments!!)

Car hire companies and hotels also debit large sums to cover eventual costs.

What is worth considering is the use of pre-payment cards that you have credited with sum of currency, the funds could be used pretty quickly if you hire a car and book a hotel before filling your tank.