After refueling in Zwijndrecht, Flanders, Tom went to the supermarket to do some shopping. But once at the checkout, he had the very bad surprise of the “insufficient balance”. “While I knew that there were still more than 300 euros on the account”, he explains to our colleagues from HLN.
“It’s the end of the month and there were some big bills. I may not be the only one who has to be careful with finances. That’s why I had deliberately put gasoline for 20 euros only, ”he adds.
Tom then immediately returned to the gas station where he had gotten the gas, and he found other victims there. In the meantime, we explained to Tom that it was common for a certain amount to be blocked in our account when filling up at the pump. “It’s actually a guarantee of payment,” says Caroline Baeke, from AVIA, the company where Tom put his gasoline. “We communicate this to customers with a sticker on the payment terminal, but we understand that not everyone reads this information. This amount can vary from 115 to 375 euros,” explains Caroline Baeke.
Here, in Tom’s case, it’s an unfortunate delay in the whole data processing. “This is due to Atos Worldline, formerly Banksys, the bank itself. We experience this several times a year,” she adds. Many Crelan Bank customers also got the wrong joke at the pump.
But if this were to happen to you, don’t panic: the reserved amount will always be released, no matter what. It can take a few days, sometimes even a week. Tom was unaware of this and intends to ask his bank for an explanation. A day later, the balance of his bank account is still at 0. “I am a customer of bpost bank and I will now ask to speed up the release of this money. Maybe this mechanism should be reconsidered because people can really get in trouble this way. Especially in these times of inflation where costs are high,” laments Tom.