Pay-at-pump + Amex - says it's accepted but never is?

[growse]

I'm wondering if anyone else has had this experience:

Over the last few weeks, I've tried to buy petrol from a pay-at-pump station using an Amex card. Despite trying all combinations of 3 different Amex cards at Tesco, Esso and Asda, no amex card has ever been accepted by the pump, despite the pump clearly advertising that it accepts amex. The message usually is something along the lines of "card not accepted". My Visa debit then works fine.

Does anyone know what's going on here? It can't be a specific card that's broken, and it also can't be just a specific chain. It's also never been a problem when paying in the kiosk, so there's something funny going on when it comes to Amex chip+pin cards and pay at pump petrol stations.

 

[M0T]

I have bought petrol using my Amex card at Tesco Pay@Pumps several times.

 

[Rotty]

works fine for me at Asda, Tesco and several Shell places

 

[POB]

My RBS Visa debit card won't work at Tesco, But a Nationwide one no problems.

 

[MrMoonX]

yeah my Co-op Visa doesnt work at tesco but is fine at shell ???? my natwest visa has been fine its weird but I dont care I will just go in and pay!

 

[R4z0r]

Yes, I get this too. It's especially annoying considering the pump usually says something along the lines of "Tesco welcomes AMEX"...

 

[Jonny69]

yeah my Co-op Visa doesnt work at tesco but is fine at shell ????

Lol, probably the same reason my Motorola doesn't have the word 'Nokia' in its predictive text

 

[growse]

I might just shout at amex and see what they say. At the end is the day, its their cards thdt aren't working.

 

[Destination]

My RBS Visa debit card won't work at Tesco, But a Nationwide one no problems.

Aye my Ulster Bank (divison of RBS) Visa debit won't work at the pay at pump as my locla tescos yet it works perfectly well inside the shop.

 

[Morgoth]

I use my AMEX all the time for diesel, the only time I've had trouble with it is the local cinema. Robbed of my airmiles there so I was.

 

[The_Abyss]

At the pre-pay pumps, my Amex works everywhere other than Shell - simply refuses. However the other day I did notice that at Tesco my Amex pump limit had increased to £109 - it used to be £99.

 

[meghatronic]

My Amex never used to work in certain 'brand' chip and pin readers. I rang them and they sent me a new card. Could be dodgy chips?

What does **** me off is when people don't take Amex the tight fisted ****. The AA for one.

 

[PieMaster]

Amex transactions require realtime auth against Amex's transaction system; Visa and the others can be batched for processing later in the day. The line may have been congested/down from the location you tried to use it.

 

[The_Abyss]

What does **** me off is when people don't take Amex the tight fisted ****. The AA for one.

Exactly. Although from a retailer's perspective I can see why - they're 3 times as expensive as Mastercard or Visa.

 

[burns]

I used to do third line support for the company that manufactures ASDA's pay at the pump machines. There certainly was an issue with AMEX cards but I can't remember what it was. I'm pretty sure there was an old type of card which didn't work and were gradually being phased out as customers card expired. It would probably be worth asking AMEX to send you a new card, chances are you would find the new one would work.

If you were really bothered you could go to ASDA and pester someone until they phoned HTEC who would be able to tell them why the card was turned down.

 

[Amleto]

my 'amex' duo card from lloyds does work, but the amex that i signed up for online doesn't

 

[growse]

I used to do third line support for the company that manufactures ASDA's pay at the pump machines. There certainly was an issue with AMEX cards but I can't remember what it was. I'm pretty sure there was an old type of card which didn't work and were gradually being phased out as customers card expired. It would probably be worth asking AMEX to send you a new card, chances are you would find the new one would work.

If you were really bothered you could go to ASDA and pester someone until they phoned HTEC who would be able to tell them why the card was turned down.

Interesting stuff - All the cards are older than 6 months, is it worth getting new ones?

 

[The_Abyss]

My latest AMEX was issued in April. Still the same issues.

 

[meghatronic]

Exactly. Although from a retailer's perspective I can see why - they're 3 times as expensive as Mastercard or Visa.

I don't give a ****, frankly. 99% of the time if it's a big company that doesn't take Amex I won't shop their again.

 

[Destination]

I have the opposite opinion to you on this.
If a retailer doesn't wish to allow their costomers to use specific cards, thats their concern, sure they will lose some sales from it, but often margins are so small at the moment, that it is hard to justify the CC provider getting more profit from a transaction that the retailer actually gets.