When you pay for public charging with a contactless card, you may notice that your bank holds more money than your charging session actually cost. This hold - called a pre-authorisation - should be released quickly once your session ends, but some drivers report waiting several days to get their money back.

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This page explains why this happens, where the delay sits in the payment system, and what's being done to fix it.

 

What drivers experience

When you start a charging session using contactless payment:

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1. The charge point operator requests a hold on your card, typically £25-£50

2. You charge your vehicle

3. Your charging session ends

4. The charge point operator sends a message to your bank to release the difference 

5. The hold is removed from your account so that you only pay the difference

 

During this time, you may see both the final charge and the original hold on your account, leaving you temporarily out of pocket. In some cases, drivers report waiting 1-2 weeks for their money to be returned. This is a key source of frustration for drivers.

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Why pre-authorisation is used

Pre-authorisation is the same system used whenever you use your card for something for which the final cost is yet to be determined, such as hotel room charges, a bar tab or fuel.

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The same applies to EV charging - the charge point operator doesn't know how long you'll charge for or how much energy your vehicle will take, so it requests a pre-authorisation hold to ensure you can pay for what you use and to protect against fraud.

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Every major charging network in the UK uses pre-authorisation for contactless payments.

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Where the delay happens

When your session ends, the charge point operator calculates what you owe and sends this information through the card schemes (Visa, Mastercard or American Express) to your bank. Your bank receives this message, which tells it exactly how much to charge you and how much of the hold to release.

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Charge point operators usually request the release of excess funds soon after your session ends - often instantly. The delay in returning your pre-authorisation hold happens after that, within the banking system.

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According to card scheme rules, your bank should release the excess hold promptly. But in practice, drivers find that banks often take 3-5 days to release the hold, with some taking up to two weeks.

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Why banks aren't releasing funds quickly

Banks process different types of transactions differently. Electric vehicle charging has had its own identification code – called a Merchant Category Code (MCC) - in the payment system since 2019, which should help banks to identify and handle these transactions correctly and facilitate rapid returns of pre-authorisation holds.

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The problem is that many banks haven't updated their systems to process EV charging transactions properly. They receive the release message from the charge point operator but do not action it promptly. This is a technical configuration issue that banks need to fix within their systems.

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What's being done about it

ChargeUK is working with the banks, card schemes, government and consumer groups to address this issue. 

All parties recognise that drivers should not be left out of pocket for days after a charging session, and we are working together to ensure the payment system works properly for EV charging. 

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We are pushing banks to ensure that holds are returned promptly, so that EV drivers enjoy a similarly seamless payment experience as when paying for other goods and services.

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What you can do

If you're experiencing long delays in receiving the return of your pre-authorisation hold, you have options.

Contact your bank

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Your bank is responsible for releasing the hold once they receive the final transaction amount from the charge point operator. This should happen very soon after your session ends.

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Card scheme and payment rules require banks to release pre-authorisation holds promptly once they know the final amount. When you contact your bank, you can ask:

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• When they received the final transaction amount from the charge point operator

• Why the pre-authorisation is still showing on your account several days later

• What their process is for releasing pre-authorisation holds, and whether they're following card scheme requirements

• Whether they have properly configured their systems to handle EV charging transactions

 

Contact the charge point operator if needed

While the operator cannot speed up your bank's release of the hold, they may be able to confirm when they sent the release message. This can be useful evidence if you need to demonstrate to your bank that the delay is on their side, not the operator's.

 

More information

If you're a charge point operator looking for more detailed information about this issue, please contact ChargeUK at hello@chargeuk.org

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