What is pre-authorisation?

When you start a charging session at any of our charge points, we’ll place a temporary £25 reservation  on your chosen payment card, regardless of whether you are paying with Apple Pay, Google Pay or a saved payment card. This quick pre-authorisation ensures that there are sufficient funds available for you to pay for your charging session and helps us keep charging secure and ready when you are. This approach is common across many EV charging networks and helps maintain reliability for all users. If there is not £25 available on your chosen payment card then the charging session will not start and no payment hold will be made. 

This isn’t a charge — it’s simply a temporary check that confirms your available funds and asks your bank to reserve the £25 for your charging session. You may see it show in your bank account as a pending transaction. Once your session finishes, you’ll only be billed for the actual energy you used, and any unused portion of the £25 hold will be automatically released by us. We will tell your bank the actual cost of your charging session immediately however they may take a few days to process the released amount. This process can take between 3-10 working days depending on who you bank with. Please note that we are working with Charge UK (alongside other Charge Point Operators) who are engaging with banks and payment providers to hopefully increase the speed of this process. Please read more here: Charge UK pre-authorisation guidance.

You will receive a receipt from us after your charging session showing the amount you have paid for your charge. If you require a VAT receipt, these can be acquired through your Char.gy account within the History section. If you have paid as a guest and require a VAT receipt, please email our team on support@char.gy letting us know the email address used for the session, the charging session you require a receipt for (charge point ID and date/time of charge) and your billing address.
 

Please also note that:

• Once a session has reached £25 in power supplied, we will request a second pre-authorisation of £25 to ensure funds are available to continue charging. If this second pre-authorisation cannot be completed, our system will stop the charging session automatically.
• If a charging session cannot start successfully due to a potential network or vehicle issue, and it is confirmed that no energy was transferred, then we will continue to reserve the pre-authorisation for one hour to allow you to attempt to start another charging session (either on the same charge point or a different one) without needing to pre-authorise another £25. After one hour, if no successful charging session has started, then we will automatically instruct the immediate release of the pre-authorisation hold. As above, this can then take up to 3-10 working days to be back on your payment card depending on your bank.
  • If you are completing payment via Apple Pay/Google Pay, then a new pre-authorisation will be processed for each session attempt. If you are encountering an issue in starting a session via Apple/Google Pay, please contact our 24/7 support team on 0800 086 9606 snd select Option 1

If you still require support with this or any payment queries then please contact us by emailing support@char.gy or calling us on 0800 086 9606 (Option 2).