Yinson GreenTech (YGT) has imposed a pre-authorisation hold for EV charging payments made through the ChargEV mobile app. This move has already been on the cards for quite some time as we have seen similar implementation back in September although YGT said it was just a test at that time.
The new pre-authorisation amount is lower than before
We first learned of the implementation from a BYD Atto 3 owner, Syed Amin who noticed that RM100 was credited immediately from his debit card once his charging session started. We then visited ChargEV’s support site to obtain further details and noticed that a new topic had been added to the site’s Billing and Payments section called Pre-Authorization Holds in-App.
The section generally explained the reason behind the implementation of the pre-authorisation hold which includes fraud prevention and minimising the risk of disputes. The site also confirmed that the pre-authorisation hold has indeed been set at RM100 which is much lower than what was listed in September and ChargEV’s card terminals.
However, the pre-authorisation amount for chargers in Singapore is still the same at SGD50 (~RM167). The support site further said that a notification would be sent to users when the estimated charging fee reached 90% of the pre-authorisation hold.
As per the norm, the balance amount from the pre-authorisation hold will be released to users once their charging session is over. The site did not mention how long the refund process will take but the previous version of the FAQ that was online back in September noted that it usually takes 2 to 14 days for the process to be completed depending on the user’s bank.
Meanwhile, we also noticed that the new FAQ did not mention customisable pre-authorisation limits unlike back in September. Hence, it is unclear if YGT is still working on this particular feature.
All in all, what you are looking at here is similar to using credit and debit cards at petrol stations. Pre-authorisation hold is not yet common on EV charging apps though, since they usually require users to have a certain level of balance inside the in-app wallet before they can activate the charge or charge the card directly once the charging session is completed.
