Owners of unmanned petrol stations say they need to raise the maximum amount they can charge to cope with the rapidly rising cost of fuel.

The card-only filling stations reserve €125 from a customer’s bank account before they fill up. Once the nozzle is replaced the cost of the fuel is deducted and the difference released back into the account.

Some operators have already raised the limit to €150 after the price of Euro 95 petrol soared above €2.20 per litre at many pumps. Some motorway services are charging close to €2.50, while 13% of stations charge more than €2.00 for a litre of diesel.

Owners are already talking to card and pay terminal operators about raising the limit again to €200. ‘It’s not an open-and-shut case,’ said a spokesman for payment services industry body Betaalvereniging Nederland. ‘It depends on agreements between all participants in the PIN chain, including payment receivers and terminal suppliers.’

Petrol station operator Jan Harmen Akkerman, of TanQyou, said motorists were already noticing they were unable to fill their tank with the maximum amount. ‘You can fill up a second time, but in practice that hardly ever happens,’ he said.

Fuel services adviser Moveyou calculated that demand for fuel increased by up to 85% in the first days of the Ukraine war, as motorists filled up in anticipation of a spike in pump prices.