How does payment work for electric vehicle drivers?

This article explains how Monta handles payment when you charge your EV.

The Monta Wallet

Your Monta Wallet holds your charging balance. Monta uses it to pay for public charging sessions.

To top up your Wallet:

1. Open the Monta app.
2. Go to Wallet.
3. Select Top up.
4. Enter an amount and complete the payment.

The balance appears in your Wallet immediately.

Pre-authorisation

When you start a session at a public charge point, Monta places a temporary hold on your Wallet. This is called a pre-authorisation.

The hold is not a final charge. When the session ends, the actual cost is deducted. Any unused amount from the hold is released back to your Wallet.

Card payments: incremental authorisation

If you pay by card (including Apple Pay and Google Pay) instead of from your Monta Wallet, Monta uses incremental authorisation where your card supports it. Rather than reserving one large amount up front, Monta places a smaller initial hold and increases it gradually as your charge grows and gets close to the reserved amount.

• You may see several temporary holds on your bank statement during a longer session — this is normal.
• You are only charged once, for the energy you actually use. The holds are not separate charges.
• Temporary holds are released by your bank, usually within 1–7 business days depending on your card issuer.

This keeps less of your available balance tied up while you charge.

When incremental authorisation applies

It is used when all of the following are true:

• You pay by card, Apple Pay, or Google Pay (not from your Monta Wallet balance).
• Your card and bank support incremental authorisation.
• You start the charge with the app, App Clip, web payment, an RFID charge key, or Autocharge.
• The charge point has the feature enabled — it is being rolled out gradually, so it may not be active everywhere yet.

When it does not apply

In these cases a single reservation is placed for the full estimated amount, as before:

• You pay from your Monta Wallet balance or any other method that isn’t a card.
• Your card or bank doesn’t support incremental authorisation.
• The feature isn’t enabled yet for that charge point.

A couple of things to note: the first time you use a new card, a standard reservation is placed to verify the card before incremental authorisation is used on later charges. The lowered initial hold currently applies to direct card payments; Apple Pay and Google Pay still use incremental authorisation but may start from a higher amount.

Payment methods

Monta supports these payment methods:

• Monta Wallet — used for public and ad-hoc charging. Top up with a debit or credit card.
• Team payment card — if your team has a card set up, the team covers the cost of sessions on team charge points.
• Employer reimbursement — your employer can reimburse home charging costs through Monta.

Receipts

Monta emails a receipt after each session. You can also find receipts in the app:

1. Open the Monta app.
2. Go to Charging history.
3. Select a session to view or download its receipt.