Blink Charging UK & EU 4+

Good when it works…

Have been using the app for the last 4 years but was faced with a problem today because it requested I register my details - as if I were using the app for the first time?! Needless to say when I tried to ‘register’ I was presented with an error message! I had in fact been logged out of the app (I guess following the 27th May software update) but was not presented with the option to log back in.

Really awkward and janky app

I’m trying to stick to reviewing the app here rather than the Blink charging network itself (which is generally fine if overpriced) — this app is another terrible example of someone reinventing a bunch of iOS functionality with their own much less well designed alternatives. Want to quickly login or signup with your Apple ID? Nope. Pay quickly via Apple Pay? Nope, get your card out because you’ve got to go through a poorly designed payment verification process (which doesn’t handle 2FA or SCA well at all).
Did you sign up with the wrong country? Inexplicably you’ll have to delete your account and start again to change that.
Then when it comes to finding the right charger to start your charge, you’ll have to enter a convoluted charger ID — because finding one individual charger via the map in a bank of 10 or so is made far more difficult because the charger IDs aren’t displayed! Nor are the chargers even shown in number order. So either type in the long ID or try every single charger until you find yours (and then in my case you’ll find that the charger ID in the app didn’t match the physical charger anyway)

You’ll use this app because you need to charge at their chargers, but you’ll absolutely hate it. There’s no need for it to be this bad, especially considering the amount of money they take for a charge.

Developer Response ,

Hello! We apologize for any troubles you've had and thank you for your patience. Please email customer service at support@blinkcharging.com letting us know about your experience with our app, and we will be more than happy to assist you.

Dreadful!!!!

This app is so much worse to use than the old one just taken me over 40 mins to even get my car charge to start after having tried multiple chargers throughout the day and even now it’s only working on a slow charge so it’s basically useless. It’s also very secretive about what the “holding payment” is so I guess it’s £50 which was the max before. No option anymore to charge for a set amount of time or monetary value you want to spend. They then freeze the held payment money in your acc for days before it’s released, which would be bad enough if it worked first time but I’ve just had to try to set it going 5 times. Literally the worst update I have ever had the misfortune to need to use. All the chargers near me use Blink so I guess I’m stuck with this until I sell the car. Back to petrol for me, electric is a nightmare.

Developer Response ,

Hello, we’re sorry for the frustration you’ve experienced. For assistance with app issues, please reach out to our support team at support.uk@blinkcharging.com.