So I’ve encountered something strange at the pumps here in Oregon (aside from the ridiculous pumping rule). There are stations that charge you MORE per gallon if you pay with credit or debit! I’ve been here a good six months and I just now noticed this! Makes me angry to wonder how often I’ve been gipped by this.
My question is why? It’s almost always a 76 station and it’s NEVER a small difference. Usually between 15-18 cents more a gallon. And what really irks me is they often times ‘hide’ the credit price by putting the prices where you wouldn’t even think to look (on the side of the building not facing the pumps). Or like one I saw in Portland that has them listed in a sign under the normal sign BUT at night they only light up the ‘cash’ price and there’s no way in hell you’d see the ‘credit’ prices without looking very hard. It seems highly unlikely to me that this shady business is a valid representation of the difference they pay on their credit/debit transactions. I know Visa/MC/etc charge merchants a certain amount but there’s no way they’re charging them so much that they have to charge consumers an extra 18 cents a gallon.
Does anyone have any information about this practice and why it’s so prevelant up here yet I never saw it once in California? I’m pretty sure this is a valid GQ entry but if it’s not, sorry.
Hmm, over in this part of California, it’s… not uncommon. Arco will charge you about fifty cents extra to use a debit card and won’t take credit cards at all, and one of the local stations “gives you a 2% discount” for paying cash, though they advertise the cash price and leave the 2% in the fine print. I’ve heard that it’s illegal in California to charge more for using a credit card, but not illegal to give a discount for paying cash.
18 cents is… a little more than 6%, I think, depending on how much gas is. They might be averaging it out over 3%-plus-transaction-fee.
I think the CC fee is about 1.5% to 2% if I remember correctly. Also, up here in Washington State, seems like Arco is the unique one but its the reverse, they are cheaper but it’s cash only.
Call the number on the back of the credit card and tell them. It is against their merchant agreement to charge more for using a credit card. Similarly they’re also not allowed to give a discount for using cash.
Here in Arkansas, Wat*Mart gives a 3¢ discount for using their card. (Murphy runs the gas pumps )
Not much gas cheaper for cash anymore but there used to be here and in Oklahoma.
Now we have almost all places with credit card slots at the pumps.
Few places will pump for you. ( really rare anymore )
Also a lot are going to having the pumps on 24 / 7 if you use a credit card. Handy for us late night folks who shop at 24 hour stores and live in the boonies. Our closest gas station ( 13 miles - Shamrock™ Quick Mart type place ) has the 24 hour pumps now. Country place closes about 9-10.
Doing a bit of googling, I’m getting the impression that they get away with it because they’re not charging more for credit, merely giving a discount for cash. :\ Seems sort of a 6 of one, half dozen of another, sort of scenario.
And yes GusNSpot, Oregon’s law drives me crazy. Not only can you not get gas late at night, but if it’s busy and god forbid you’re in a hurry, you have to wait till someone gets a chance to come to your car and get you started. Apparently you can’t even remove the nozzle yourself!
I’ve never seen it here in New York, nor driving in Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Vermont, Maryland, Virginia, Massachusetts, or DC. In fact, usually the stations have a sign saying “Cash or credit: same low price.”
I believe NY law requires the station to indicate the actual sale price clearly atop the pump, so you know what you’re paying, and it’s easy to check the price listed on the sign with the price listed on the pump itself.
At one point, stations charged different prices for full service as opposed to pumping you own, but I can’t recall the last time I saw a different price for credit cards.
It isn’t. I live in what passes for the middle of nowhere, even in Oregon, and we’ve got all-night gas stations. And several of the non-all-night ones are open from 5 am to 10 pm.
Put me down as another person who loves the gas laws here – we pay less for gas than neighboring states, and someone else pumps it for us. What more do you want? (Although I’ll have to take a closer look at my bill the next time I’m at a shell station – I’m not sure there’s one in town.)
Sorry, didn’t mean to imply it was a law not to pump gas at night. I meant that the places I’ve gone late at night, none of the gas stations are open since it would mean staffing extra people in order to handle pumping the gas.
And really, gas here isn’t cheaper than California, notorious for their high prices. In fact, a quick comparison of oregongasprices.com and californiagasprices.com shows that California’s cheaper than Oregon right now (by looking at the cheapest prices chart on the front page).
As for the issue of credit v. cash, this goes back a long time. When the prices first spiked in the early 80’s, some stations started offering cash discounts. For a while, that was a common practice. Then, other companies started advertising that you paid the same price, cash or credit. As prices spike, this pops back up again. I usually see it more commonly when dealing with diesel fuel prices at truck stops in some states.
The resons behind the concept is that gas station margins don’t fluctuate much with price fluctuations. Indeed, the margin on a gallon of gas may actually go down as the price goes up, in order to better compete for customers. But the price of handling the credit card transaction is a percentage of the total sale. Thus, as prices of gasoline go up, the margin gets eaten away by increased fees. So, the gas station my try to avoid this by offering a discount to cash-paying customers.
I suppose…I just have a big problem in that the cash price is always the normal ‘average’ price for the area. Like one 76 station had it for $2.56 a gallon where all the other gas stations were that or less. But then you look at the credit and it’s $2.71 a gallon and NO one else is charging even close to that much. So it does seem like they’re charging more for credit as opposed to discounting for cash.
I work in a hotel and I am reading our merchant agreement right now.
It is against your merchant agreement to charge more for credit. However it is perfectly acceptable to offer a discount for cash. What VISA MC AMEX and Discover say is the price must be given THEN the discount taken off that given price.
Also government agencies like the IRS have legally exempt themselves from this so they can charge you for using a credit card.
Merchants also cannot have a minimum transaction in order to use this.
The thing is it is virtually impossible to enforce because if you complain to Visa, Visa tells you to take it up with the bank that issued the Visa card. And the issuing banks don’t care so that is why merchants get away with it.
In that case I would still call the credit card company.
According to Visa the price must be setup in such a way that the the price you pay with a CC is the ‘normal’ price and you get a discount for using cash.
I have vague memories of gas stations here in Michigan doing this, but the practice died out when I was a kid. I’d say the mid-80’s was the last time I saw any gas station charge more for credit card purchases.