There’s a real simple fix to these gas station problems.
Use cash.
I do not trust gas station pump card readers. Especially the ones around here. Lots of skimmer thieves.
If I do, in a pinch, I use debit not credit.
To the OP, that is really strange. Get a new card. Just to be safe.
I just filled up my car (British Columbia). I pushed one button: I held my credit card in front of the tap reader, pushed the “87” octane button, and filled the car. As soon as I tap, it puts a hold on $250.
My credit card now lists the following pending transactions:
|Mar 23, 2024|MOBIL|$122.60|
|Mar 23, 2024|MOBIL|$250.00|
In a couple of days, the lower amount will post, and the larger amount will disappear.
Yeah, that’s pretty much how it works in every US gas station I’ve used. So how come some Canadians upthread are talking about selecting a preauthorization amount? Are there some Canadian gas stations that require it and some that don’t? Does it vary between provinces?
Probably. Fairly recently, the tap limit was $100, and that wasn’t always quite enough to fill a tank. But as of now it’s really very easy.
I also haven’t had to put my ZIP code in for a while in the US, but I’m only ever filling up just over the border, and they probably have enough Canadian customers that it’s worth their while to opt out of that security feature.
I feel I should point out that using a debit card is worse. A credit card offers much better protection against fraud. If someone skims your debit card and cleans out your account it can be tough trying to get your money back.
Yeah. But I don’t keep all that much in that account.
I move money if there’s incidentals may be needed. Or gas out of town.
Or the often repeated need of Son-of-a-wrek. He needs his limits. Set and supervised. (Seeing it’s my money) His personal boundaries are invisible. So I put up the orange cones.
I used to buy gas cards in Walmart for one purchase at a time. I don’t think they even do that anymore.
I’m not putting my AMEX card in a gas pump.
Do they even accept them?
Tap-to-pay card readers are much less vulnerable to skimming than anything you physically insert a card into, although not completely safe. I always tap if possible, especially at a gas station or other unmonitored reader.
I guess it kinda makes sense, then, as long as you’re sure no other accounts are linked to that debit card. Personally, I stopped using debit for purchases a long time ago. As for cash, I barely remember what it looks like any more! 
Probably not. Amex gets less widespread acceptance than VISA or MC because I believe their merchant fees are higher, but they’re big in the travel and restaurant industries, and more posh stores generally take them. But I know how you feel. I have a premium VISA card with a high credit limit that I only use for relatively large in-person transactions. Also an ordinary everyday VISA that I use for other things and for internet purchases. That card has had to be replaced twice because of fraudulent transactions (not big amounts, but still, not mine). The premium card that I’m careful with has never had any fraudulent transactions in at least two decades. Coincidence? Maybe, maybe not.
Yep, I’m quite familiar with Montreal drivers. They have a unique perspective on traffic laws equaled only by Florida drivers – Dave Barry wrote about one who leaned on her horn in anger because he had the audacity to be walking across the street at a marked crosswalk and thus getting in her way.
If Montreal drivers were allowed to turn right on a red, that would be the end of traffic lights having any meaning at all!
True. I’ve driven in Montreal; I hope that I never have to again. It’s the only city I’ve ever driven in that has “Wait for the green light!” signs at intersections. In French, of course, but still. That tells you all you need to know about Montreal drivers.
My ex and I took a road trip from Toronto to the Canadian Maritimes years ago. She was excited about Montreal. “Can we stop? Can we see some of Montreal?” I, who did all the driving, replied that No, we were not going to stop in Montreal; we were going to take the A40 expressway through it. I just wanted to get around and away from it as soon as possible. Traffic inside Montreal is something else, as I learned from experience, and I wanted no part of it.
I’ve driven in NYC, and LA, and Seattle, and Orlando, and Perth Australia, and Vancouver, and Halifax, and Calgary, and Edmonton, and even St. John’s Newfoundland, which has such a wonky intersection that if you can navigate it, you get your Newfie Driver’s License. (I managed to navigate it.) But I’d drive in any of the above before I drive in Montreal again.
Another city famous for terrible drivers is Boston, which I flew into often for work. I remember driving a rental car out of Logan airport one day and coming to a lane merge in the expressway. Would anybody let me in? No. No one.
This is where my experience driving in Montreal turned out to be useful. The way I finally merged was by pointing the car into the lane and proceeding like some maniac who couldn’t see there was another car there; the driver in nearest proximity had to choose: let me in, or drive into me, or be driven into. There was no other way. I could have been there all day.
Boston: If you pedestrians don’t like my driving then why are you on the sidewalk getting in my way?
Agreed. Although I have been very surprised at the slow uptake of tap-enabled card readers at gas pumps around here (So FL). It’s maybe 10% of pumps, and doesn’t seem to be increasing. None of my usual stations have them. When I’m farther afield and need gas it’s a pleasant surprise to see a tap reader.
So I have a dedicated sacrificial credit card just for buying gasoline. It’s a gas-branded card so I get 15 cents off per gallon. Every time I stick it in that grimy slot at the pump I think about whether maybe somebody could invent a condom for credit cards.
I wonder if there’s a chicken and egg thing going on where a lot of gasoline is bought with affiliated gas-branded Visa & MC, but most of those cards in circulation aren’t tap-enabled. And of course the gasoline companies know this. So they’re in no rush to install tap readers that might encourage the customers to use a card other than their affiliated card. And since they also know they have few tap readers deployed in their affiliated stations, they also know there’s not much upside to handing out tap-enabled cards. Yet. So the stasis continues. Maybe.
I hadn’t thought about it, but almost everything I pay for is tap and go - except fuel. I mostly use a supermarket filling station and even though they recently replaced their pumps, I still have to put my car in a slot at the pump. If I go into the shop and pay, T&G is fine, but not at the pump.
You are a much stronger man than I. I can’t lift the damn thing anywhere near as high up as the slot, much less cram it in there. 
But seriously, even here in the decidedly backwards USA, tap-to-pay is almost universal for retail, including restaurants where you pay a cashier. And increasingly common where the waitstaff brings the card reader to your table.
But not gas stations. They are truly the last holdout of must-insert-card.
The gas stations at Costco now have tap-to-pay. It was added to their pumps a few years ago.
Walmart lacks it; it’s not just little stores.
We first got a WalMart 30 years ago and they didn’t have debit card readers at first, only chunck-chunck credit card slip machines. We didn’t know that until the first time we went shopping there.
We had a dedicated grocery bank account; didn’t buy groceries on credit. Always paid for our groceries on the debit card.
Arrived at the checkout counter, clerk ran it all through, and then when we asked for the debit reader, they said they didn’t have one.
“Cash, credit, or a cheque, please”.
We didn’t have cash in that amount, or a cheque book, on us.
I said, “Well, I guess you’ll have to re-stock all that, since you don’t have debit card readers. We’ll go shopping at the Safeway.”
I couldn’t believe that this huge US retail outfit didn’t have debit card readers.
Around here, they’ve had tap readers for years, but for years after the pumps had them, they didn’t work. Similar at the station where I usually fill up my motorcycle. They’ve had tap readers for a long time, and I don’t remember if they worked last time I filled up the bike.
I get gas so rarely that I never remember if they work, and then I stand there waiting to see if the tap is going to work. I was also pretty confused when slot switched from magstripe reader to chip reader, as it is a very different interaction: insert and remove quickly versus insert and leave for a few seconds.
Around here, the pumps have internal tap readers. The only way you can tell is that you have to leave the card in until the pump authorizes and tells you to take the card back out. If the pump is using the magnetic strips on cards, you put it in the slot and quickly pull it out, and then the pump thinks for awhile and authorizes.
That’s probably not a tap reader. That’s a chip reader. Those are not the same things.
The “chip” is the fingernail-sized metallic square with rounded corners that’s segmented into a bunch of smaller sections. That’s this is actually a 12-circuit electrical contact while the true electronic chip is a teeny little gizmo buried in the bowels of the card nearby but wired to that connector. Which looks roughly like, there being several versions:
The tap device is invisible inside the card and its antenna covers a lot of the interior of the card. You can tell if your card is tappable by the presence of the EMV contactless payment logo that looks about like this, with or without the circle:
Nowadays most US cards issued in the last 3 or 4 years are tap, chip, and magstripe capable. Lots more gas pumps take chip than take tap. If you’re not seeing the contactless payment logo someplace on the pump where you can place the card more or less flat against it, that’s not a tap system.