Comments on: Have Gas Station Owners Been Reading No Credit Needed?

By: Jeff

Jeff — Mon, 15 Jun 2009 12:28:58 +0000

Sam wrote “…And then I have change in my hand and I might end up buying a juice or coffee and the .65 I saved is no longer a savings.

Philip wrote: “… If forcing cash payments means ever a small percentage of people will buy more items inside they will come out well ahead I bet.”

No one is forced to pay cash; simply shop at a different gas station. Just as some other stores don’t accept credit cards, not all gas stations accept credit cards; just as most dry cleaners require payment in advance, some gas stations require payment in advance. Simply choose which station has the service and/or convenience you want and shop at that station. I mean I like Shell gas but I prefer to pay Freestate gas prices; for the life of me I can’t find a Freestate that sells Shell at the Freestate brand price.

As for buying coffee or juice inside the store; well, don’t. I agree you might be tempted because YOU want a coffee or a juice, but you’re making, then, the decision to buy it. Do you always buy a pack of cigarettes, a lottery ticket, and a Slurpee everytime you go to 7-Eleven?

XMinusOne@gmail.com

By: Hank

Hank — Sat, 09 May 2009 16:05:35 +0000

Gas station owners are nothing but a bunch of rip-off artists that think they are owed everything on a silver platter!! Get over yourselves.
It’s called business. If any of you gas station operators had an inkling of business sense, you would understand that credit cards are a business too. By making the consumer pay the penalty for your problem with credit card companies, I say too effing bad, live with it. If you can’t, go back to your native country dumb-asses!! We are tired of supporting you as__oles!
It should be a crime in itself for you to send any of the money you make in the USA back to your foreign-ass country. Either be American or leave!

By: Dmitry from gas cards - pumpandsave.com

Dmitry from gas cards - pumpandsave.com — Sat, 06 Dec 2008 18:55:27 +0000

hello everyone, was reading your comments here, and it seems that gas station owners stopped accepting credit cards not because it was a rip-off for them, VISA and MC and the rest of the credit card networks did not change the percentage of what they charge, I think what happen is gas station owners just couldn’t live that so much money are going to these companies. Now when gas prices is back to normal no one seems to protest.

By: Mike

Mike — Sun, 21 Sep 2008 20:49:18 +0000

Laura

The last thing I want to see is government sticking it’s grubby fingers any deeper into the free market. If gas station owners want to charge $5000 per gallon, that’s there perogative, they’ll just go out of business. The economy is in the state it’s in because the government got involved. How do you think the housing market became such a huge buyer’s market?

The Federal Reserve decided to lower interest rates to make homebuying more affordable, that’s how!

WE DO NOT NEED MORE GOVERNMENT!!!!

Laura, I only hope you one day make more than $250,000 a year. Only then will you understand. Because after medicare, medicaid, social security, and income tax (33%) (and the federal unemployment tax if you own a business), the government steals close to 40% of your income (net profit if you’re a sole proprietor)!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I took home more making less then $250k than after making only a little more than $250K a year. It’s actually worth it to buy more inventory that I know will be wasted just to keep my profit under $250k if I know my profits over $250k won’t compensate for the additional taxes!

By: Mike at Gas Credit Card Reviewer

Mike at Gas Credit Card Reviewer — Sat, 05 Jul 2008 23:18:47 +0000

I think the reason some stations require that users ‘pay at the pump’ or ‘prepay inside’ when using cash is just for security reasons. They just want people to pay first so they don’t fill up the tank and do a drive off – something that is unfortunately becoming more and more common with gas prices where they’re at.

I review gas credit cards and it seems the days of 5% are over. A lot of them are slashing down to 3%. I guess the gas stations are finally starting to win.

By: Angela

Angela — Tue, 24 Jun 2008 15:27:44 +0000

I get 5% cash back on my credit card and I pay it off entirely every month so I am not going to want to stop that. If gas stations did change to cash only I probably wouldn’t shop there because I would have to take my two small children out of their carseats and bring them with me inside to pay. I would not even consider leaving them in the car while I pay. So this is too much of a hassle for me. I have been to a gas station before where their credit card pay at the pump wasn’t working and I drove off because of the inconvenience with young children.

By: Philip

Philip — Tue, 24 Jun 2008 12:06:59 +0000

I think Sam has a point in there that would be very valid! He states that he “might end up buying a juice or coffee”. This would be a huge bonus for the stations as we all know that they have huge markup on these type of items. If forcing cash payments means ever a small percentage of people will buy more items inside they will come out well ahead I bet.

By: Sam

Sam — Tue, 24 Jun 2008 11:20:45 +0000

My local BP (So. Fla.) is giving a .05 discount if you pay with cash or pay with a BP credit card. But, the .65 I might save on a fill up isn’t worth it to me to go inside hand over cash, go outside and pump, go back in to get my change. And then I have change in my hand and I might end up buying a juice or coffee and the .65 I saved is no longer a savings.

By: Candice

Candice — Tue, 24 Jun 2008 00:38:05 +0000

Cash only is asking for trouble for consumer and store owner.

Customers are at risk as crooks will know they have large sums of cash.
Stores are at risk as crooks will know they have larger sums of cash on hand.

Want to pay less fees to the credit card companies, go after them, no the consumer. As long as I can, I will NOT buy form gas stations that have different prices for cash and credit. I haven’t seen any cash only stations here, but they will be avoided as well.

By: kitty

kitty — Mon, 23 Jun 2008 16:35:03 +0000

“You would think that would be enough and they huge fees, treating credit card holders like people to be ripped off… wouldn’t be needed – but you would be wrong”

“I think the fees are nuts, but then again Visa and Mastercard only ever look out for themselves and their profits.”

I think what you don’t realize is that Visa and Mastercard’s only source of profits are the fees from businesses. Interest, late charges, etc. go to the banks that issue the cards not to Visa or Mastercard companies. Consequently banks carry risk of default, but Visa or Mastercard don’t care. Nor do they care if it is debit card used as a credit card or a credit card. Visa and Mastercard get their profit from businesses whenever Visa or Mastercard branded credit or debit (used as credit) card is used.

I.e. when for example Citybank issues a Visa card, Citybank sets the interest rate, late fees, etc. Visa sets what they charge businesses. Then Citybank gets its income from customers whereas Visa gets its income from business fees. If a customer defaults – Citybank looses money, but Visa still gets its profits.