Wikinvest Wire

A Sign of the Times

Sunday, January 29, 2006

Purchasing fuel the other day resulted in an interesting surprise. A hand written note affixed to the gas pump was clearly an indication that something was amiss, but what could it possibly be?

Normally, the pump handle would be covered or secured somehow if fuel could not be dispensed and there were similar notes on every single pump at this gas station.

Perhaps there had been some computer glitch somewhere or a communication failure had occurred and these were instruction to pay inside.


A closer look at the note revealed that there was no such problem -
debit cards could be used at the pump, but credit cards must be taken inside.

But why?

It seems that if the card reader and associated communication gear could process a debit card transaction outside, a credit card transaction should be no more difficult.



In recent visits to other gas stations it had been noted that more and more fuel sellers now require customers to input their zip code when using credit cards.

At first, put off by this seemingly intrusive collection of more marketing data, their request was ignored, however, the failure of the pump to dispense the needed gasoline without the correct digits caused us to quickly reconsider.

But this station had gone a step further by requiring that each motorist walk inside to present their card to an attendant who then passes it through a card reader and the transaction is ultimately completed with a signature.

How inconvenient!

During this process the attendant was asked why it was that a perfectly good card reader at the pump and fully functioning computer equipment required customers to walk inside.

The slight, tattooed clerk replied, "There's been two much fraud - stolen credit cards. We just disabled it at the pump. And we tried using zip codes, but it's too easy to guess 'em."

Hmmm...

What an ironic twist.

Too much credit in the world causes too much oil consumption making fuel prices rise. Too many $60 dollar fill-ups cause an increase in the use of stolen credit cards to purchase expensive fuel, resulting in credit being made more difficult to use.

8 comments:

Anonymous said...

This all sounds like one of those Kevin Costner (Waterworld, The Postman) post-apocalyptic moments.

Maybe you should just use the debit card next time.

Wes D said...

How many Hummers around your area? Most of them around here are at the Hummer stealership and maybe that's why we can still use credit at the pump. I have a debit card but I will only use it as a credit card unless the retailer will return to me a portion of the savings. Staples will, some gas stations give a 3 cent break, the rest do not.

Anonymous said...

The gas stations that I'm using also all started asking zip code sometime last year. A number of stores started asking for ID when using credit cards. (No grocery stores though that I'm aware of. Apparently stolen credit cards are not much used for buying food.)

Randy said...

I'd be comfortable to say that ~70% of Gas Stations here in Vegas require zip codes when using Credit.

However, when purchasing via credit, consumers are limited to $50 max. It's barely enough to fill my Honda Accord (from an empty tank). Can't imagine how folks with Expeditions, Excursions, Hummers, Yukon's and the like manage it... Guess they use multiple credit cards: Visa for the 1st $50, Discover for the remainder... hehe

Anonymous said...

contrarian2day: Gas must be pretty expensive in your place when filling up an Accord costs you $50. Unless you have a model with a larger tank.

Anonymous said...

cm: You should not have to present ID with your credit card. Requiring ID is a violation of their processing agreement with the credit card. Mastercard even has a spot on their website to report stores requiring ID when using their cards.

Anonymous said...

It costs $50 to fill up your Honda Accord? It costs closer to $10 to fill up my Geo Metro, which also gets about 40 mpg. Try buying one! It's nearly impossible. I went to a used car lot this weekend to see if we could get a 2nd one, and the dealer said he wished he had a dozen of them cause he could sell them all. No wonder Ford, GM and other SUV builders are going out of business. Why can't they figure out what people are buying and would like to buy? They'd rather go out of business than make and sell economic cars?

Wes D said...

"Why can't they figure out what people are buying and would like to buy? They'd rather go out of business than make and sell economic cars?"

Pretty much. Selling 1 SUV to some idiot is more profitable than selling 10 smaller cars. It's all business but GM and Ford will go bankrupt if they do not change their ways. It will likely take a severe gas crisis to force them into action.

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