Not if you go to the cheapies!
You've got to go to the old fashioned stations...the ones without the convenience stores, without the canopies, without the gigantic electronic sign.
The kind that has a beat up old bar stool for the attendant to sit on, a dirty bucket of water with a squeegy and a tired old German Shephard sleeping nearby...you'll find the right type of pump...and save a few cents per gallon

 

I agree. As I read the wikipedia information I honestly think it is either written poorly and misleading, or wrong.

Most of the discussion surrounds debit cards. But, in a two places they mention paying with credit.

The first quoted statement implied credit and debit cards. The second implies credit because paying with debit is different -- you don't get a credit against your bank account you get a debit or decrease.

I am left wondering if it pertains to credit cards as well.

Oh well. I know I have purchased gas using my credit card (VISA) at a value above $50 for quite some time.

Maybe some of the stations that have this policy use it as some kind of drive off prevention -- to keep the loss at $50?

I also remember when it would cost me less than $20 to fill my tank and when I thought $20 was a horrible price to pay. $11 was better. (And I am not that old!)

 

I suspect there's some of that in the decision, however the flip side of that coin is that gas stations pay a transaction fee for every card sale they make, which means they're actually incurring additional overhead costs by requiring another transaction fee for my 2 gallon purchase. Wonder how that definite cost compares to the potential cost of stolen gas. Though I have heard gas theft is up a lot.

Just think if gas here cost anything remotely like what it does in most (non-major oil producer) countries, where it can easily be twice what we pay. People might have to *gasp* drive fewer Escalades and make some effort to change their habits!!

Btw, I've mentioned it before and just did again, and here's a new story about the squeeze stations are under as the oil companies make so much money they don't know what to do with it all:

http://www.latimes.com/business/la-f...,5035682.story

 

Sadly, some folks will probably cheat, steal, and (god forbid) kill first.

 

Last I heard, $100 of stolen fuel can take months to recoup the loss. But, yeah, they do get charged the transaction fee twice -- whatever that amount might be.

 

A couple years ago, I got irritated that the pump stopping at $50. (I still have that truck, though I don't drive it nearly as much any more.) I called the credit-card company, and asked. They told me that the gas station systems tell the credit-card system that the transaction is to be a fuel sale, and the credit-card system sets the limit for that type of sale. Their default limit was $50 for fuel. My credit-card company then set my limit for fuels sale to $100, at my request.

Last weekend, I took my generator-fuel containers to the gas station to fill them before the hurricane season starts. (This is in Florida. Seven 5-gallon containers will run my generator for about a week.) The pump stopped at just about 25 gallons, exactly $100. I had to go inside and pay cash for the rest.

If the pump routinely stops before your tank is full -- call your credit-card company. They can make it stop at a higher number. (Assuming, of course, that you have the credit.)