I would suggest that Prius owners (and similar cars with small fuel tanks) avoid ARCO stations-at least in California. The prices they post are Cash Only prices, and you don't find out until you have pulled in and run your ATM card that they will charge you an extra 45 cents to use the card. Unless you put in more than 10 gallons-which is almost never in a Prius, you're paying at least 4.5 cents more per gallon than the advertised price. Sure, once you have swiped your card they advise you of this and ask if you agree, but how many people are going to get back in the car and head down the road looking for another station? Isn't this deceptive advertising?

 

Do they also tack on a surcharge for a regular credit card?

As a Prius driver, I would decline the sale and drive on another hundred or so miles. Still, thanks for the 'heads up.'

Bob Wilson

 

Same thing here in NY with some of the Mobil and Exxon stations. My friend was so mad he cut up his Mobil credit card, which he had for 20+ years, and sent it back to them with a letter telling them why. They've offered him free gas and everything to get him back, to his credit he told them you have screwed me for the very last time.

bwilson4web, Yes it's for all credit card purchases, however if you use the local owners credit card you get a 4 cent discount. The pumps need about 3 different prices on them for you to try and figure out what you will pay. Fortunately it's only the Mobil / Exxons, right now, that are doing this.

 

I'd hate to see Costco and SAMs go the same way. Best to ask.

Still it looks a 'big oil' problem. The smaller, independents might not care.

Thanks,
Bob Wilson

 

Bob,

In Calif, ARCO only accepts ATMs. I admire your dedication, but I always find myself weighing the inconveniene against an extra 50 cents. and pay up while muttering inder my breath. I did email the State Attorney Generals office here, but got ignored. It used to be 35 cents and all they had was a small sticker on the kiosk which was easily missed. Now it's 45 cents and they include a warning on the screen -although not in all stations.

Errol

 

One of the reasons that Arco is generally less expensive than other companies' fuel is because they don't have a credit card and don't incur deadbeat losses that have to be charged back to the consumer.

Don

 

In the past I favored ARCO because they were a couple of cents cheaper. Then they started tacking on a surcharge for credit card use and became a couple of cents more expensive. Because they use a flat surcharge for credit, rather than add a couple of cents per gallon, my 10 gallon Prius subsidizes the Hummer that loads up 20 or 30 gallons. What really burns me is ARCO displays their price, maybe undercutting the Chevron station across the street, but gives no indication it is cash only. Could they also require a lube job or exact change to get the advertised price?

Errol

 

When will they start a surcharge if you pay with cash??

Also the five BP stations in the Denver/Boulder area have been taken over by Conoco. Seems BP says this area is too far from their refineries.

Out of 24 tanks, 12,000 miles, I have filled up with less than ten gallons 23 times so I certainly hope this ten gallon minimum does not become a national trend.

Also, what is a person to do if you just bring in a few gallon jug to fill for use with your lawnmower???

 

Arco up here also tacks on a .45 charge on ATM card payments. These Arcos do not accept credit. There is only one ARCO dealer in my city which does not have any surcharges for use of debit or credit cards and that station also runs a full service, automated car wash. They also accept checks.

Here is the skinny on paying for gas with plastic:

Processing any transaction on any form of plastic, debit or credit, is not free. Some intermediary, which is a card processing company or credit card bank, charges fees to the merchant for accepting and processing those plasticized transactions. These fees are often times called interchange fees, EFT fees or some other banking lingo associated with the service provided by the institution that is accepting the plastic on behalf of a merchant.

Arco stations are within their rights as a merchant to choose not to accept credit cards and to pass on the interchange fees associated with debit cards. They are also within their rights to operate their businesses as a cash only operation.

This is a catch-22 situation and I don't like it any more than the next, but our society is moving away from cash, checks and other less expensive funds types toward plastic. As such many of the common products we buy have inflated prices because of the interchange fees that are charged for plastic transactions. We are becoming a plastic society because too many people have written too many bad checks thus causing businesses to shy away from accepting them. Ten years ago you were more likley to see a small business not take plastic because of the interchange fees. Ten years later, because of the number of folks who can't seem to balance a checkbook, or live within their means and not write bad checks, merchants have had their hands forced to accept plastic and deny checks, but the cost of that is the interchange fees they must pay for each transaction. They don't pay it, we do, it gets passed on in higher product costs to us.

The same thing has happened with gas. Depending on what estimate you choose to apply, fuel costs all of us, regardless of how we choose to pay, upwards of 2 to 5 cents a gallon extra because of the predominance of plastic and "pay at the pump." The local Arcos are usually 2 to 5 cents lower in price than the other name brand gas operators. Since most Arco stations do not take credit and pass on the debit fee to the customer using debit they can realign their fuel prices to reflect the abscence of interchange fees.

Locally the only lower priced operator is Costco. Costco limits their fuel purchases to debit cards and Amex. Considering Costco's model of operations, they partnered up with Amex to offer specially branded cards to their members and I am only guessing that Amex has given Costco one amazing deal with regard to interchange fees, i.e. much lower than the rest of the industry, if Costco pays Amex interchange fees at all. On top of that I'm sure that Costco has competitive interchange fees for debit transactions and realizes that much of their in warehouse business is transacted on debit cards, so they aren't likley to abandon that or pass on debit fees to members that are already paying $45-100/year for the joy of shoping there.

I know this will not come to pass, but if you want inflated prices due to interchange fees to go away, start writing a lot more checks or using cash and get all of your friends to do it to. Wishful thinking.

 

Jerome,

I appreciate and agree with your explanation on the effect plastic has on consumer prices but that doesn't answer my primary concern. Gas stations are about the only business that as standard practice posts the price of their product on billboards that can be seen from blocks away. They do this because, (1) prices can change on a daily basis; (2) There is not a lot of brand loyalty with consumers; and (3) They know that once a person pulls into their station, possibly waits in line, swipes their ATM card and punches in their PIN, they are unlikely to leave to go elsewhere after discovering they are being gouged - only for a few cents, but when you sell millions of gallons, a few cents is a lot of dollars - it's classic bait and switch.

Here's another one. Shell stations in my area - which is heavily non-english speaking - give instructions on the pump in english, and also ideograms depicting how to pump gas. The instructions tell you to select the grade of gas you want while the ideogram shows the little hand pressing the right most of three grade selection buttons - this is the button for the highest octane, most expensive, least used grade!

I may be paranoid, but that doesn't mean the oil companies aren't out to screw me!

Errol