WASHINGTON — The pump slowed and cut off Brendan Baker’s gasoline purchase at $74. He returned the nozzle to the pump, swiped his credit card a second time, then put the nozzle back in his 2000 Dodge Ram 1500 pickup and continued fueling. He finished pumping and looked at his two receipts, which totaled $95.23.
“Normally I don’t keep them because they remind me how much money I wasted,” said Baker, refueling at his local Sunoco station in Centreville, Va.
With skyrocketing gas prices, many customers are bumping up against pay-at-the-pump credit card limits — often $75. Rules limiting these transactions are nothing new, but with gas prices exceeding $4 per gallon, it’s increasingly easy to exceed the limit, leaving many customers to face the hassle of dealing with two-transaction purchases.
Customers who pay inside stations can still use their credit cards like anywhere else and face no limit.
But at the pump, the size of credit card purchases has been limited largely to protect gas stations, which can be charged if there’s a problem with the transactions. Purchases at the pump are particularly vulnerable to trouble since no signature is required to verify the user’s identity. And since the credit card is swiped before the gas is pumped, there’s no way to know the size of the purchase when it’s authorized.
Visa, MasterCard and Discover Card generally guarantee that merchants will be paid the first $75 of a pay-at-the-pump transaction. American Express determines its limits based on the contractual relationship with the companies. But beyond those levels, gas stations are more likely to foot the bill in what are called charge backs if a transaction is bad.
Visa recently amended its rules to make it less risky for stations to increase the limit on pay-at-the-pump sales. Until April 2007, merchants could be charged the entire amount of any bad purchase over $50. That month, Visa changed its rules so that merchants were liable only for the amount of the purchase that exceeded $50. In April of this year, Visa increased the limit to $75.
Discover has also increased its limit to $75 from $50. MasterCard has had a $75 limit for several years.
Stations “are faced with two bad options — allow the pump to go beyond $75 and risk not getting paid … or take a customer from frustrated (with gas prices) to outright anger,” Lenard said.
Even when station owners want to take on more risk, limits are generally set by the oil companies rather than by the stations themselves.
Sunoco limits the transactions to $75 if customers are using Visa or MasterCard. Chevron and Exxon Mobil’s limits are either $75 or $100, depending on the card. East of the Rocky Mountains, BP sets a pay-at-the-pump limit of $100, although a spokesman said some stations may choose to set higher limits.
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