Visa said last month it was reducing its cut on petroleum purchases to give station owners and consumers a break.
Visa fee
15-gallon tank @ $4.00 per gallon = 94 cents charged to service station
Source: Visa
"By lowering our rates, we hope to see oil companies pass these savings along to their stations and ultimately to consumers," said Bill Sheedy, global head of corporate strategy and business development for Visa Inc.
MasterCard has also capped its fees on petroleum purchases to try to keep down prices.
Both MasterCard and Visa point out that credit and debit cards offer security and convenience that they say beats cash.
For some customers, that's an important consideration.
"What if somebody jumps me? Can't do that," trucker Martin Bouvet, of Garfield, New Mexico, told CNN affiliate KFOX-TV.
On the West Coast, cash discounts on gas are nothing new.
ARCO, a unit of BP America which bills itself as the leading gasoline marketer in the West, stopped accepting credit cards in 1982. The policy allows ARCO customers to save 6 to 7 cents a gallon, the company says. It accepts debit cards, but charges a 45-cent transaction fee.
A check of the Web site gasbuddy.com, which tracks gas prices in cities across the country, shows the difference can be substantially larger.
An ARCO on Palomar Airport Road in Carlsbad, California, was selling regular for $4.27 a gallon on Monday. Just a few miles down the same street, Chevron and Mobil stations advertised regular for $4.59 a gallon.
Charles Langley, who has tracked Southern California gas prices for the Utility Consumers' Action Network for 10 years, says drivers who charge their gas can actually end up paying substantially more than the 32 cents in the Carlsbad comparison.
"More people are financing gas," he said, incurring interest payments along with the cost of the fuel. And he said credit card users need to be more aware and just check posted prices to save money.
"Credit card buyers are notorious for not looking at the price of gas," he said, staying loyal to either their brand of gasoline or credit card they've used for a long time.
Langley says he personally stopped paying for gas with plastic, and now drives by the motto, "More gas for less cash."
Visa fee
15-gallon tank @ $4.00 per gallon = 94 cents charged to service station
Source: Visa
"By lowering our rates, we hope to see oil companies pass these savings along to their stations and ultimately to consumers," said Bill Sheedy, global head of corporate strategy and business development for Visa Inc.
MasterCard has also capped its fees on petroleum purchases to try to keep down prices.
Both MasterCard and Visa point out that credit and debit cards offer security and convenience that they say beats cash.
For some customers, that's an important consideration.
"What if somebody jumps me? Can't do that," trucker Martin Bouvet, of Garfield, New Mexico, told CNN affiliate KFOX-TV.
On the West Coast, cash discounts on gas are nothing new.
ARCO, a unit of BP America which bills itself as the leading gasoline marketer in the West, stopped accepting credit cards in 1982. The policy allows ARCO customers to save 6 to 7 cents a gallon, the company says. It accepts debit cards, but charges a 45-cent transaction fee.
A check of the Web site gasbuddy.com, which tracks gas prices in cities across the country, shows the difference can be substantially larger.
An ARCO on Palomar Airport Road in Carlsbad, California, was selling regular for $4.27 a gallon on Monday. Just a few miles down the same street, Chevron and Mobil stations advertised regular for $4.59 a gallon.
Charles Langley, who has tracked Southern California gas prices for the Utility Consumers' Action Network for 10 years, says drivers who charge their gas can actually end up paying substantially more than the 32 cents in the Carlsbad comparison.
"More people are financing gas," he said, incurring interest payments along with the cost of the fuel. And he said credit card users need to be more aware and just check posted prices to save money.
"Credit card buyers are notorious for not looking at the price of gas," he said, staying loyal to either their brand of gasoline or credit card they've used for a long time.
Langley says he personally stopped paying for gas with plastic, and now drives by the motto, "More gas for less cash."
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