I seldom use a CC for a small purchase, but one exception was for a root beer float at Sonic ($1.07). This is a place where they bring it out to your car and you pay there. They have CC machines and that's a lot faster than dealing with change.
"Dean Hoffman" wrote
Not a problem if the purse is open and ready. The ones that piss me off are the ones that wait until the cashier tells them the amount due and then they open the pocket book, take out the purse count out the money. Did they think it may be free? Don't get me started on check writers.
Depends on the station and the brand. Some do, most don't. The price is usually posted as cash and credit someplace. One discount station I use charges extra only for AMEX. State laws may come into this also. Using a card saves a trip into the store to pay, but not worth the premium price. I try to buy my gas in MA as it is cheaper than CT and some towns have full service at the same price as self serve. Local fire marshal decides if self serve is allowed.
In a restaurant in British Columbia a few years back the servers brought with them to the table a wireless terminal on which they entered the order, then at the end brought the terminal (or maybe a different one) through which my CC was swiped. Wonderfully straightforward.
Perce
More often these days it's the other way around -- the most up to date vendors don't require a signature for
They should scan the check, enter the amount, and return the physical check to the customer (or destroy it). Everything is done electronically, just like using a debit card.
Not for the pretty common electronic displays on pumps. I can't remember the last time I saw any sort of mechanical register and preset price on a gas station pump.
There is a truck stop a few exits away on the Interstate that has a large electronic sign right by the Interstate that displays three prices:
regular gas $x.xx diesel cash $x.xx diesel credit $x.xx
The main deal breaker for the merchant is the credit card agreement they are in. Many exclude any sort of cash discount since that would cut into their revenue stream. It costs more to process a CC transaction (actual costs from a very sharp organization) and why should every customer need to help out banks and pay for someone else's rewards? Some merchants seem to be getting out from under the banks and now clearly post cash and credit prices but it isn't that common in my region. Previously if a merchant wanted to offer a cash discount they opened a separate gas station and did cash only transactions.
Yep.
When I find myself behind one who waits for the total to start rummaging around in her purse for her check book, I ask her, stage whisper, "Let me ask you, did you think the name of this store might change while your purchase is being tallied? Or maybe the date? Or YOUR name?"
The last time this happened, the lady indignantly retorted: "If you say one more thing, I'm calling the manager!"
I replied: "One more thing."
Much hilarity followed.
Which is why I never pay cash at a gas station but use my credit card at the pump. Besides people like that there are the ones buying Slurpies and burritos or whatever other junk food is offered and you end up wasting
10 minutes of your time.
Only in CA. Cross the border into NV and Arco stations do, indeed, take credit cards.
OTOH, some other states like CO, where I now live, have no concept of basic CA style ATM (NOT debit!) cards which you can use almost universally in CA. I tried to get an ATM card at a bank that also has branches in CA. I was told by a handfull of new acct reps that no such animal existed. I told them I'd been using an ATM card to buy retail items at most retail stores and the head bitch told me she'd been in the banking industry for 25 yrs and no such ATM card existed in the US banking industry. I just got up and left. Apparently, the only thing an ATM card is good for, here, is to withdraw cash from YOUR acct at YOUR bank's ATM machine, period.
All states do not bank the same.
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It was your location or your car. I had a Dodge van and a Honda Civic. Both ran Arco better than any other brand. The van, which had a non-stock cam, pinged badly during very hot weather. Arco was the only regular I could run so my van would not ping badly. This in NorCal.
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A trip west along Route 80 between Chicago and Cheyenne will yield many truck stops that display two diesel prices, cash and charge.
I know not where in NorCal you are, but in SFBA, that is not the case. In fact, the San Jose Mercury did a whole Sunday issue on how gas was distributed in the SFBA. It all comes from the same place, refineries about 40 mi N of where I lived, all originating through the same pipeline. Each brand has diff additives injected into the main pipeline, but it's all the same base. As the base gas moved past a certain point, tens of thousands of gals at a time, additives were injected. Over the entire length of the pipeling, several brands were being pumped at the same time, the intermingling between 2 diff brands amounting to no more than about 50 gals. As the diff brands of gas passed different points, valves rerouted them to diff distro stations. It's all computer controlled split-second timing.
I recall Arco ran very well in my vehicles when it was 10% alcohol. The Shell station across the street from the Arco station, ran the worst in my van. Hard to start and pinged like crazy.
That was that whole MTBE fiasco that was pushed by the oil companies and perpetuated by NAFTA extortion articles. Then Gov Davis tried to kill MTBE in favor of ethanol, but was stopped cold by the Feds. I'll not go into it, here, cuz it's some real slimey politics, but Davis backed down for later concessions beneficial to CA in the future.
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I found this out when I refused to sign my signature on a computer digitzer and the clerk at the speedy mkt told me they didn't need my sig for purchases under $25. Same for most drive thru food chains. I also notice gas stations will usually allow you to buy $75-100 max purchase with no sig required if you use the card at the pump.
I refuse to allow my signature to be digitized. Regardless of what the clueless clerks try and tell you, the system will still spit out a hard copy (paper) receipt you can sign. If they refuse, cancel the purchase and walk away. If they want your purchase, they'll find someone who knows how the system works. If not, screw 'em.
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Difficult to cancel the purchase when you've already pumped the gas.
Perce
Even more difficult to post an intelligent reply when you haven't read the post you're replying to.
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Some old hillbillies still take 5 minutes to scratch their "X" on the reciept??
Not all - but MANY credit card companies charge more for the "rewards" cards. - so the seller just has to raise the price a bit more to cover THAT.
I don't like using either! Both can be used by ANYONE passing it to an inattentive clerk (is there any other kind?). As you say, you can sign Rin-Tin-Tin and it will pass. With a true bank ATM, only by entering the correct PIN will it work. Unfortunately, the whole concept is completely alien in CO.
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