Paying for gas after dark!

[Heyu]

Anywhere else in this screwed up country have to pay for you're gas after dark? or is this just a B.C. bullshit deal because I think it's crap!! Just because some kid got killed chasing some gasngo artist. yes I am sorry he got killed but come on. I never know how much fuel I'll need and it's a real pita guessing what it'll take to fuell up at $1.16/liter so I have to go in pay go back out fuel up to whatever I paid and then if I paid too much go back in and get my change, what a stupid deal.

[interfuse]

Can't you pre-authorize with debit or pay by credit card? I never pay an attendant... pay before you pump always. If a gas station doesn't have debt pumps I keep going unless I'm desperate.

[txbanditrydr]

We see alot of "pre-pay required" stations in the South.... all due to "the high number of drive-offs".   Like I'm going to put the screws to you for a Bandit tank of gas.    One good fuel stop in Arkansas (which does a ton of motorcycle business) makes everyone pre-pay or put up sufficient cash.  It's a PITA but when you're the only game in town you have a little more carte blanc with the rules.

[Barbarian]

It's pre-pay after 11 almost everywhere in Quebec. Since I always pay on credit card, it changes nothing for me.

[PitterB4]

Yeah - 24/7 prepay has been everywhere here in the Northeast for a long time - even before card-o-matic pumps were common.  Back then, I would refuse.  I alway fill my tank so I never know exactly how much to give and I'm sure as hell not going in and out of the store twice.  I would honk and look at the dude shrugging my shoulders until he turned on the pump.  If he wouldn't, I'd move on to the next station.  Now, every pump takes cards around here.  I'll bet it's been a couple years since I saw one that didn't.  Problem solved.

[jeepskate99]

Buffalo, ny.  You prepay everywhere for gas.  It doesn't bother me though,  who uses cash for gas anymore?  I don't carry enough cash to fill my truck anyhow.  Check Card baby!!!!

[Pillage]

Yup, it's pre-pay all the time almost everywhere in New England.  Except the occassional station way out in the middle of where there are still trusting souls, that unfortunately will eventually get taken because of it. 

[Sven]

I have seen very few non-prepay stations anywhere in the U.S. for many years.  The use of pay-at-the-pump seemed to move pre-paying to a standard.  Once in a blue moon, I'll see a non-prepay place, but they are usually rural stations with old pumps who (a) don;t have pay-t-the-pump technology) and (b) I assume know most of their clientele.  As mentioned above, the number of drive-offs is the *claimed* reason for this, but as with all other elements of life, self-service (at the bank, at the airline counter, at the grocery store) reduces the number of people needed to serve customers.

What totally pisses me off is that I would generally prefer NOT to go in the c-store and stand in line, so pay-at-the-pump is my preference, especially when I am in motorcycle garb.  But about a third of the time, the idiot working in the c-store has let the receipt paper run out.  And, yes, I like to actually keep track of what I spend on my credit/debit card.  (I also track my mileage, although I have never really gotten any useful information by doing so. It's just something my Dad raised me to do!)  So I trudge into the c-store and wait in line just to get a receipt.  If I hold up my part of the bargain (preparing), then they can hold up their part of the bargain (keeping a g-d roll of printer paper in the pump)!

[Barbarian]

I kept mileage for a while, then realized my fuel effciency was so high it was pointless ;)

I don't like paying for things with debit cards though (you folks call them check cards, but we've had them since the 80s, so  ). Too many crooks have figured out how to steal from them, and the last thing I want is to find out my bank account has been drained. Especially when it seems every other rash of thefts comes from a gas station that hired a criminal...

[Sven]

I don't like paying for things with debit cards though (you folks call them check cards, but we've had them since the 80s, so  ). Too many crooks have figured out how to steal from them, and the last thing I want is to find out my bank account has been drained.

"You folks" WHO?  I have only occasionally heard them called "check cards" and then only in advertisements, not by real people.  I've had them so long I can't remember when I first started using them.  And we had ATMs, even in Memphis, since the early '70s.  (Back when the had cute names like "Annie the Anytime Teller" or "Tillie the Teller".  So HAH!  bakatcha!

As for the risk associated with them...while there are some differences between a debit card and a "real" credit card, they both have provisions for disputing charges and covering costs.  While I don't know the validity of the common belief, the common belief is that debit card fraud is most common in restaurants (as seen on THE SOPRANOS), since that is the only place you give your debit (or credit) card to someone and they disappear with it for several minutes.  At gas stations, especially pay-at-the-pump, the whole thing is done as an electronic transaction.  The moron working in the c-store can barely hand people the right brand/size/flavor cigarette, much less figure out how to access that information.  I think they're idiots, you think they're corrupt....thank god we're not prejudiced or anything!

[rkfire]

I know I'm old school on this but, I don't even have a debit card, or atm card. I never asked for one or had a need for it. I pay cash. I have a couple credit cards, but they're only for those things where you have no choice like the occaisional online purchase, hotel, flight reservation. Even then, I'll check out by paying cash, and I'll only buy online stuff if they have an 800 number, so it's more like find the item online, but purchase by phone.

It would drive me nuts to have no clue how much I was spending in a month. If I don't have the cash on hand, I figure I can't afford it. PrePay at the pump annoys me tho, I remember when cash was king. I should get a 3% discount for paying cash.

My brother on the other hand buys everything by credit card. His thinking is use their money for a month, every month.

[Sven]

Not trying to convince you to change your preferences, and only speaking for myself here:

First, using my debit card *is* paying cash.  It comes right out of my checking account.  And I always know how much money I've spent, and how much I have, because I always get receipts, and enter them in my register (such as Quicken or Money). It's exactly like writing a check, except you don't have more than a day of float, where checks can create a few days of float.  So using a debit card is pretty much the same as what you are doing....I know what I'm spending and what I have left, just as if I were using cash.

It sounds like you don't even write checks, everything is in cash.  I can't imagine how much of a pain it would be to always have to go to a bank and stand in line to get money just so I could pay for everything in cash.  If I wanted to carry enough money around to pay for everything in cash, I would at least have to have an ATM card so I could "cash up" as needed.

I believe there is a logic on buying everything on credit card (you have the most legal protection that way, especially if a vendor doesn't provide the products/services you paid for), and paying it all off at each bill...I have done that for a long time.  But you have to be adamant about paying the bill of every month, and there is more temptation to buy something because you know you won't be paying for it for several weeks.  On th other hand, if you participate in a rewards program (cashback, airline mileage etc.) it's a good strategy, if you have the self-control to not overspend.

To bring this thread back full circle:  Yesterday I was buying gas and scanned my debit card, and at the end, it was the same effing "go inside for receipt" because the moron in the c-store hadn't refilled the paper roll in the printer.  And there was a line.  And some @$$hat wanted to buy a lighter and didn't want to stand in line and wanted to skip to the frotn because he was in a hurry.  I said rather loudly that I had *already paid* for my gas and just wanted my receipt and he could stand in line, like the rest of us.  The other people in line all looked at me like I was an idiot, and the cashier went ahead and took his money.  Ask me how long it will be before I go back to that particular gas station.
 

[rkfire]

All that sounds like a lot of work. Carrying around hundreds of receipts, entering them on a computer etc.

I pay bills by check, phone, electric etc.

I get paid once a month. I pocket what I allot for misc expenses in cash, no standing in line for me.

[Sven]

Well, yeah, I pay *bills* online and have done so for 15+ years.   But you've wandered away from the scenario of making purchases (gas, groceries, etc.) using cash/check/debit card/credit card.  And it's hardly "hundreds of receipts", only those that were the result of a credit/debit purchase.  And I suspect you keep some receipts, for tax purposes, to make returns, for warranties, etc.   Again, I'm not trying to persuade you to adopt my processes, and this next comment is NOT directed toward you:  I believe that *most* people who live strictly by cash are either (a) very poor, (b) not reporting their income and avoiding taxes, or (c) generally suspicious of technology or think the government has some interest is tracking what they buy.  (Again, I am not projecting any of these behaviours on you.  You are an adult who has the right to handle his finances the way he wants.  And you are on the BBS, so you are not anti-tech!)

This thread started as a complaint about "pay at the pump", which is a total pain when you have to go into the c-store and lay money on the counter (or give the clerk a credit card) before you can go back out and pump gas, and then go back into the store again, etc.  But it's also a pain when the freakin' pumps are out of receipt paper.

[PaulVS]

I pay bills by check, phone, electric etc.

Don't forget Western Union.