Rationing Mechanisms In Place: Credit Cards Cut Off Gas Purchases
June 18th, 2007Credit card companies are limiting fuel purchases because of credit card fraud?
Oh sure, that sounds perfectly reasonable to many zombie consumers. And you could take this article at face value and move on, but I wouldn’t. It’s easy to see how this will be used as a gas rationing system.
After a declaration of emergency, perhaps the use of cash to pay for gas won’t be allowed. Only terrorists pay for gas with cash, or a global warming carbon tax will need to be collected, or a gas shortage has resulted from the deliberately engineered chaos of Peak Oil, etc. Fill in the blank with justifications that could be used. The point is, with a few mouse clicks, this system could be used to lock people down, by the millions, in an extremely efficient manner… Assuming the communications infrastructure—that makes the lock down possible—stays up.
Still waiting for clarity on the brink of oblivion?
Via: Yahoo / AP:
So you’re at the gas station filling up your vehicle, and without warning the gas pump shuts off. What? The tank isn’t full, and you know your credit card isn’t over its limit.
“Using my Visa card, I commonly hit a limit and I would be standing there scratching my head,” Shawn Bloomfield, who pumps premium gas into his SUV, said from his home in Allentown, Pa. “I would always assume it is the gas station setting a limit on how much gas I could purchase. It felt like a ration scenario.”
As the price of gasoline continues to rise, rules to prevent credit card fraud at the nation’s pumps are confusing consumers who just want a full tank of gas.
Caps on transaction amounts — or the total dollar amount of gas a customer can pump into their car — are limiting some drivers of gas-guzzling vehicles.
“When I go to the gas station I now have to use two credit cards just for one tank of gas,” said Paul Brisgone of Oxford, Pa. “Kind of defeats the convenience of pay-at-the-pump.”
Brisgone, a field operations manager for a telecommunications company, said he alternates between three different credit cards — two Visa and one MasterCard — when filling up the 32-gallon tank in his Ford F-150 pickup.
“When I can go 400 miles a day, it inconveniences me if I need a full tank of gas and can’t get one,” Brisgone said.
Credit card companies say the policies, which aren’t new, are designed to ensure that merchants and consumers are protected from fraudulent transactions that could occur at a gas pump.
When a customer uses their credit card at a cardholder-activated terminal, such as a gas pump, the transaction is authorized without knowing the final bill of sale.
Typically, consumers who use their credit card are not liable for any fraudulent purchases, and gas merchants are not liable either.
But credit card companies have established a protective layer by setting caps on how much gas a consumer can pump at any one given time.
This isn’t as sinister as you might think. Pumps are commonly programmed to pre-authorize a charge of $75 on a credit card. This was in an era before $4/gallon gas and SUV’s with 25+ gallon tanks. If you try to exceed the $75 limit, you haven’t been authorized to spend that much and thus the pump shuts off. This is just the way the credit card system works and is not, in itself, evidence of a sinister conspiracy. On the other hand, it shows how robust our cashless economy will be when hyperinflation sets in. Sorry, sir, you aren’t authorized to buy that $20 loaf of bread. Would you care to buy a slice instead?
I’m so glad I stopped using cards 2 years ago and went 100% cash. It’s sooo much better than on-the-grid plastic. I buy my plane tickets in cash too – 3 grand last time, for my wife and I. Contrary to what people might think, the agencies don’t give a damn – they don’t look at me funny or anything, they take it no problem. I love it. I know exactly how much I spend and there’s not some credit report company and government keeping track of everything I buy.
I have already seen this in person, with a local gas franchise operated by a national grocery store chain (Kroger) limiting credit card pay at the pump to a mere $50. Some stations are no longer taking credit cards at all due to the C.C. transaction fees exceeding their in-store profits (fewer in store customers buying less, more charges associated with the move to pay before you pump).