I couldn't resist the graphic even though this post isn't exactly about the price of gas.Does anyone know the real story behind why some gas pumps will cut you off at $50 or $75 when you swipe a card? This little phenomena was only an occasional irritant a few years ago when filling my truck with a 35 gallon tank. At $2 per gallon or so with a nearly empty tank, it was easy to hit either of those limits.
I had asked at a few of the gas stations as well as contacting my credit card companies -- both pointed the finger of doom at the other. I find it hard to believe that I can order $10,000.00 of computers on my Corporate Amex, but they cut me off at $50 of gasoline.
Currently if I want to fill my tank at $4 a gallon, I have to do the whole dance twice because I'm getting cut off nearly every time -- and my gas tank in the new vehicle is only about half the size of the old truck's.
Add to this the doomsayers' (read - experts') predictions of $5 to $6 per gallon if we have a hurricane this season that knocks out some of our refining capacity (like Katrina) and there will be a lot of people spending even more time at the pumps swiping their cards twice just to fill up their tanks.
I'm sure that at one time....long ago....somebody, somewhere thought that it was a good idea to put a limit on gas credit purchases. For example: If someone stole my credit card and attempted to fuel up an entire convoy of trucks to the tune of several thousand gallons, I would be singing the praises of the genius whose software feature thwarted their dastardly plans.
But as that is unlikely to happen, I think it's not too much to ask that the pumps get an upgrade. When swiping the credit card to fill up is like opening a vein, must we really be forced to do it twice?
1 comment:
Don't let them fool ya,these are in place for the eventual day of rationing gas. At the risk of sounding glib, grab it while ya can, even twice.
Schotz
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