D ran into a weird quirk with our local gasoline station when he brought our cars in for some gas. It was one of those automated pumps where you pay by credit card.
When it came to the second fill up, the machine rejected his card. After a few attempts he went into the station and asked what was going on.
Apparently there is some rule that you cannot use the same credit twice in one day at the same filling station.
What type of craziness is that? The fellow didn't explain further. D just used another credit card to pay.
We were trying to come up with reason why that would make sense and could not think of many. Was that supposed to help reduce fraud? I don't know.
Can you imagine if department stores enacted that rule? They would lose so much business.
That happened to me this weekend. I was at Chapters buying gift cards for my clients and realized just as I was leaving, I needed one more. Imagine my surprise if I wasn't allowed to use my credit card?
I know people who only have 1 credit card. What a crazy rule. If anyone has any idea or understanding as to why this exists, I'd like to know.
On the pumps at the station by my house, it says: No more than 250 Litres per purchase. Maybe the "only one credit card per day" rule is in the same spirit. I assume it's to avoid hoarding, given they only have limited underground storage at each station.
ReplyDeleteI have encountered folks at gas stations hanging around the pumps with stolen credit cards, offering to use the card for $25 worth of gas if you give them $10 in cash.
ReplyDeleteI'm going to assume it's due to theft and to deter staff from skimming card numbers etc. We frequently fill both cars on the same day so I don't doubt that soon we'll run into that situation. In that case I'll use my rewards debit card.
ReplyDeleteHi Robert;
ReplyDeleteI honestly don't know if we have limits in gasoline purchase here. Maybe it is also in place to limit the size of vehicle allowed at that station?
Hi Myles Henderson;
That's crazy! And out in the open as well. Where are you from?
Hi stamperitis;
If you are in Canada, the station we were at was a Petro-Can. Don't know if the others are the same.
Luckily we have a few different cards too. Now one more reason for having backup.