As I was pumping gas this morning I happened to look around at the big advertisement out by the street listing the various prices for gas at the station I was using. $4.05, $4.15 and $4.25. (Yes, that in itself is a rip off.) But then I happened to glance at the gas pump itself. I was being charged $4.25 for my gas, even though I had selected the middle grade, which should have been $4.15.

When I went inside, expecting it to be a simple error, the clerk told me they charge more if you use a credit card. In teeny tiny writing on the sign there is a separate listing for credit card prices! He then rather rudely told me that every gas station is doing it, and turned away, which says to me that he knows it’s a rip off and didn’t want to face a paying customer any longer than he had to.

I suppose I had heard that some stations were offering a discount for cash prices, but this particular station advertised their cash prices prominently without really clarifying there was a different price for credit. Plus, the penalty for using a credit card is 10 cents per gallon! While some people might say that $1.30 isn’t much money, if you fill up once a week like me, that’s an additional $67.60 per year – another full tank of gas that I’m not getting. Taking that a step further, how many customers are paying the 10 cent penalty per day, per week, per month, per year….you see where I’m going with this. It’s just another way for this gas station to try to make a buck in a smarmy way.

They don’t need to worry about me though. I won’t be going there again, even if every other gas station is doing it.