It happens every day. It’s all around us. Little extra charges here and there; some may even make it under your radar. One such charge is for petrol, gas, diesel—fuel.
As you may have noticed most folks pay for most purchases with a little plastic card that is roughly the size of a playing card. People will use the credit or debit option from their deposit account. Debit is more like cash and some retailers treat it that way. But credit takes a little longer to hit your bank account or can be useful if you have forgotten your pin number.
Well for some reason gas stations seem to think it is okay to inflate the cost of fuel by an average of five cents per gallon in my area. One consumer report article touted that some convenience stores charge as much as $1 more per gallon for credit then they do for cash.
The convenience store sign teases you with a cash price and then BAM you get hit with a “credit” price even if you use the debit option on your card. That can translate to an extra $600 for the person who drives the average 12,000 mile per year. This example is when the store only charges an five cent per gallon. Six hundred dollars is half weeks’ vacation rental at my favorite cabin in Georgia—including food—for two!
Normally I visit a couple of stations that charge the cash price for debit purchases. Unfortunately, I find myself in the “any port in a storm” mentality because I am low on fuel in an unfamiliar place or because I have avoided topping off the tank for to long.
So be sure to pay attention to how much you are paying for gas when you fill up. Who knows the money you save could get you then much deserved goody you have been eyeballing all year.
Ried Rants 