Last week I posted on an ABC News story that reported drivers pay a few cents extra per gallon for gas when paying with a credit or debit card. I wanted to know if gas prices go up when you pay with a credit card, so I decided to found out – here’s what I found.
In both instances I was able to fill up the same amount of gas (3.677 gallons) for the same amount of $15. To be fair I went to two other gas stations to verify the results. I tried a similar experiment done by ABC News at a local Exxon station.
…and Shell.
It turns out that using a credit card does not effect the price per gallon that you pay at the pump. Perhaps the extra charges vary by state (the original ABC News report was done in New York), I can’t say for sure. Although credit card companies charge merchants anywhere between 2-5% extra for the ability to process purchases via charge card, it’s likely that the costs are passed on directly to the gas stations themselves.
In other words, the credit card charges are rolled into the per-gallon price you see outside of every gas station, no matter what you pay with.
