Originally Posted by
Fizzer
Until reading these threads I was under the impression that if I "guessed" I needed $50 but only needed $30 the gas station would get to keep the $20. At no time did any single attendant anywhere tell me that I could come back in again and reverse my previous billing to get a $20 credit.
As I said it's a none issue for me now but obviously is for a lot of visitors to the US.
BTW if you pump and then pay inside in Canada you are not prepaying one cent. You pump first and then pay. No hold on your card, just trust that you actually will go in and pay. The issue and the only issue when south of the border ( and only in the US )is being forced to leave my CC card behind the counter, which happened every single time in the US if I wanted to "fill her up".
I can tell you why no attendant ever told you that the station wouldn't keep the "extra" from your charge - because pre-paying with a CC is so common in the US (it was done that way for many years before pay at the pump came along) that it simply never occurs to the clerks that someone would pre-pay and not know that they don't have to leave behind money for gas they didn't get.
It's rather like going to a restaurant and never being told that you can pay with cash. It's so common, nobody would ever assume that you don't know you can pay with cash.