Originally Posted by
jerry305
(My apologies if repeated elsewhere. Mods, feel free to move this.)
Nearly all gas stations I visit in the US require the credit card holder to type in their zip code on the keypad at the pump.
I'm from Canada. I don't have a zip code. It's impossible for me to buy gas in the US without the good graces of a clerk to manually override it. Occasionally, I have to leave a pile of cash as a deposit and go back to the pump.
These pumps are everywhere in the US, including locations just south of the Canadian border. I assume they're just north of the Mexican border, too.
Each year, about 20 million Canadians visit the US; that's over half the population. And even if American gas station owners don't like our currency (currently at par), when we pay by credit card, we pay in US dollars.
I have so many questions:
• Why does the entire US gas station industry assume that 100% of their customers are Americans?
• Does every gas station owner not want my business?
• Who should I be angry at: service station owners? chains?
• Are there some chains that don't have these machines?
• Is there a workaround or magic 5-digit override code I can use?
• If I tell my Canadian CC issuer to send me statements electronically, so they don't actually have to mail me anything, can I change my postal code to a (fake) 5-digit zip code, just to appease these machines?
Begging your pardon, but you are totally full of yourself. I've had the exact same thing happen to me at a Toronto gas station with a US credit card (except for the part about going to whine on the internet. I didn't do that part). It simply required me to go to the clerk to run my card inside instead of at the pump, an option also available to you at virtually every US gas station. While I'm sure it feels good to you for some reason to "blame Americans for making Canadians unwelcome", you're way off the mark.