Originally Posted by
Majuki
It's similar to gas stations here in some states that allow cash "discounts" over credit prices. With the current price of fuel one pays about 3% more for the credit price. This is particularly common in New Jersey where all stations are full service, and I see most people paying cash for fuel. The mentality is cash is cheaper than credit/debit. That mentality could spread to overseas purchases which is exactly what Visa/MC don't want.
You've got to remember how extortinate fuel is in many European countries though, most people don't even carry the the £80 or £90 (135 and 155 USD respectively) to fill up their car (I'm lucky if thats enough to fill up my car as Diesel is even more expensive!)! So I don't think paying cash for fuel would catch on! Its not like in the US where you can hand the cashier 40 or 50 dollars and it'll almost fill up a sedan. + A lot of people use cash back credit cards (the Santander 123 World MasterCard and American Express Platinum Cashback card is very popular in the UK), where you get 3% to 5% back on petrol anyway, so you'd still be breaking even. (+ The fact its illegal to charge extra to charge a credit card price for petrol in many EU member states, so its not really an issue).