Petrol charge sparks outrage in Australia

[lovuian]

http://feeds.bignewsnetwork.com/?sid=7b0ec0f8ec6098d2

Outrage is growing in Australia over gasoline stations that charge a fee of up to $2.50 a tank for motorists using credit or charge cards, a report says.

The Australian Broadcasting Corp. said motoring organizations, along with federal opposition politicians, are trying to crack down on gasoline, or petrol, station operators who charge such fees.

Given the already high price of gasoline, the growing fees are becoming increasingly draining to motorists, the broadcaster said. Service stations claim they need to pass the charges due to low price margins
more...
A $100 dollars WHOAH!!!

[NYC]

1. People should go back to using cash.

Credit cards leave a trail of evidence. Think of all the information all sorts of companies are compiling on us, and then allowing that information to be stolen. Why volunteer more information? Use cash when you can.

[raccoon]

6. A good suggestion, NYC.

Same with grocery store cards. Although sometimes they can save you some money.

[NYC]

8. Use the grocery discount card only when

you are actually receiving a discount. Also, if you can do it without inconveniencing yourself and everyone around you, pay for the discounted items separately, and don't provide the card when you pay for the nondiscounted items.

I don't use a grocery discount card, but I do use a drug store discount card. Since I don't purchase much, it's easy and convenient to use the card for discounted items only. The drug store thinks I subsist on Listerine and shampoo. :)

Years ago, I decided it was not John Ashcroft's business what kind of cheese I bought.

[FloridaPat]

2. I notice some gas stations are doing this here, but not at those prices.

Last I heard it was illegal to charge extra for credit card services.

[lindisfarne]

3. AU$100 is less than US$100. don't know the current exchange rate

with the US dollar falling so much. And petrol has higher taxes in Australia.

[Bear down under]

4. about 74.5 cents US to the Oz dollar

It fluctuates by a couple of tenths of a cent from day to day. But if you say $A100 = $US75 you're not far off.

The credit-card charge is iniquitous.

[Josh]

10. Probably, but we'd never know -

it's funny, I remember hearing that the US has the second lowest tax burden in the world, and yet we always hear people complaining that their taxes are too high.

Then I went to the States. Every time you order something you pay a couple of taxes on it, and they are ADDED to the bill. Like if you buy a sandwich for $3.50 your bill has $3.50 and then 67c in tax or something like that.

Over here all the taxes are included in the final price, so we just simply NEVER NOTICE IT. I imagine that if the taxes were added to everything we bought then we probably WOULD get pissed off at our taxes being too high, much like people in the States often do.

I found that really interesting. I prefer not having to see "tax" everywhere, even if I don't know how much of the product I'm paying for is the product itself and how much is the tax.

[w4rma]

5. Credit card companies get a percentage of every sale made with them

They would like their cut to stay hidden from the public.

[wordpix2]

7. interesting b/c credit card cos.=banks, which are very tied to BigOil

One big clusterfuck by the robber barons and WE'RE the ones getting fucked. :puke:

[lindisfarne]

9. Credit fees are somewhat offset by smaller costs/risks assoc. w/ cash

I don't think credit card fees are completely offset by the reduced costs and risks of handling cash, but they are to some extent. Someone has to count the cash, take it to the bank, and by having less cash in cash registers, you reduce your risk in case of theft. There's also employee time involved in making change (as well as employee error). Also, credit cards have to a large degree replaced checks, which also had their own risks and processing time (including standing in line behind someone who takes forever to write out a check - this makes for slower lines and unhappier customers, plus wastes employee time).

I won't argue the credit card fees couldn't be lower (some of the larger stores do negotiate them) but they are to some degree offset by the savings I mention above.

[muriel_volestrangler]

11. That's from a price of Aus $1.391 a litre

http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2006/06/10/1149815358182.html?from=top5

which is $1.391 * 0.746 US$/AUS$ * 3.78 litres/US gallon = US$3.92/gallon.

Not as high as most European prices; a bit more than Canadian prices (in Ontario, about Can $1/litre = $1 * 0.9 US$/Can$ * 3.78 = US$3.40/gallon.