"The credit card companies are making more per gallon of gas than the gas station owners."
"At the pump, a dash for cash; As credit card fees pinch profits, stations make it pay to use greenbacks" by Erin Ailworth, Globe Staff | July 16, 2008
ACTON - When filling up at Bursaw Gas & Oil, it pays to leave your charge card in your wallet.
Here, where the line of waiting cars routinely stretches across the lot and to the street, most motorists know that paying with cash saves a dime a gallon.
Such savings are being offered by more and more area gas stations as a way to offer customers a break while also trying to combat the heftier credit card fees merchants must pay as the price of gas rises. To do so, many gas stations are walking a fine line between what constitutes an allowable "discount" versus a prohibited "surcharge" that penalizes customers who prefer using a credit card.
Scott Dummer, the general manager at the Hingham Harbor Sunoco on Route 3A:
"When you buy one gallon of gasoline that's over $4 a gallon, it costs us 10 cents on the credit card."
And that dime is enough to make or break many gas merchants.
Paul O'Connell, executive director of the New England Service Station and Auto Repair Association:
"A lot of people don't understand that if the gas station is making 10 cents a gallon and gas is $4 a gallon, the credit card fees could be 8 to 10 cents a gallon. The credit card companies are making more per gallon of gas than the gas station owners."
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