BrianBosworth
18.05.08, 10:35
Card companies take a percentage of sales from stations. As gas prices continue to soar, consumers may have to bear more of the costs.
Buying gasoline with a credit card could be hurting your local independent gas station owner - and you may have to pay for it.
That's because credit cards charge merchant fees in the form of a percentage of sales - and those fees eat into the fixed per-gallon sum that gas retailers tack onto pump prices.
Some stations raise prices in order to keep profit steady. But others are unwilling to risk the competitive disadvantage or unable due to contracts with suppliers, and absorb the hit.
Source: Dealers: Credit card rates add to already high gas prices - May. 14, 2008 (http://money.cnn.com/2008/05/14/news/economy/credit_cards_gasoline/index.htm?postversion=2008051708)
Buying gasoline with a credit card could be hurting your local independent gas station owner - and you may have to pay for it.
That's because credit cards charge merchant fees in the form of a percentage of sales - and those fees eat into the fixed per-gallon sum that gas retailers tack onto pump prices.
Some stations raise prices in order to keep profit steady. But others are unwilling to risk the competitive disadvantage or unable due to contracts with suppliers, and absorb the hit.
Source: Dealers: Credit card rates add to already high gas prices - May. 14, 2008 (http://money.cnn.com/2008/05/14/news/economy/credit_cards_gasoline/index.htm?postversion=2008051708)