I have not seen a station that does that for a long time .
In my state, you can’t charge legally extra for using a credit card to purchase gas.
However, a station can give customers a discount for using cash, which–of course–amounts to the same thing.
And, some stations around here do give a discount for cash gas purchases.
Obviously, it’s all about how the statute is written, and this one has a loophole big enough to drive a Mack truck through it.
It’s a false comparative. You’re grouping large transactions to rationalise and justifying small transaction behaviour. The transaction was for $7, your $600 equates to around $30,000 worth of spending on rough averages for cashbacks.
The transaction being spoken about literally is pennies - about 15 of them which would need to happen 4,000 times to be of significance.
No denying the satisfaction (oddly deep and behaviour driving at times) that comes from even tiny wins but to rationalise it as substantial rather than the pettiness it is, is false.
How is doing something that makes me $600 a year not substantial? I’ll be happy to get you my address for an ‘insubstantial’ $600 check!
Do you just not even use a cash back card ? So what if there are small purchases ? They all add up and most people don’t have a lot of small purchases and those that do don’t have to fumble around with change .
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You just reinforced my point - $600 for most people is not made up of small purchases. Yet you started this with your initial criticism in this thread of the use of cash.
And to answer your other question: Yes I do get cashback - I use a card for most transactions but also often have cash but like you point out, the significant part of any annual total is not from $7 transactions - nor is it from that cash.
But as is human, I also get immense and irrational satisfaction from getting the best price for gas - even when it’s only cents. But that’s a hobby - I quantify it in terms of popsicles and ice-cream cones.
Now THAT’s a rebate you can sink your teeth into.
TWEET–Blows the referee’s whistle…
Don’t get “Red Carded,” when I started this topic it was intended to offer you a chance to reflect on your life’s experiences, your life’s wisdom, , and share your insights on how those differ from your grandkids or even your own kids.
Please let’s not attack each other conduct and our beliefs.
Bill Gates’ annual income is $4 Billion plus, or about $330 Million a month, or $11,000,000 a day, or $1,375,000 an hour, or $23,000 an hour…
Consequently, it was once said that if Bill Gates saw some loose change (3-quarters) on the sidewalk it would cost him about $300 to stop and pick it up…
I would tell Bill to stop and pick the quarters up and he would be Seventy-five cents richer…
So, if one prefers to pay with credit and get cash-back or get the immediate discount for cash, it’s all one’s perspective.
From my perspective, it’s more fun to pick on the grandkids…
I just really don’t get much satisfaction from stuff like this. I usually go to the same place for gas and other places for other items. I just don’t pay a lot of attention. I’m kind of a loyal guy though so back in the days of no gas or every other gas purchases because of your license plate, this guy did all he could to provide gas for his customers. Driving 100 miles a day and being able to buy gas so I still support the business regardless of the price. Same thing with the bank that supported me in 1968. Still there substantially. Same reason I will not do business with Citibank.
I generally will not use a debit card though for under $10 but I did have to use it at Costco for a $3 hot dog since it was the only way. To use the laundry at Disney, I had to use the card for soap for $1 and a couple bucks for the washer and dryer. I guess those have been my smallest card purchases. Never used it for less than a dollar and losing a few cents didn’t bother me. To each his own. As long as you don’t force me to do what you all do, I’m fine.
Agree that is my motto for every thing in life that way we all get along you do your thing and I do mne.
Bjensky raised a good point, it’s about our kids and grandkids …
Being a “Beancounter” as far as Credit Cards and gas go, if the discount for Cash is more than the 1% rebate I get from my credit card I go cash. Assuming $3 / gallon the 1% rebate saves .$ 03 per gallon so if the cash price is 5 cents less, that’s a savings of 5 cents vs 1 cent. In dollar terms, assuming a 15 gallon fill up, that yields a net Cash savings of 4%, $1.80 vs. Credit Card.
Of course that assumes that it’s worth the gas driving to the bank to get the $45 cash and you don’t get mugged for the cash while filling up.
On the other hand, if our Bank Savings Account offered a 4% interest rate we’d probably be doing backflips but it’s a different situation.
But back to the kids/grandkids, their world is different and generally much better. Returning to the original OP, I don’t think that values have changed so much as the environment has changed.
A “Three on the Tree” vs. a “6 speed automatic”? A “4 Barrel Carb with a Manual Choke” vs. “Fuel Injection”? “Measals, Mumps, Rubella and Polio” vs. “Covid” injection?
Do quote Bob Dylan, “Don’t stand in the hallway, don’t block up the hall cause the times they are a changein’” and I suspect my next vehicle will be electric.
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I am 100 percent smarter than my grandkids!!! without any doubts…I do not have any yet. LOL but as far as my kids, I guess it would depend on what we are talking about.
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etc. etc. not to cut your explanation short . . .
You sound like my CPA BIL. But he got his 4% and I got my 23%. I take risks though and don’t worry about the gas rebate.
You make a great point about supporting good operators. Where I am it’s hard for independent operators to get a foot-hold because of the fuel wholesaler supply chain. Because of this, gas prices have historically been somewhat higher than other parts of the country. Very dodgy price controls & fixing. However since a couple of new independents have arrived, with direct supplies from the refinery, prices within a certain radius of those stations have dropped by as much as $1 per gallon! This has mainly been in wealthier areas at first (a function of the geography and busier city access points) but these operators will spread out into the other areas.
The best thing I can do is support and reward those with cheap prices so as to help drive prices down across the board. Fuel regulations are so tight here that fuel is fuel is fuel, across the board, there’s no real technical/quality need for brand loyalty.
My guy had his own oil company and tanker truck. Phillips 66, then Mobil. He’d always go up and get what he could from the refinery. Knew his way around I guess.
Almost the gas stations near me that have a cash option charge less for cash.
Not one station I know of around here have discounts for cash. But most have this discount debit pay cards where you get 10 cents off if you use the debit card. Essentially, it’s like cash since it’s a debit. Not a fan of these systems since it allows them to take money directly out of your bank account.
What’s really interesting to me is that this Covid stuff has cut way down on my use of cash. I can go weeks at a time with the same $.37 change and $23.00 in my wallet (for example), because I use my cash back credit card for everything. One credit card bill a month that I tell my bank to pay electronically. And the 600 checks we ordered when we moved to this house 21 years ago? We still have about 200 left.
I think cash is on the way out.
My grandkid is 9 and doesn’t know how to make change.
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When my grand kids were here last summer, they were saving up for a new game computer. All they wanted was cash. I gave them each a bag of coins and we went down to the bank. They put the coins into the coin machine and took the receipt up to the teller to convert it into $70 dollars worth of dollar bills. Then had a look around the bank at some of the exhibits and a little money and banking discussion fit for an 8 and 10 year old. Kids love cash cash.
In the past few years I’ve had the opportunity to show some high schoolers what a matchbook is.
Their reaction is nearly always: “What is that?”
They tend to only know how to use lighters and “light-anywhere” stick matches.
When I try to show them how to lite a match, half of them are afraid to put their finger on the match tip. Once they try it a few times, they get it pretty quickly.
Where do you find matchbooks nowadays?