Team-BHP (https://www.team-bhp.com/forum/)

-   Shifting gears (https://www.team-bhp.com/forum/shifting-gears/)

-   -   The Credit Card Thread (https://www.team-bhp.com/forum/shifting-gears/92603-credit-card-thread-156.html)

A little OT: I dont think the petrol pumps (at least in Delhi) are ready for this. With attendants sharing POS machines and the time taken for a single transaction to go through, I expect we will have queues at petrol pumps a little too often.

what about the Fuel surcharge when you pay by card? Will that still be levied? They could have announced waiver of the surcharge instead of this discount.

As for the fuel surcharge and discount, many banks refund the surcharge (maybe for specific OMCs). I think, as in the west, fuel suppliers will negotiate better rates with the card cos, and only then will thinks settle down. Let us wait and watch.

With a 0.75% discount , the card charges still remain over 2 %. I see no reason paying an additional 2% for card , will stick to cash.

If other forms of payment ( UPI etc ) come up may consider using them - provided that I stand to benefit from the the transaction.

Is this 2% surcharge applicable only on credit cards? I'm asking this since I've pumped fuel from 3 different bunks in the last 3 weeks and I've never been charged anything extra when I paid from my Canara Bank debit card.

Most of the banks does not charge surcharge till dec 31st 2016 due to demonetization issue.

I've been using my credit card to pay for petrol for at least 10 years now. Have never been asked for any 2% extra to the best of my knowledge. I was surprised by the post that mentioned about it. I use the credit card a lot, for groceries to vegetables to petrol to restaurants to garments to online payments. Except for Bangaloreone, that I use for electricity bill payment, I am really not aware of any other place where I had to pay anything extra for using card.
One extra benefit of using the credit card is reward points. I get almost Rs. 5k worth of reward points every year that I get exchanged into Amazon gift cards.

In my opinion there are two aspects to this whole issue. Somehow we are ending up mixing up two different things here. Or may be government needs to clarify some more. The 0.75% discount is on the cost of fuel if you adopt cashless means of payment. This is something the oil companies will bear. This is purely at the pump level. The bank is nowhere in the picture in this case.

The card charges that are levied on fuel are a different matter altogether. Banks generally charge what are known as merchant charges from the EDC machine holder for every transaction. In the case of government entities like Fuel Companies, Railways etc. they have traditionally refused to pay this to the banks. Hence it ends up showing up directly in the monthly statements of card holders as the banks will extract their pound of flesh by hook or by crook. This levy is a separate thing and will continue to get levied wherever they were levied earlier. This is irrespective of the 0.75% discount on the fuel for card payments.

Of course where your bank has a special arrangement to waive off this surcharge in certain cases (like ICICI Bank has in HP pumps for ICICI EDC machines, or HDFC has in some of its cards for all fuel refills at all bunks between a certain limit) they will remain so under this new move.

Yes please start using IOC card asap. There is no catch, only gain.

I was using IOC extensively till the SBI came, since i can use it across all fuel brands. IOC pumps i keep using IOC card and have got lot of free fuel vouchers earlier.

No. Most of credit cards have a waiver clause for this 2.5% thing. Some of them waive off if you fill from certain oil companys bunk using their bank POS machine. Ex: CitiBank has a IOC tied credit card which has this feature.
Some other cards have a waiver of this unless you are filling in a certain amount.

However, do note that this surchage thing is not limted to only fuel bunks. Banks levy this on all card transactions, just that in certain sectors like fuel retail, jewellery, two wheeler sales. The shopowner / retailer may not be ready to cough up this surcharge since their margins are less.

Hence for fuel bunk machines, they have programmed it as the surcharge will be debitted seperately from account. This is not the case with other transactions, hence you can find smaller shopowners asking for additional 2.5% if you insist on paying with card.

A very valid point.

Here, what is happening is that banks are getting a good 2.5% for all transactions. While oil marketing companies are paying up as cash back. This I feel is a weird calculation.

In place of that, goverment / RBI should have mandated an uppper limit of surchage. For example, 2.5% or say Rs 5. Which ever is lower. This would help in more people adopting cashless payment methods.

I use cards for all my fuel payments when in cities. In highways, I try to pay by cash due to worry about card misuse and also due to uncertainity if cards will be accepted or not. There was no transaction charges for debit card linked to my salary account till this year start. However, I had to change the older card due to it getting broken and bank issued me a new card. From then onwards I am getting charged for any bunk payments.

For the same account, if I am doing a NEFT transaction it is free. Else too, from a bank branch NEFT charge is capped to Rs 30 I guess. In the same place, for a card transaction of a full tank for my XUV is costing me around Rs 100. :deadhorse

Also , having the .75% discount only at PSU pumps puts the private players at a disadvantage by hitting their margins and distorts the market economics.

Discounts/subsidies like these should be applied uniformly.

Jaggu, do you have a HDFC card (either Titanium/Platinum or Regalia). This is one card I know since ages. It does not charge any surcharge on fuel irrespective of the bunk or the machine used. For most others there are too many riders. Some insist on specific bunks, brands or at the least on their own EDC machines to be used for the swipe for you to be eligible for the surcharge waiver. HDFC does none of that skulduggery.

Did you try to speak to the bank and get this corrected? If you are eligible for some privileges a card replacement should not change that at all. This is most possibly a linkage error (linking the card number to the right scheme under which the card is issued).

I am not sure of this but did the government say that this discount is only valid at the PSU pumps? I did not see any such riders till date!

I have been using ICICI HPCL card for last many years.

I not only get fuel surcharge + service tax reversal but also get 2.5% cashback at the end of the billing cycle (subject to a maximum of Rs.100).

I think it is a very good offer.

I don't know, where this 0.75% discount will be accommodated. :)

Thanks will check on that and this reminded me of another issue. Curiously the POS machine wont accept the above SBI card in some filling stations. Totally random this happens so can't really say one brand of fuel outlet, only good things so far have been it would be an IOC station and i could use the alternate card.

So how is HDFC card acceptance?