Talks To Tackle Credit Fees At The Pump
Sydney Morning Herald
Monday June 12, 2006
MOTORING and service station groups say they will meet urgently with oil and credit card companies about service stations charging customers extra for using a credit card to buy petrol.
Some outlets are adding up to 2.6 per cent - or $2.60 on top of the $100 it takes to fill a large family car.The chief executive of the Service Station Association, Ron Bowden, defended the move, saying service stations had thin retail margins despite surging global oil prices driving up the cost of petrol."Operators are being squeezed and they are making less money now than when petrol was at 80 cents [a litre]," Mr Bowden said.He said the practice was not widespread and most likely to apply to credit cards with the highest merchant charges.The president of NRMA Motoring & Services, Alan Evans, said he and Mr Bowden would meet oil company and credit card company representatives for talks on the issue in the coming week.A spokesman for the Australian Consumers' Association, Gordon Renouf, said there were "positives and negatives" to the 2003 reforms, which allow businesses to pass on the cost of processing credit card payments."The theory was that cash payments would become cheaper but the jury's still out on whether that has happened or not," he said.More service stations are following the lead of airlines and telephone companies by imposing the surcharge, which has been sanctioned by the Reserve Bank.
© 2006 Sydney Morning Herald
