I believe it’s a violation of their merchant’s agreement with the credit card companies to charge more if you pay by credit card. If a gas station is doing this in your area you should call Master Card, Visa, or Amex.

Where you been? Credit card companies charge companies fees on any purchase that you use them for. What did you think was paying for all that infrastructure for people who have no fee cards and never carry a balance month-to-month? I’m guessing the only reason you actually see it passed on in an obvious way at the gas pump, as opposed to the grocery store, is because margins on fuel for most stations are already pitifully low. They markup the snacks and the bottled water you buy when you stop, not the gas.

Justin, No gas station can charge you more than the listed price on the pump. In other words, if the price is listed as $3.85/gal on the pump, that is what your credit card is charged when you make your purchase.
They can offer a discount if you pay by cash, but that is usually handled manually by the clerk.
A few stations here in upstate NY advertise a lower Cash price, clearly marked on their signage. It is usually anywhere from 4-6 cents cheaper per gallon, but they always show both the cash and credit prices on the road sign.
But they can NEVER charge you MORE than the advertised price at the pump for using a credit card. (In other words, they cannot advertise only a cash price and charge more for using a credit card.)
I cannot speak for the west coast, but here in NY, it’s the law.

if you catch this being done, report it to your credit card company immediately. the credit card’s merchant account contract forbids all merchants from adding so called credit card fee’s. This is a card industry wide rule. The merchant can loose the privilege to accept credit cards for such activity. A local city was caught doing this, and lost the ability to accept credit cards for all of their services.

It comes down to semantics, since it is perfectly legal for someone to offer a cash discount instead.

Some of the comments, I have read on this indicate some confusion. If you use your card in actual credit card mode, the merchants are forbid from charging extra fee’s. However, some merchants force certain cards to be used in PIN mode, which instead uses the ATM network. ATM networks charge a processing fee and allow the ATM operator to also add to the fee. Many banks will discount such fee’s if you point out to them it was a POS transaction rather than an ATM transaction.

Exo