Fuss over card payments at petrol pumps: What does it cost you?

Here is a look at what the issue is about and what it costs you to use a card at a petrol pump.

Debit and credit card issuers (usually banks) and fuel retailers have been sparring over card payments at petrol stations. Matters threatened to come to a head over the past weekend and fuel retailers initially said they would stop accepting card payments from Monday. They have since deferred this deadline till the end of this week

Banks decided to defer charging fuel retailers the transaction fee till January 13 after petrol pumps threaten to stop accepting credit and debit cards in protest. (Representative image)

The issue has to do with charges related to usage of credit and debit cards at petrol stations that come out of the dealer’s profit margins.

After 8 November, to make things easier for customers and to promote non-cash transactions, the government announced a 0.75% discount on card purchases of fuel. It also waived the MDR (A ‘merchant discount rate’ is the fee that merchants pay every time a card is used) on such purchases for 50 days. With that promotional period elapsing, banks said they would reinstate the charge.

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