OK so I’m always flummoxed as a Canadian by the requirement to enter my zip code when buying gas when I travel to the US.
Rumour has it that this is to prevent fraud.
I’ve heard that if you pay by debit card, you don’t need to enter your zip code.
Is this true?
That’s my understanding. The zip code is like a pin for a credit card vs debit card.
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I’ve been required to enter my zip code when using my debit card. I guess it’s up to the station?
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I have to enter my zip when I use my debit too.
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I know there is a way that Canadians can use their postal code to pay at the pumps. I think you use the three numbers from your postal code followed by two zeros. So if your postal code is A1B 2C3, you would enter 12300. I will check with my husband tomorrow to make sure that is the correct pattern. I am sure he got it to work the last time we drove to Florida.
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I think it’s the software being used. The closest convenience store used to not ask for a zip code until an upgrade at the pumps. Now a zip is requested . No idea if it works tho several sites have it.
This got me curious so I searched around and on
How To Pay for Gas in the U.S. With an International Credit Card and from 2015, I saw this: “So, if your Canadian billing address is right beside Schwartz’s Deli in Montreal where the postal code is H2W 1L2, you would enter ‘21200.’ Where the ‘212’ are the numbers from the postal code, and the ‘00’ is padding to get to 5 digits… Interestingly, if your billing address is in Head-Smashed-In Buffalo Jump, Alberta where the postal code is T0L 0Z0, you actually would enter ‘00000.’”
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You can pay cash by going inside and you can use your card also inside, but not at all gas stations as we found out on our last trip.
Is it too uncouth to suggest you just “pay” with a ski-mask and an accessory?
I hear that bypasses the zip-code thingy
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ROFL 
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You can usually also pay inside instead of at the pump, if you select that option, and therefore bypass the zip code as as that isn’t a thing on the cash registers inside.
I think it depends on the card and the reader. When I had a “swipe” card I always had to enter my zip code. Now I have a “chip” card, I can’t recall the last time I had to enter the zip code.
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I hope you figure this out.
I am happy to pay extra to not have to go inside and pay cash.
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Me too. Any pump that takes the chip and have to “tap”, no entering any information is required.
Only a few of the gas stations around here do this, but it’s illegal to pump your own gas here, so you have to shout your zip code to the attendant lol.
No, I’m totally serious.
Jersey people don’t pump gas. I know how, as I’ve lived in other places. But F that noise.
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Well, wow! I thought that went away completely in the era of mullets and Units!
Ya learn somethin’ new…
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True. Some gas stations support GPay or Apple Pay as well, so if your phone supports NFC, or you have a smart watch that does, you can pay that way without needing to worry about a zip code. My problem is that support for paying that way isn’t quite universal yet.
And when I’ve gone inside suddenly I’ve gotta be…
“…I think I’m going to need $23.74 US dollars on pump number 3, please”
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You can pay inside with a credit card, and they will only charge you the amount you pump. It is only tricky if you are paying by cash that you have to do any math!
Yup we’re the last hold out. Oregon used to be the same, but they got rid of it a few years ago. There’s talk now to pass a bill to end the ban but I don’t think it will come to pass. It won’t actually make gas cheaper, companies will just absorb the savings into profits. And our gas is often cheaper than most of the nation anyway. My local gas station is currently $4.05/gallon, while just across the Delaware from me where they pump their own it’s $4.19.
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Checked with DH and as @janamelia also said, that is the correct pattern. However, he also mentioned that there were one or two times where even that didn’t work and he had to go into the gas station to pay in advance.