New Safeway Payment System Penalizes Those Who Buy Gas With Credit Cards
DENVER (CBS4) - Colorado may now be seeing lower gas prices but one method of payment may drive some prices back up.
Safeway is now charging customers an extra 10 cents per gallon if they use a credit card and signs on the pump are confusing customers.
"The sign says $3.05, so I stopped and put in my card and it's $3.15. What's up with that?" Safeway customer Annamarie Ellis said.
Safeway says they're committed to keeping their gas prices competitive for all payments, but customers paying with cash or debit get the lowest price on gas. Some say it's very misleading. Others says it's just business.
"It's a way to get around the surcharge for the credit cards. Instead of charging more for credit cards, the way they do it they charge less for debit. So it's the same difference, they're doing it upside down," customer Marty Esquibel said.
King Soopers says they offer the same price to customers, whether cash, credit or debit.
"The feedback from our customers has been they like having one price when they swipe their card," Kelli McGannon with King Soopers said. "They know which price they're paying at the pump."
Safeway says offering a discount for cash or debit is common in other parts of the country and that's why they rolled the program out in Colorado this month.
