Calgary Jeep Association
General Forums => Chit-Chat => Topic started by: Vinman on April 26, 2016, 08:13:10 PM
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Everytime I travel to the US its been a pain to buy gas, when you try to pay at the pump it always asks for a 5 digit zip code or the pump won't accept the card forcing you to go into the store and pre-pay or they may hold your card.
Well, I found out today that if you enter the 3 numbers in your postal code followed by "00" for a total of 5 numeric digits the pump will now accept the card.
Is this common knowledge and I've been living under a rock or maybe sniffed too much gas?
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yeah the damn 5 digit zip code, it pisses me off every time I need to fuel up in USA, but I did not know about the first 3 numbers of postal code followed by 00, I'm gonna try that
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First I heard about it
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Yup, I cursed for years over the zip code thing. I went to buy gas this morning and the chick at the counter told about it so I tried it and it works!!!!
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I decided to do some digging and found an article in the Globe & Mail from 2013 about using the postal code plus zeroes when travelling. I guess I better crawl out from under my rock more often and pay attention.
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Yes. A gas station attendant told us this years ago.
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Awesome, good to know! I was getting a bit annoyed in Hawaii recently with the zip code security thing! Thanks Vince
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What is the reason they force you to enter a zip code during purchase anyhow?
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What is the reason they force you to enter a zip code during purchase anyhow?
Avoid using a stolen credit card or just filling up and driving away.
I think most of the US cards don't have chips or require pins yet.
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Avoid using a stolen credit card or just filling up and driving away.
I think most of the US cards don't have chips or require pins yet.
Correct - only "Visa Debit" cards and ATM cards seem to have PINs in the US. It was a bit of an adjustment when I moved down.
Credit cards are starting to have chips in them now here....but the places where you actually insert the card are still few and far between, and even there you don't enter a PIN.
I wasn't smart enough to figure out the "00" thing so I just went ahead and got a US based credit card when I started travelling to the US a lot.
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Careful of digits in your PIN too when traveling. I got sidetracked in some country side town in Spain on a 5 digit PIN. Ryanair airport an hour from Barcelona.
I used a word as my PIN, I lived and I learned. UK was fine though, Ireland too probably.
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Yup, could have used this info a few months ago lol thanks for sharing!!