Flying J gives VISA the boot

You guys are only getting the Flying J version of the story. The CEO of Flying J and I had a heated discussion about this whole VISA issue over a year ago.

The fact of the matter is that Flying J signed an agreement with Visa when they brought on their card services. That agreement PLAINLY states the merchant (Flying J) cannot sell products at a higher price just because the customer (you) uses a credit card. The associated fees (less than 1% for Flying J) is what we in retail call "A cost of doing business". Every other business in America has to eat this 1% and Flying J should be forced to as well!

The cash discount is a pile of crap! It is a CRIME that a company can post signage advertising one price, but the driver only finds out the real price when gets to the pump.

Flying J (along with Pilot etc) are taking advantage of the trucking companies and the drivers. If you don't think so, I pose this questions to you: Why are truckers charged 6 cents+ per gallon for diesel purchases and the auto side charges NO SURCHARGE? Don't say its just for diesel, we fuel straight trucks at the RV pumps every day and pay the posted price! (and they take Visa too) The reason? If they charged the 6 cents, the cars would go elsewhere to fuel.

I knew Visa was going to win this battle, it was just a matter of time. Evidently, enough customers of Flying J called Visa to get this issue addressed. Its all in black in white on the merchant agreement (which I can post if needed).

Flying J has elected to not accept Visa because of foreseen profit loss. All the other card companies have almost to same agreement, so its just a matter of time before they are dropped as well.

That 6 cents extra belongs in your pocket, not Flying J's.

 

Well if Visa is "every where you want to be" I guess you don't want to be at Flying J

 

Bullwinkle sounds like your a member of the Ramsey nation, GFU & best of luck.

 

That's the law everywhere. No one is allowed to raise prices because you accept a credit card. But they do.

Visa is accepted at all the Flying Js in the USA that we went to in the northeast this past summer. We usually use our MasterCard but have a Visa, too, and it was on the door as well.

 

Considering that Petro is just as often, and Cleaner, Plus since the T/A takeover, T/A's been cleaning up their act, I don't think I want to be in the ol' Greazy, Stinky, Unclean Flying like a lead balloon J.

 

well just like i recently found out as o/o the j holds $1434 for a fuel purchace if only $3 no matter what for 3 days on my tcheck card so therefore i will nolonget patronize the hook ever again and by the way if you do indepth research thats what happened to comdata and the hook

 

if you pay at the pump, just about all cards get hit for "hold funds" until the station runs a settlement. After the settlement you are only billed for the actual amount of purchase.

This can be avoided by paying inside.

The "cash versus credit" stuff has been going on since 1984 that I know of personally.

... and they'll work it out... just like they always have.

personally I don't think the credit card company's should be charging anything to the retailers.

let the customer who is actually the person with the "line of credit" pay all the siphoned off middle man fees and they'll realize how chase manhatten has been bilking the country and they might smarten up and chop their status, oops, I mean plastic in half.

that's my 2 cents... and I've been on both sides of the counter...

 

A while ago, I saw a sign at another truck stop -- Petro or Pilot -- stating that they would no longer accept Visa for fuel purchases. Their explanation (on the sign) was that Visa stopped paying them for at the pump purchases and the cards needed to be run inside instead of at the pump. They said that the fuel purchases were over the limit and were being charged back to the company by Visa as unapproved costing the company millions a year. I wish I remembered which one it was, but having experience with the credit card industry, it made sense to me and also helped explain why Flying J would stop taking Visa for fuel purchases. I can only imagine what a nightmare it would be for all of those companies to receive those chargebacks and try to collect on them from the drivers. Also, I'm willing to bet that the driver had no idea that the truck stop he fueled at was never actually paid for it as he probably was billed for it by Visa. We use Comdata or TCH for our purchases, but there is a $750 daily limit on each and with the cost of fuel right now, if we fuel the tractor and reefer, it is over that amount and we have had a couple of times where Comdata has cut us off for being over the limit. What a pain.

 

I've been watching people's comments in this thread for a while now. It's too bad that the decision about Visa at the Flying J Plazas has affected so many people.

Visa was back charging Flying J thousands of dollars each month and there was nothing Flying J could do about it. Customers would call Visa and complain that they had paid for the fuel, yet Visa would still refund the customers their money. Flying J tried to negotiate with Visa but as a last resort, Visa got dropped.

There are a lot of good reasons to not use Visa or any credit card for fuel. Whether the customer realizes it or not, credit card companies are charging the customer a percentage or a markup above the price of the fuel just for using their card. If cash price is $3.30, you'll pay $3.35 or $3.36 per gallon when it's all said and done.

Flying J has programs that help drivers pay for fuel that are equal to that of paying with cash. The TCH card is one of them. I would jump on that program rather than waste money using the regular credit cards.

Believe it or not, Flying J is trying to help its customers as well.