Credit cards allowed for fuel

Fin24.com>>Economy>>Credit cards allowed for fuel.

Motorists could soon use their credit cards to pay for petrol and diesel at fuel stations, the Department of Minerals and Energy said on Tuesday.

However, the draft bill published in the government gazette and the department’s website will only come to pass if the public gives the department a nod.

“The department has published regulations on the government gazette and we are asking the public to respond to that issue. This is a means of being technologically advanced and a way of coming on par with the international public,” spokesperson Bheki Khumalo said.

He said credit card payments would also contribute towards the fight against crime as fuel stations have always been easy targets for criminals.

Also, motorists without petrol cards would be at ease when filling up their cars late at night as they would no longer carry huge amounts of money around, Khumalo said.

“We all know that most fuel stations have fallen victim to robberies because people know there’s cash there. We have been talking to the SA banking council and the fuel retailers association… they are very excited about this,” he said.

Using credit cards will also come in handy for the 2010 World Cup events as thousands of tourists and sport fanatics expected to visit the country next year will travel freely without fear of being crime victims.

“We are expecting an influx of foreigners for the Confederations Cup and the World Cup and we think it’ll make it easier for them not to carry around cash… that’s a phenomenon in European countries,” Khumalo said.

A public meeting is expected to be held on May 20 to allow the department to “consolidate the input from the public”, Khumalo said.

The draft published in the department’s website reads: “A retailer must accept payment in the form of cash, debit, credit and hybrid cards for the payment of petrol and diesel supplied into the tanks of vehicles”.

Banks taking NCA to its limit?

So I don’t know about you but my work colleagues seem to have made it onto some “spam-me list” that the major banks in South Africa have in their possession.  And yes, you guessed it, they’re being offered all sorts of loans, insurance products and being sent reminders that they have all sorts of obscene amounts of money available on their credit cards to spend before Christmas.

The biggest culprits are Absa and Virgin Money in this case.

Since the inception of the  National Credit Act (NCA) back in 2007, it was deemed illegal for banks to offer up all sorts of credit to people that either (A) couldn’t afford to pay it back and (B) didn’t want it to begin with.  The infamous cold-call which usually went to the tune of: “You have been pre-approved for an XYZ credit card with so-many thousands of rands credit limit,” was finally put to an end.

Or so we thought.

Banks like Absa and Nedbank (SAA Voyager) have been hard at work cold-calling unsuspecting consumers “inviting” them to apply for credit cards, which is a clever twist on the traditional pre-approval call.  It’s technically not illegal because they’re not offering you credit on the phone – they’re merely inviting you to apply.

Sneaky sneaky.

But the cherry on the cake came last week as myself and a number of colleagues were bombarded with SMSs from Virgin Money SA to “remind us” that it’s free to swipe our cards and, if you didn’t opt out on the first SMS, another SMS came a day later saying: “…you have so many thousands of rands available on your Virgin Money Credit Card to spend so get swiping…”.

I appreciate the fact that banks need to make money and that they are businesses that have responsibilities to their shareholders, but you have to ask if these organisations are pushing it just a little bit when it comes to what is legal and what is not in relation to the NCA.

The Act was brought in to stop South Africans taking on too much debt and to avoid the ongoing credit binge that consumers seem to have embarked on since every bank, clothing store, cosmetics company, airline and corner fish-and-chips shop launched a Visa- or MasterCard-branded credit card.  They seem to be finding loopholes and technicalities that allow them to continue offering credit in attractive ways.

Good for the banks, but not really all that good for the consumer.

Either way, consumers need to be on the ball to ensure that they don’t get caught out while they are in the euphoric shopping mode that this time of the year puts us all in…