4 ms·

I take my UK credit card to the US and can't pay for gas at the pump as I don't have a valid zip code. I have to go inside and pre-auth. This process sometimes

by crb 7y ago

I take my UK credit card to the US and can't pay for gas at the pump as I don't have a valid zip code. I have to go inside and pre-auth. This process sometimes only requires a swipe, sometimes chip and pin - but never a zip code. Could they just fix that?

nikanj 7y ago
Canadian postal codes are of the form a4b 5c6. Most US things that ask for a zip code will accept either 00456 or 45600. Do UK postal codes have numbers in them? Have you tried left- or right padding those numbers with zeros?
- scarejunba 7y ago
  They have letters. SE16 4EP is a code from near my home there. It's probably not worth making it work.
  - nikanj 7y ago
    So do the Canadian ones, you just skip the letters and add zeroes. Try 00164 or 16400 for SE16 4EP.
    - scarejunba 7y ago
      Oh I misunderstood what you meant! That's a clever thing to have tried. Fortunately, I have local cards in all of these countries so I haven't tried anything like that. How interesting that it works! One of my British cards (Capital One?) has me use all zeroes.
fonix 7y ago
the fact you have to hand your card to a (hopefully) trusted source to swipe the card on a (hopefully) trusted terminal means it shouldn't be scraped there. the outdoor card swipers are just open to the public 24/7 for someone to stealth slip on a device
- ceejayoz 7y ago
  That won't save you. Check out this video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5b1axnNK-wI https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5b1axnNK-wI Two attackers. One distracts the clerk, a second slips a skimmer over the in-store point-of-sale terminal in three seconds.
kube-system 7y ago
An edge case, with ~0 financial impact, and a functional workaround? They could fix it, but I'd be surprised if anyone decided it was worth allocating any resources towards.
throwaway_tech 7y ago
>Could they just fix that? In my experience the zip code is built into the gas pump machines for 2 reasons: a) provide a least a modicum of security at the pumps the card user is an authorized user; and b) more importantly there is a good chance the manual input of the confirmed zip code provides a slight discount to the gas station with respect to their merchant services contract (which is probably pretty important on low margin purchases of gas).
dcminter 7y ago
Last time I encountered this issue (in LA) the attendant correctly advised me that 00000 would work instead. Worth a shot next time!

by crb 7y ago

nikanj 7y ago

Canadian postal codes are of the form a4b 5c6. Most US things that ask for a zip code will accept either 00456 or 45600. Do UK postal codes have numbers in them? Have you tried left- or right padding those numbers with zeros?

scarejunba 7y ago
They have letters. SE16 4EP is a code from near my home there. It's probably not worth making it work.
- nikanj 7y ago
  So do the Canadian ones, you just skip the letters and add zeroes. Try 00164 or 16400 for SE16 4EP.
  - scarejunba 7y ago
    Oh I misunderstood what you meant! That's a clever thing to have tried. Fortunately, I have local cards in all of these countries so I haven't tried anything like that. How interesting that it works! One of my British cards (Capital One?) has me use all zeroes.

fonix 7y ago

the fact you have to hand your card to a (hopefully) trusted source to swipe the card on a (hopefully) trusted terminal means it shouldn't be scraped there. the outdoor card swipers are just open to the public 24/7 for someone to stealth slip on a device

ceejayoz 7y ago
That won't save you. Check out this video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5b1axnNK-wI https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5b1axnNK-wI Two attackers. One distracts the clerk, a second slips a skimmer over the in-store point-of-sale terminal in three seconds.

kube-system 7y ago

An edge case, with ~0 financial impact, and a functional workaround? They could fix it, but I'd be surprised if anyone decided it was worth allocating any resources towards.

throwaway_tech 7y ago

>Could they just fix that? In my experience the zip code is built into the gas pump machines for 2 reasons: a) provide a least a modicum of security at the pumps the card user is an authorized user; and b) more importantly there is a good chance the manual input of the confirmed zip code provides a slight discount to the gas station with respect to their merchant services contract (which is probably pretty important on low margin purchases of gas).

dcminter 7y ago

Last time I encountered this issue (in LA) the attendant correctly advised me that 00000 would work instead. Worth a shot next time!