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As a non-US citizen: What's the deal with entering ZIP codes in some gas stations in the US? Tax reasons?
by folli 7y ago
As a non-US citizen: What's the deal with entering ZIP codes in some gas stations in the US? Tax reasons?
- numpad0 7y agoI’ve heard it’s a substitute solution for billing address textbox for that interface
- tylergetsay 7y agoFraud protection
- kemotep 7y agoFrom what I understand it is for fraud protection. If you steal a credit card you likely do not know what the billing zip code is. According to this blog[0] they also collect the data for "marketing purposes". [0]:https://blogs.creditcards.com/2014/05/zip-codes-gas-station-pay-pump-fraud.php https://blogs.creditcards.com/2014/05/zip-codes-gas-station-...
- imglorp 7y agoOn that note, I just used a pump with EMV for the first time, (US, in Delaware) which didn't ask for zip. I guess they're just starting to get deployed.
- Sanzig 7y agoIt's also extremely annoying when driving in the states as a Canadian, since our postal codes don't follow the same format. Canadian postal codes are six character alphanumeric strings with alternating letters and numbers, so you can't enter them on the keypad. The trick, which isn't obvious, is that you're supposed to drop the letters from your postal code, leaving three digits, and then append two zeros to the end. For example: K9Z 2P7 -> 92700. In Canada we don't have to deal with this, since pretty much all our pumps have supported EMV chip cards for years.
- takeda 7y agoI remeber a foreigner asking me what should he enter for zip code, when fueling, I did not know the answer, but I'm wondering how did he solve it.
- lunias 7y agoI think it's just fraud protection, but data farming makes sense too... It's only required some times at some stations it seems. At the station that I frequent I don't have to enter a ZIP, but other stations owned by the same company just miles away require one.