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Pardon my contrariness, but I don't think spending $100 on fuel is all that satisfying.
If gas stations were smart they’d have a bell ring when you land on a whole number.
Then everyone would know how good you are at timing it, and people would talk at the pumps, and it wind become a whole community. They’d probably have to add some cozy chairs and outdoor furniture so people could sit and watch the fueleruppers, and they’d gossip. The gas stations could sell coffee and treats to the people too, because they’d be there so long. Maybe they could show movies and people would drive up from all over so the kids could watch them while they watched the pumpers. Actually, that would be perfect for those little triangle sandwiches line they serve after church. Finally people would be able to slow down and enjoy the cross sectional slice of life that would expose them to. Strangers. Friends. Enemies. Friends. I bet if we All lived this way we could work less too. Imagine it’s Tuesday August 7th at 3:32 PM, you’re just sitting enjoying the sun, the bell rings and you clap, you walk over to the pump and it’s a young man. He just got married to his beau, they met while reaching for the same windshield squeegee as kids while their parents listened to for the gas bell. His name is James, hers is Stacey. She’s a Virgo. You put your arm around the man’s shoulders and tell him tales of you hitting the gas timing bell and you both laugh. You invite them to watch the movie Bridge on the river Kwai. 6 months later they have their first child. Is a boy. They ask you to be his godparent. You’re ecstatic, you stand up from your lawn furniture and announce to the group that James snd Stacey have asked you to be god parents, and they all cheer (even though it’s February there’s still a crowd). You have the god parenting ceremony and say the god parent vow at the pump. Then you and James both take a handle on opposite sides of the same pump unit. In solidarity you pour out the gas, counting up the cents until you both stop. There’s a soft thunk and the familiar bell rings, the crowd cheers and throws their ham and white cheese sandwiches into the air. Seagulls swoop and catch the sandwiches so there’s no litter. And at that moment you feel in your heart of hearts that you’re safe, with your people, and things will always be right.
That’s what they’re taking from you by not having a bell.
I never try to land on a whole number, I always aim for multiples. Like 22.22 or 55.55. usually if I miss it I'll shrug it off but sometimes my brain goes extra autistic and I go for the next multiple. Sometimes my brain lets me mix and match though, so if I miss 22.22 it'll accept 22.33 instead.
I know an old big red or Casey's when I see one! One of the few places not forcing ads down your throat at the pump.
It's a Sinclair station. Formerly Texaco.
The pump had a $100 transaction limit.
Yeah this is pretty common. Last time gas went over $4 here a bunch of people driving oversized trucks and SUVs started groaning about not being able to fully fill their tanks thanks to the $100 limit
Really? 🤔 Hmm my estimate was I needed 15 gallons to top it off and it gave me 14 and my tank is full now 🤷🏼♀️
It's to prevent more than $100 theft.
In my region, you can preselect the transaction limit in $50 increments to $300.
How could we possibly steal fuel when we already presented our credit card? Fuel won't even begin pumping unless we scan our credit card first.
If you have notifications for transactions you'd see a 100 pending transaction. Then the moment you finish pumping it would be updated to actual value. At least Wise does this at Costco, either going above or below 100, haven't noticed it with other cards so it depends on not only the issuer but maybe the pump itself.
Come to think of it, your card issuer maybe doesn't allow for updating transactions after the fact, so perhaps that's why it stopped at 100? It sounds useful, except for getting fuel heh
your card issuer maybe doesn't allow for updating transactions after the fact,
In the USA, they all do, to allow for things like tips at restaurants. The initial payment is just a hold, then they adjust the value before finalizing it.
Why would a tip be charged after the rest of the bill? The top has to be a approved at the time of payment, otherwise the waiter could just add in whatever tip they felt like and update the charge. It's to allow for exactly this scenario, deposits on self-serve items or things like hotel rooms where there may be additional charges due to damage or mini-bar use etc.
Why would a tip be charged after the rest of the bill?
I'm not sure where you live, but in the USA at a restaurant, the server takes your card, runs it in the PoS system, brings it back to you along with a receipt, and then you hand-write the tip amount on the receipt. Some of them bring a portable payment terminal to you, but it's the same idea.
When they give the receipt back to you for you to write the tip, the payment has already been authorized. It's already been sent to your bank, in a pending state, and your bank has replied saying the transaction will be approved. One of the receipts will have an authorization ID/number from your bank.
When you write the tip, they enter that into their PoS to modify the transaction amount, and finalize the transaction.
otherwise the waiter could just add in whatever tip they felt like and update the charge
That can actually happen. A lot of the time, issues like that are accidental (eg they typo the tip amount).
That's a wild system. In Canada they bring the terminal to you, you put in the tip amount and then your card is charged all at once. Or at some places they'll bring you the bill and you can write in your tip, and then you take the bill up to a counter to pay. This only occurs in very small family restaurants usually though. Before chip and pin got popular they would still bring the bill and you would write in your tip, and then they'd take the bill and your card back and charge it all at once. Why would they take your card before you write in the tip, that doesn't even make sense and just creates an extra step.
Come on over to the EV side, my friend. We don't bite. And you won't have to sell plasma or a kidney or anything to be able to fuel your car.
I drive a diesel truck and I like to drive for hundreds of miles at a time without having to worry about being stranded in the middle of nowhere without an EV station. And money is no problem for me. And I'd hate sitting waiting a half hour to recharge my vehicle. That must suck.
Well, the cool thing in the modern age is that there are far mare charging places now than there ever have been, so FAR less concern about being stranded.
I never have an issue finding chargers, even on cross country road trips. There are still a handful of extremely low population, isolated places in the US that don't have enough chargers, but it's not an issue today in the overwhelming majority of the country. A little bit of research (including the free EV route planning site A Better Route Planner) will tell you what's going on with Level 3 (fastest) chargers on the routes you drive.
And also, road trips are the only place I'm ever waiting on my car to charge anyway. And it's 20 minutes every 250 miles or so. Not a big deal, I had to use the restroom by then and grab a drink or a snack regardless.
99% of the time I'm charging my car, I'm not waiting on it. I have a cheap slow charger at work that can fill my entire battery (again, approx 250 miles of driving range) for about 6 bucks, while I'm busy in the office anyway. The once a week I need to charge, I plug it in when I get there, work my day, unplug it, and drive home. Other people with houses tend to just charge their cars on cheap night-rate power there overnight.
So I definitely encourage you to look into it! If fuel costs get to be too much, a cheaper used EV can definitely be an escape hatch for probably 90%+ of people.
this post was submitted on 24 Apr 2026
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