Petroleum company BP on Friday said it would now be accepting almost all money tender - including gift cards - for the payment of fuel at most of its service stations.
The move comes in the wake of credit card payments for fuel sales not being accepted in South Africa by fuel retailers, because of the Merchant Service Fee they would have had to absorb.
But, BP has announced that it will contribute over 50 percent of the MSF associated with transactional credit and hybrid (such as cheque and gift) cards in order to accommodate its fuel retailers.
BP, the official fuel sponsor of the 2010 FIFA World Cup, said it was going out of its way to make paying for fuel easier for locals and foreign visitors expected during the Soccer World Cup season.
"For the first time in our country, motorists are now able to pay for fuel with any garage, fleet, debit, credit, cheque, charge card (such as American Express), and even Visa or MasterCard gift cards - at over 400 BP service stations nationally," said BP South Africa's Head of Marketing Programmes Joe Mahlo.
The Fuel Retailers Association (FRA) CEO Reggie Sibiya said to date, BP has been the only petroleum player to ease the strain on fuel retailers by subsidising costs associated with debit card fuel payments, and now too with credit and hybrid card fuel transactions.
Even though regulation on the use of cards at forecourts has become more relaxed over recent years, it has put tremendous financial strain on fuel retailers.
The latest move supports an earlier initiative by BP to support the majority of its fuel retail network and help government to more fully realise its objective in reducing cash-associated crime at service stations.
Since launching the portable payment debit card system initiative in 2007, BP has successfully removed more than R1 billion in cash from its forecourt network and has seen a considerable drop in cash-related robberies.
Other benefits of paying for fuel with a card include reduced forecourt congestion and fraud possibilities as the card is not taken away to be swiped at a central point, but is conveniently done right at the pump next to the car.
More than 400 BP service stations nationally already accept these cards to pay for fuel and the aim is to roll out this payment facility to the rest of BP's network as soon as possible. - I-Net Bridge