If You Are Using Your Credit Card To Pay At The Pump VISA Says Don’t

If you use your VISA to pay at the pump for gasoline for your vehicle, you should probably stop doing that for the time being. VISA has issued a warning about how easily the pay stations at gas pumps can be hacked and your information stolen.

They call the pay stations ‘point-of-sale’ and criminals have been using malware to grab your personal information from them for years. Not only can cyber criminals put fake POS machines on the gasoline pumps, but they can also, according to VISA, access the merchant’s internal network.

They can hack a merchant’s network because of “slower migration to chip technology” on POS terminals.
VISA says that some gasoline merchants are updating their systems to use chip technology, but until the one you use stops using magnetic stripe readers, you’re in danger of getting hacked. Right now, most POS terminals at gas stations only read the magnetic stripe on the back of your card even if you have a credit card with chip technology. The POS terminal doesn't access the chip function, it reads the magnetic stripe.

If your card gets hacked at a gas pump VISA is liable, but they are warning gasoline merchants that after October 2020 if they are not using chip technology at their POS terminals, VISA will no longer be liable for losses, the gasoline merchant will be liable.

Until you are sure the POS terminal you are using is a chip reader, VISA and credit card industry officials say it is safest to walk into the store and pay for your gas in cash.