Credit Card at Pemex

Sounds like most of you agree, it's the way to go!
This is the first year that we haven't had a card terminal or system not work. So nice!

Credit or debit cards should work fine just make shure you have cash in your poket before the punp the fuel in just in case the card terminal or card system does not work......

You know the old saying. " Some people will complain if you bury them with a new shovel" Credit cards work fine in Mexico. Many times, if there is an internet server problem, cards might not work, but in general it is the way to go.

Talleyho69 wrote:
Don't intend to start a discussion as to whether it's smart or not, but we are now in Zihuatanejo, and used a credit card at each and every Pemex we filled at!!!!
It's fast, easy, and we love our 1.5% cash back card!
(Yes, really, it's CapitalOne, and autopay)

Been doing it for 15 years. Required by Hacienda (Mexican version of IRS) for tax deductions. Never an issue, no extra charges on Mexican cards debit/credit. Fast, easy, you get a printed receipt with the date, time, pump, liters, and price. We rarely carry cash on the road, no need to these days everyone takes a card. (Okay, maybe not the paletero). OXXO, 7 Eleven, supermarkets, gas stations, retaurants. Maybe charges for foreign cards that I can't answer.

Ever use a card to purchase -anything- in Mexico, and three days later see 1,455 in charges in Zapopan, Jalisco? Ya know, it sorta takes the bloom off a vacation rose...

It wasn't the missing money, VISA made it good. It was the loss of use of the card. That, to put it mildly, screwed me. Oh yeah it happened in a Quali rated gasolinera on Mex 14-D outside Morelia. I had run out of cash and wanted to use the Bank in Morelia, when the gas gauge started acting up. I looked at the gauge and it was a needle's width from E.

I challenged the risk/benefit ratio and lost. Has nothing at all to do with being "smart". Especially when the fill-up in Morelia revealed I still had half a tank's worth of fuel. Bad gauge ground connection.

Oh I forgot to mention the dozen or two phone calls to the USA. The time lost.

We have several credit cards. For whatever reasons they all charge an international monetary exchange rate fee for using the card in a foreign country. We use our debit cards to get cash at bank ATM machines. We can then pay cash for fuel and do not have to worry about whether they take credit cards - or having to pay and extra fee each time we use it. We pay our vehicle deposit with our credit card when crossing the border and that is about all we use credit cards for unless some special purchase. Maybe not all credit cards charge this fee but ours do. Our debit cards do not. We get cash almost always only at banks in case something doesn't work as it should. We do not like having our important numbers out and about all over the world.