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The charge in question is something called the “interchange fee,” a percentage of the sale price paid to credit card companies on every retail transaction, including filling up at the pump. On average, the fee across the country is about 2 percent. Credit card companies charge that whether gas is $2.50 a gallon or $4.50 gallon. That means that as prices rise and drivers pay more to fill up, the amount station owners pay for interchange fees rises, too.

Here’s why: A 2 percent fee on $4-per-gallon gasoline comes to 8 cents a gallon. When gas was $3 a gallon a year ago, the same fee came to 6 cents. U.S. station owners typically mark up gasoline by 11 to 12 cents a gallon. In California, where prices have topped $4.50 or more a gallon of late, the interchange fee can run 9 cents to 10 cents per gallon. That cuts into profits. The fees apply only to mainstream bank cards such as Visa and MasterCard, not cards issued by the oil retailers.

Competition, station owners say, keeps them from pushing prices higher. “If I’m 2 or 3 cents off, I’m going to lose 500 gallons a day … because (customers) will go somewhere else where it’s cheaper,” said Dennis DeCota, who owns a 76 station in Marin County and is executive director of the Santa Rosa-based California Service Station and Auto Repair Association.

Some station operators in other states reportedly have banned the use of major credit cards to purchase gas. Norris said he hasn’t seen that in California, but he has heard that some of his colleagues may start offering a discount for customers paying in cash. More