Comments on: ARCO Credit Card / Debit Card Review

By: Ben Kenobiwan

Ben Kenobiwan — Mon, 08 Aug 2011 17:42:12 +0000

Never received the email. Thought I was overdrawn on the acct connected to card. Glad i wasn’t in the middle of BFE. Thanks Arco.

The best thing about having the card was not getting charged $.45 a second time when you go in the AM/PM to grab a Twix and Coke.

By: AJ Jha

AJ Jha — Thu, 28 Jul 2011 03:11:17 +0000

The reason the discover card and many loyalty cards are being canceled is the fact that CC and debit card companies no longer make any money on interchange fees because on July 21st the Fed enacted key provisions limiting interchange fees because of the approval of the Durbin Amendment. Arco didn’t issue the card some bank did and collected fees for it. I am sure Arco on the back end received payments from First Bank/HSBC ect.

By: John Barry

John Barry — Fri, 15 Jul 2011 06:55:00 +0000

I received the same e-mail message about the ARCO/Discover card being cancelled. I think it’s fair to assume they did this to charge the $.45 fee again for those using debit cards issued by their own banks.

I’d only had their card a few months and liked the fact that I could use it as a debit card and have the $.45 fee waived. There must be more to it than just the $.45 fee. Maybe the fact that few people with the cards were using it for other purchases? Or maybe that they don’t want to give the cash back rewards for using the card for those purchases?

Whatever the case, I think it’s a lousy move, especially with so many people having an ARCO card issued to them. What it amounts to now is having to pay about the same for gas using your bank’s issued debit card at other gas stations (assuming that that station isn’t charging a fee for buying gas with a debit card). I guess they figure people will continue to buy ARCO’s gas because they’ll believe it’s still cheaper than filling up at another station.

I say if it’s possible, pay with cash if you’re filling up at an ARCO station. If their going to cancel all of their ARCO cards, let’s not give them the satisfaction of paying that $.45 fee on every fill-up. Maybe then they’ll issue a new card program.

By: Michael Maurer

Michael Maurer — Thu, 14 Jul 2011 18:04:20 +0000

In todays email I was told that my Discover Debit Card from ARCO will be cancelled.
This change is effective July21,2011.WOW they gave us a whole week to let us know.Good thing I didn’t go on vacation this week.
I guess their $.45 charge for our own Debit card is back!
I guess as long as that program was in effect was all we could expect.

By: Dick Manford, Esq.

Dick Manford, Esq. — Thu, 14 Jul 2011 14:33:54 +0000

An email today informed me that ARCO is terminating its Discover debit card program effective 21 July 2011. The reason is pure economics, i.e., to save money and to make more money.

I have no idea how many of these cards are out there, but let’s assume 300,000, and further assume that those 300,000 cardholders fill up once/week @ $60/tank. First, ARCO saves the +/- 3% fee it pays to Discover per fill-up. So, that’s $60 X 3% = $1.80 X 300,000 = $540,000/week X 52 weeks/year = $28,080,000 per year that ARCO saves.

Second, let’s assume those same former 300,000 Discover cardholders substitute use of their bank’s debit card rather than paying cash. At $0.45/fill-up, that’s $135,000/week X 52 weeks/year = $7,020,000/year.

So, bottom line, termination of the debit card program is worth $35,100,000 to ARCO per year. Pure economics.

By: Luis V

Luis V — Thu, 05 May 2011 18:41:02 +0000

I have used this gas for years on my toyota corolla 05 now has 100,000 all ways paid cash, saved the plastic charge yeah ive heard the rumors about the quality figured its was just an ego kind of thing.
Then i decied to try the arco dedit just because of the rewards it was issued by hsbc, i never paid anything actually just made money like 30 bucks in a year. yeah they do charge your bank account like in 2 days after you use it, like a direct deposit i just used it has a credit card always and stoped using my bank card because its the same thing only in makeing money in the arco. Just spend what YOU have in your bank and im sure ull make money, and not lose it.
So right now i was going to apply for the other card the one they offer for an anual charge and saw this “Arco Debit Scam” and had to check it out. turned out to be this article about some person that actually FINALY did some simple math.
The arco by my house uselly has the gas about 13 Cents less than other places so that means that has soon has i pass the four gallon mark im saving some money
Thanks 4 reading this.

By: Bob from Sacramento

Bob from Sacramento — Thu, 05 May 2011 16:04:50 +0000

I signed up in January for the ARCO Discover debit card based on the incentive to eliminate the 45-cent fee using it about nine times over the past five months.

Unfortunately, the use is this card is not sophisticated enough to read for an account balance before the transaction. This resulted in an attempt to withdraw against insufficient funds while I was out of town. I was charged a $30.00 fee by Discover which they refused to reverse. This negated any savings against the 45-cent fee for more than two years.

Of course, I cancelled this debit account immediately.

Thanks. But, no thanks.

By: judy

judy — Sun, 27 Mar 2011 21:23:46 +0000

I just got my ARCO Discover DEBIT card with valid date of 3/16. The card is issued by First Bank and Trust pursuant to a license from Discover Network. After reading some of the previous comments I am not sure I want to activate the card. I need to know if I can use at the pump and if so do you need a pin. I was told the amount you use for gas comes directly out of your bank account. NO FEES of any kind…am I being misinformed?

By: Jeff

Jeff — Thu, 17 Feb 2011 18:26:44 +0000

Arco OptiPay got me to try it out. Dentist over charged $200.00 and credited it back to Opti Card. But they say it as another $200. charge and froze the card, could by gas till they realized it was a credit. Anyone who paid for a year service got ripped off. They stopped servicing Arco before the completion of the year. Didn’t pay it myself only because bying gas for my F-150, Church Ram 3500 van, and work vans, didn’t use enough to justify yearly cost. It was embarassing to find that they canceled all Opti Pay Cards when trying to pump. Had to call in to find that out, after being denied. Supose to be convenient to use one card. But one card works best at Arco, another works best somewhere else and so on. Did not elect to reapply with Discover/Arco, for fear of it not lasting just like OptiPay, or other complications. Just canceled my Discover Card do to treatment from them. Admittedly, I sent payment during holiday season, and they got it 2 days late. Because of those 2 days my interest rate doubled and credit limit cut to half. After over 5 years that was first 2 days late, it shouldn’t have been that complicated. Learning that I don’t need to use credit.

By: Jeff

Jeff — Thu, 17 Feb 2011 18:09:11 +0000

Went to LA Trade Tec., and studied fuels up to racing quality. Back in 1984-86, Arco had a rep for bad gas, so, we studied it. Found that Arco gas had more deposits of dirt in their fuel than any other stations we studied. This study was by monitoring fuel filters and performance. No mater what Arco station it came from, it was dirty. This prompted Auto Dealers to discourage its use. Somewhere around 1990 Arco made a change in their fuel. I was slow to change to Arco. A 1998 Iroc, 1990 Mustang 5.0 and other sport cars ran better with Arco. Since year 2005 vehicles running Arco have rough idles, sometimes missfire. Still not as bad as Valero gas, which cost much more. My church still uses Arco. Best cash by out there. Gas Companies are going to get ya. You can choose how/which.
Credit Cards only give you anyother way to get got. Even if they pay you to get got. If you do not need to build credit, just by gas you need.