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My friend is visiting from Ireland and wants to know what she would use as a zipcode at the gas pump in USA when in Ireland they don't have a zip code ???

choster
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jon kline
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    "Gas pimp": typo of the day. – Nate Eldredge Jul 09 '15 at 03:30
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    Most gas pimps in the US do not accepts credit cards. Stick to the gas pumps. – Michael Lorton Jul 09 '15 at 03:34
  • Either, "00000", or the numbers only from their Eircode, prepended by enough "0"s to make five digits, or pay inside the store. – Michael Hampton Jul 09 '15 at 17:27
  • I haven't been able to pump gas with a non-US issued credit card, regardless of the zipcode. When I want to pay with that, I have to go inside, they will swipe the card and enable the pump station for the amount they swiped the card. Once you're done, you can go back in and ask them to refund you the unused money. – g3rv4 Aug 05 '15 at 17:45

1 Answers1

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You are misunderstanding the system.

You think that you give a card and a zip-code and the machine says the bank, "Is Jon Kline good for $13.50?" and the bank says back, "Yes, if he knows that his zip code is 12345."

No, the way it works is the machine says to the bank, "Is Jon Kline who resides in the 12345 zip code good for $13.50?" and the bank says yes or no.

Your bank, being in Ireland, where they do not have zip-codes, is likely to disregard the zip-code and approve the sale, or not, on other criteria.

tl;dr: Enter 00000.

Michael Lorton
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  • problem is that if you enter 00000 and the bank responds with " " the gas pimp (or pump ;) ) will likely refuse the transaction in that case because it receives a different code back from the one it expects. – jwenting Jul 09 '15 at 05:51
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    The responses are "approved" and "declined". – Michael Lorton Jul 09 '15 at 07:20
  • you wrote that the bank does nothing with the postal code, and it's later compared on the machine. So if the bank doesn't return the postal code yet the machine expects it, it will always decline the transaction because it compares nothing with something, which never matches. – jwenting Jul 09 '15 at 07:28
  • HK also do not have postcode, everytime they request postcode i will type 852 (country code) – Him Jul 09 '15 at 13:39
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    @jwenting -- the bank does not return the postal code. The responses are "approved" and "declined". – Michael Lorton Jul 09 '15 at 13:49
  • which is counter to what you state in your answer, where you say "machine asks whether X can get $Y" and the bank answers "yes, if he has zip code Z"... – jwenting Jul 10 '15 at 04:17
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    Re-read my answer. That was (my interpretation of) the OP's misunderstanding of the process. The bank never sends personal information about the card-holder to the merchant. – Michael Lorton Jul 10 '15 at 04:40