Motorists will once again be able to use their credit cards to pay for petrol, a senior official was on Wednesday quoted by WAM as saying

Dubai: Motorists will once again be able to use their credit cards to pay for petrol, a senior official was on Wednesday quoted by WAM as saying.  

Mohammad Al Shehhi, undersecretary at the Ministry of Economy, said the Supreme Committee for Consumer Protection has approved the request of oil companies to accept credit card payments once again subject to the levying of a charge of Dh2 as commission on the value of each transaction.  

"The committee was briefed at its fourth meeting in 2011 on the report about the re-introduction of bank cards to buy fuel. The use of credit cards was suspended four years ago because of the high costs incurred by petrol companies," Al Shehhi explained.  

High costs

 The use of credit cards at petrol stations was stopped because of the high costs incurred by local oil companies which began struggling to cover their petrol costs as oil prices soared to record levels in the past few years.  

"In this context, the committee issued a set of recommendations, most notably to study [the petrol] companies' proposal requesting the approval of the re-use of bank cards.

"It will soon arrange meetings with Visa and MasterCard to agree on an appropriate solution," Al Shehhi said.

Source: http://gulfnews.com/news/gulf/uae/general/petrol-pumps-in-uae-allowed-to-accept-credit-cards-again-1.1001240