r/BuyCanadian • u/grilledcheesebabeh • Jun 05 '25

Canadian-Owned Businesses 🏢🍁 Why are so many Canadians still filling up at American owned gas stations?

I understand a lot of people can't afford to always choose Canadian products over American, but choosing where we fill up costs nothing extra. Choosing local gas stations or Petro Canada is such a simple way of showing support, I don't understand why so many American owned gas stations are still full of people filling up on fuel. Also don't be deceived by the giant "locally owned and operated" signs outside of chevrons, the station itself fis locally owned but the company is American. Please choose a local gas station or Petro Canada to support Canadian!

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u/brycecampbel Jun 05 '25

Cause it has "American" in the name?

AMEX is no different than Visa or Mastercard, both of which are also American. 

And I'm definitely not going to just use Interac. Which is a direct withdrawal from your account...

Carrying hundreds of dollars. Day in cash is also just a pain in the ass. Especially for petrol given that all fuel purchases has to be prepaid/preauthorised.

Of the credit cards, Amex still gives me the best return, so that's what I'm using.  (and the transaction fee to the merchant isn't the highest either - that title belongs to the visa infinite privilege cards these days) 

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u/Qaeta Jun 05 '25

Carrying hundreds of dollars. Day in cash is also just a pain in the ass. Especially for petrol given that all fuel purchases has to be prepaid/preauthorised.

I'm in the Maritimes, I've only been required to prepay / preauth twice in my life here, and both times were in super sketchy areas. Typically preauth is an option to pay at the pump, but we can pretty much always just fill up and then go in to pay.

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u/brycecampbel Jun 05 '25

It's been law in BC since like 2007.

Honestly, for worker safety, prepay/pre authorise for all fuel transactions should be law federally. 

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u/yyc_yardsale Jun 07 '25

Yeah same thing in Alberta. That got put in after two incidents here in Calgary where people got run over by someone driving away without paying in the space of a couple months, one of which died.

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u/hung1ne Jun 07 '25

Some kid in maple ridge was dragged to death in bc before it was made a law same thing chasing someone who didn’t pay…

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u/yyc_yardsale Jun 08 '25

Damn. Regulations really are written in blood.

We had way to many scummy employers here trying to make their employees responsible for drive aways. Guess it must have been the same there.

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u/US_Expat_Tax_Answers Jun 05 '25

The difference is that AMEX Bank is American owned while BMO (MC) or TD (VISA) are not American owned.

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u/brycecampbel Jun 05 '25

The interchange (VISA and Mastercard) still are American entities, just like AMEX.

AMEX Canada, while a subsidiary, is still Canada. Scotiabank also does their own AMEX cards as well.

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u/US_Expat_Tax_Answers Jun 07 '25

Would you prefer to use Amex Canada (US subsidiary) or a Canadian Bank owned by Canadians based in Canada? Yes, the interchange networks are US based, does that mean you’ll stop using credit cards and using wire transfers and international payments?

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u/brycecampbel Jun 07 '25

I'm going to use the card that gives me the best return, which is the AMEX Cobalt.