Aug. 18--Ricky Gomez said he usually pays with plastic at the gas pump.

But Thursday morning for the first time, he took a walk into the convenience store to pay with cash and discovered he had just taken advantage of the 3-cent-per-gallon discount offered to cash customers.

"That's good, I'll be coming here with cash instead," Gomez said as he was filling up his Chevrolet Cobalt at Barney's gas station on 16th Street and Maple Avenue. "I just come here every once in awhile 'cause it's a good price, so now it's $3.64? That's better."

Six out of the eight Barney's gas stations in Yuma County offer the 3-cent discount off the posted gas price for customers who pay with cash, said Patrick Rook, owner of the Barney's Gas Stop company in Yuma. The stations in Foothills and San Luis don't because they are undergoing hardware updates, he said.

The reason for gas discounts? It's an incentive to maintain company profits.

Every merchant that accepts Visa, Mastercard, American Express, Discover or any plastic pays about 2 percent or more for credit or debit processing, he said.

"The average customer doesn't know it but merchants take the brunt on that cost on every transaction," Rook said.

So that's why the company started offering gas discounts for customers who pay with cash -- the average merchant ends up paying from 8 to 12 cents just to sell the fuel, he said.

"Mr. and Mrs. Joe Public don't know that," Rook said. "Our customers are very loyal and we appreciate that. We want to help them out but we also want to do things that make us profitable so we can be here to help them out next year and the year after that."

Rook touts Barney's gas stations as the first company in Yuma to offer gas discounts for cash customers and says he's aware of no other gas stations that have followed through, other than Baron Fuels at 16th Street and Engler Avenue.

"For us about 60 percent at least are paying with plastic, people are leaning more on their credit cards as the gas prices get higher ... it's easier for them to pay it off at the end of the month," he said. "It has been successful, our customers like that we give them a discount, it helps both of us and it offsets that cost on us that a lot of people don't know about."

The Sun checked gas stations around the Yuma area and found that only Baron Fuels and Barney's gas stations offered gas discounts for cash customers.

Emeteria Urquijo said she usually pays with her debit card at the gas pump. But Thursday morning, she took a walk into the convenience store and paid with cash to take advantage of the 5-cent discount at Baron Fuels.

"I didn't know until my daughter told me about it," Urquijo said. "I went in the store and they told me all about it and it's a good deal.

"In times like these, we can all use something good like this."

The owner of Baron Fuels could not be reached for comment on Thursday.

However, sometimes customers don't take advantage of the cash discount because they are in a hurry.

Margarita Ranjel, who drives a Chevrolet Tahoe, said that sometimes she doesn't want to walk out to the convenience store to pay cash. "Yes, I am aware of the cheaper price, but I don't feel like walking into the store."

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