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If you're considering going on a trip but do not have a vehicle of your own, you might wish to consider various car sharing options. Although you're unsure how their gas card works, you're considering renting a Zipcar since you can pay for the fuel on your journey at Zipcar's expense. To help you get on your way, consider the experience of frequent Zipcar travelers and the Zipcar gas card stipulations.
How To Use The Zipcar Gas Card:
- Locate The Zipcar Gas Card
- Drive The Zipcar To A Gas Station
- Fill Up The Tank With Gas
- Swipe The Gas Card
- Enter Your Id Or Pin
- Record The Vehicle Mileage
- Leave The Gas Station
1. Locate The Zipcar Gas Card
Before embarking on your Zipcar journey, check that the gas card is in the vehicle, usually behind the driver's side sun visor. If you had not planned to pay for the fuel on your trip, it would be a nasty surprise to discover that you cannot pay only when you attempt to “fill her up,” and in such a case, you will need to pay for the gas regularly and get Zipcar to reimburse your expenses later.
The Zipcar gas card will likely be behind the sun visor on the driver's side. If the gas card is not there, you may have to find it elsewhere in the vehicle.
2. Drive The Zipcar To A Gas Station
Most gas stations should accept the Zipcar gas card since it is like a credit or debit card. If one of the smaller gas stations refuses to accept it as a form of payment, you can drive to another station if the vehicle still has sufficient fuel left, or you can pay for the gas yourself and submit a reimbursement request from Zipcar later.
3. Fill Up The Tank With Gas
In some cases, Zipcar may limit the value of the gas you are allowed to put into the vehicle using the card at a time. As a precautionary matter, you may wish to fill up with smaller amounts of fuel. Frequent Zipcar users recommend capping the value of any individual purchase at $50. If you, however, attempt to unnecessarily refuel the car with small amounts of fuel, the payment may not succeed.
Users aren't allowed to fill up non-Zipcar vehicles using a Zipcar gas card or use the card to fill up using the wrong fuel type for the vehicle with which they are associated. More expensive cars require higher quality fuel if necessary for the Zipcar's proper functioning, but usually, standard gas is more acceptable than premium brands.
4. Swipe The Gas Card
With the Zipcar gas card, you do not need to pay for the fuel you use while driving the vehicle. Using the gas card is akin to how you would swipe a credit card. While the Zipcar gas card is like a credit card, you should not attempt to buy anything other than fuel. Paying directly at the gas pump may be necessary, as some cards refuse to work at the station register.
5. Enter Your ID Or PIN
After swiping the gas card, you should enter your Zipcar ID or PIN. This is necessary for Zipcar to record each driver's fuel and detect fraudulent use of the gas card.
6. Record The Vehicle Mileage
Enter the mileage from the vehicle's odometer into the card reader. Zipcar requires mileage to track how far its fleet travels and the frequency of refueling. The recorded mileage also prevents fraudulently using the gas card to refuel cars outside the Zipcar stable.
7. Leave The Gas Station
After driving around with a Zipcar for the length of your rental, you must refill the car to be ready for the following user. Zipcar requires all their vehicles to refuel to a minimum of a quarter of a tank's worth of gas. Should you neglect to refill the Zipcar before returning it, you may be liable for a fee of $30.
Do not remove the Zipcar gas card from the vehicle. The card must always be returned to its position behind the visor so that other users can always find it. In the past, Zipcar charged users who lost or took the Zipcar gas card a fee, but they have since ceased taking such measures to encourage drivers to return mistakenly taken gas cards.
If you have taken it by mistake, you should return a Zipcar gas card to the car you have taken it from if possible. However, if the card is damaged or completely lost, you should use the “Report” function from the Zipcar app to notify Zipcar of the missing card so that they can replace it for the vehicle.
FAQs
Zipcar customers frequently enquire about submitting reimbursement requests from Zipcar should they have a missing gas card or complications with using the gas card and associated issues related to which other non-fuel items are eligible for reimbursement.
How Do I Submit A Gas Reimbursement Request To Zipcar?
If you had no choice but to pay for refueling a Zipcar yourself (due to a missing or faulty card), you could notify the company so that they can reimburse you for your expenses later. The notification must not be done any later than 30 days after the purchase, and you must have certain proofs of payment available.
Your receipt for the payment must clearly show the time and date of the purchase, the amount of gas put in, and the total transaction value. If you did not receive a receipt, or it was lost or damaged after refueling, you can use a bank statement with the necessary information as proof of payment. Zipcar will also accept an unaltered screenshot of your slip as proof of payment.
Submit a reimbursement request from Zipcar by using the following procedure:
- Visit the Zipcar website on your browser.
- Click on the link under the header entitled “Help” at the top.
- Click on the “My Account & More” button.
- Click on the “Account Billing” header link.
- Click on the article regarding out-of-pocket expenses that are eligible for reimbursement.
- At the bottom of the page, click on the “Submit a Reimbursement Request” button.
Which Items Other Than Gas Are Eligible For Reimbursement?
If your Zipcar's wiper blades are no longer functional or the vehicle is running low on wiper fluid, you may also request reimbursement from Zipcar for these.
If you accrued other expenses due to complications with your Zipcar rental, you might also be eligible for reimbursement. In case of costs related to traveling to the location of another Zipcar vehicle, car wash expenses, or certain other maintenance costs, you can submit a request for reimbursement from Zipcar.
It would be best to verify with Zipcar which maintenance costs they cover before paying out-of-pocket.
