Gas Pumps in Italy

Look for YouTube videos as well
https://mominitaly.com/italian-gas-stations/

Gas pumps in Italy can be self serve or full service (“Servito”). They are always manned except for nights and Sundays, or for lunch break a couple hours after 12:30pm. You can also pay with the credit card also at the cash register during opening hours. The process is similar to the US, but if you are nervous about it ask the attendants to show you how to do it. They are usually manned 7-12:30 and 2:30pm to 7pm, Mon to Sat.

We just filled up our rental car last week in Sardinia (Italian island off of the mainland), before returning it at the airport and flying out. It was a national holiday, we discovered, and none of the gas stations were staffed. The gas pumps were still operating, as long as you had a card with a P.I.N. - Personal Identification Number. Our credit card (with no P.I.N.) wouldn’t work when we tried it first. But our debit card (with 4-digit P.I.N.), which is normally only used to withdraw money from an ATM, worked like a charm.

In the past, on mainland Italy and in Sicily (another island), to use our credit card, we had to find a station that was staffed, and present our credit card to a person before we could put in gas. Our debit card wasn’t accepted, either, as I recall. ZIP codes in Italy aren’t the same as in the U.S., so I’d be surprised if any pump in Italy would ask for, or accept, a ZIP code during the process. Maybe some stations wouldn’t have worked with our debit card, but we had success this time.

Our credit card doesn’t charge foreign transaction fees, so that’s our primary card. We’ve got debit cards from a bank and a credit union, and both charge an extra fee for a foreign transaction. But for the gas, it was only $2.50, and when you’re paying the equivalent of about $8.00 a gallon in Italy, what’s another $2.50?

Make sure you put in the right fuel. “Gazole” means diesel in Italy, and unleaded gas is called “benzina.”

Yes. Your US credit card will likely not work at the self service machine (I have an Italian card, but I often use either cash notes or my US debit/ATM card, both of which can be used at those machines), however your US credit card will work with in person transactions when you pay the attendant (at the cash register or hand held POS machine). Since opening hours are long Mon to Sat, there is really no reason to fuel when the stations are unmanned except for when traveling at night or Sundays (lunchtime closure is only a couple of hours). For those circumstances, if you must fuel, just make sure you have hard cash (5€ notes or larger) at hand.

Other than at one Costco in Madrid, I’ve never had luck using a card at the pump. It/they are always declined, but work perfectly well when I go inside the store or booth.

New to the forum. Not sure of the etiquette but thank you all for the information

Most stations have self service and full service pump islands and you pay more for full. At many (lazy) stations, using the self pumps means having to use the PITA pay machine before pumping, even if the office is manned.
Another twist - after your method of payment is approved at a pay machine, you have to choose how much fuel you want by pushing buttons on the designated pump. There will not be a full (pieno) button so you'll have to guess how much your car will hold (hopefully w/o selecting too much). If it's the final fill before returning your rental car, best to go to an attended station.

In the last two weeks, we used US credit card. Twice. No PIN; No problem.

I often prefer to go full serve even though I have to pay more so I don’t have to bother with pumping my own gas, and also they clean my windows. I know gasoline in Italy is expensive as it is, but in the context of a trip costing thousands of $$ between car rental, airfare, hotels, dinners out, spending an extra few euros in gas for the self service for the whole trip it is not going to make me broke. However occasionally I used the machine and in those cases I only used either cash or my debit/ATM card (I probably used my Italian bank one but it’s probably the same if you used a U.S. card). This is how you fill the tank without having to guess. Park your car at the pump and go to the pay machine next to the pump in the same island, then enter the card in the slot, then you enter your PIN. At that point the machine will go thru its thing and on the screen it will appear the message the transaction was accepted and the machine pre-approved a fuel purchase usually of 100€. At that point you will need to push the button on the pay machine to select the pump number you intend to use for your refueling (make sure you choose the number of the pump in front of which you parked your car). Go to that pump you selected and start pumping. As I said the max is going to be 100€ (or something like that). Once the tank is full (probably before the 100€ are used, so let’s say for example 85€) put the pump pistol back and go back to the pay machine to get the receipt which will show the 85€ you actually purchased.

Roberto

Concise, and easy to follow explanation.

There is a LOT of incorrect information going on here. It is May 28, 2024 I’m in Cinque Terre. The nearest gas stations are in La Spezia, about 10 minutes drive. On this Tuesday from 4-7 pm, none of the La Spezia gas stations are attended, in fact none look like they are ever attended with handwritten notes on the door explaining to call a number if there is a problem.
None of my credit cards or two debit cards worked in the four different gas stations I attempted, all different brands of gas stations. Eventually I went to an ATM and withdrew Euro and was able to preselect how much gas I wanted to buy with cash. That worked.
If you have not been to every region in Italy, please do not make ignorant definitive blanket statements that mislead readers who are looking for help. I could have saved hours looking for a full service attendant station, or just gone to an atm right away had I know US credit and Debit cards do not work eveywhere in Italy.

I think you didn’t look hard enough. You have to look for the sign “Servito”. I also don’t understand the requirement that one has to have travelled to every region of Italy to give advice here (although I’ve been to Liguria more times than I can possibly remember). But if you are certain of what you say you should file a lawsuit and seek punitive damages from our Advice Malpractice insurance, instead of registering for your first time post just for the sake of venting your frustration. Many commenters here have stated that US issued non PIN credit cards don’t always work at automatic kiosks. Carry some cash with you.

Gee, our unattended gas station in Sardinia last month, as well as two unattended stations we tried in Bologna a couple of years ago, did not have cash payment as an option, so that’s not a solution in every region of Italy.

to the OP, one bit of advice is to be very sure whether the car you rent is gas or diesel and which color handle in Italy is which. See for example https://mominitaly.com/italian-gas-stations/ If you put the wrong one in bad things happen and you'll face an expensive bill from the rental car.

I was just in southern Tuscany (up and down the Via Aurelia mostly) and most pumps were self-serve, with an ATM-like machine for payment, including the one closest to Pisa airport where we had to top off before dropping the car. If you have cash, easy peasy, but for a card transaction, note that you are first charged the max amount (about 100 euros), and then you are credited your balance--so what later appears in your bank app is the the actual amount of gas you purchased. This could alarm someone who did not know what was happening--it took a couple days for mine to be corrected, but it did so precisely and automatically.
My credit card worked fine in most instances, but inexplicably was denied at a parking machine.