Gene Fink paid more than $2,700 in credit card fees last month from the service station he owns in Aspinwall.

“It is a very high expense,” he said, noting that his automotive repair business is keeping him afloat. “People all think we’re making a gazillion dollars now.”

Fink’s woes are shared by other station owners and are increasing as the ability to pay at the pump might be in jeopardy. A gasoline retailers association in Philadelphia is urging its members to stop taking credit cards because of the fees they must pay to credit card companies.

“Our members are getting killed. Credit card gas is costing our dealers in excess of 8 cents a gallon, and many are working on a 10-cent per gallon margin,” said Ross DiBono, executive director of the 600-member Pennsylvania Gasoline Retailers Association.

In Western Pennsylvania, the 350 members of the Petroleum Retailers and Automotive Repair Association haven’t gone that far yet, said the group’s president, Hugh Campbell. But the organization might advocate cash-only purchases soon.

“The higher the price of gasoline, the bigger the problem,” Campbell said.

Station operators nationwide say higher gas prices mean higher credit card fees for them, squeezing pump profits.

But for at least two small retailers in the Valley, the problem hasn’t been quite so debilitating.

Kevin Kratzer, owner of a Citgo station in Selinsgrove, said he likely pays about $300 a month in credit card precessing fees, some of that charged to him directly from Citgo, from which he rents his credit card processing hardware.

Despite the extra expense, Kratzer has no plans to turn away credit cards sales.

“People don’t have (cash) all the time,” he said. “If it takes a couple hundred dollars to fix a car and they don’t have the money they have to charge it.”

In fact, he doesn’t understand how other retailers can afford not to take credit cards.

“I would think that has to hurt them,” he said. “You have to take them. At least I do. Every little bit counts.”

Said Mike, who refused to give his last name, owner of a Citgo station in Northumberland: “It’s the difference between getting paid and not getting paid.”

Mike said his credit card fees average about 1.5 percent per purchase, depending on the card, a percentage that has gone down in recent years. Mike doesn’t know why the fee has gone down, and he’s not asking.