QT is doing that ime but reading the app reviews, it seems they will send you straight to collections if any ach withdrawal fails even if the glitch, according to the users, lies with QT. Reading these killed any desire to go through this on my part, even with the "10c off gas" sweetener attached.

I'd be hesitant to give a gas station app ACH access to my checking account. I guess you could open a second account and just transfer enough there to cover your purchases but that's a bit of a nuisance.

I’d be more than happy to use a secure, fraud-safe payment system that does not give me airline miles if it meant everything was cheaper to begin with. Part of the problem with CC companies is they do many things that are tightly coupled and are positioned well to profit on them.

In Europe it's already a thing some high-latency online transactions will give you the option to pay via bank transfer. Of course you need a European bank account to use it. This is despite the credit card fee being 0.2% by law.

"a push to have users download their mobile app" This is the blocker for me, every vendor wants you to download a different mobile app.

I had to on the spot download a mobile app to pay to get my car back from valet parking at a really nice hotel the other day. They only accepted payment via the app which they did not disclose before taking the car. I had to stand there for 10 minutes installing the app and setting it up and I will likely never go back to that hotel (becuase of location, not the app).

No idea what would have happened if I just had an old fashioned flip phone

At $7 per gallon, a 3% back card on gas gives 21 cents a gallon in cashback to me. So that’s a pretty hard no.

is it instant ACH?

That's a little crazy, because gas stations. I would probably be OK, if such a deep discount was offered, with setting up ACH to some major chain with reasonable dispute policies, for example Target stores. Actually, Target brands their own credit and debit cards, so they kind of are the creditor already.

But you don't know who owns or operates a gas station. They've all got big brand names, but what's their business model? Who's actually running the transaction? The gas pumps are practically unattended and, highly regulated by Weights and Measures because of the high potential for vendor fraud already. Gas stations are already notorious locales for card-skimmer danger. So, I would be loath to get into an ACH bank dispute with Sri Singh McSikhface.

I already had massive troubles, some of them Visa-related, with local laundries and dry cleaners. They are vicious, fly-by-night, and dishonest. I would not risk the same shitty experiences with gas stations.