Did you know that you can actually pay for gas using Amazon Alexa?
It’s true, you can. But only at about 12,000 gas stations across the USA. It’s not yet available everywhere, but we would expect that to change in the future. This nifty, and not-so well-known feature, allows you to keep your wallet and phone in your pocket, and just tell Alexa to pay for gas.
This feature works at Exxon and Mobil gas stations across the country.
How To Pay For Gas With Amazon Alexa
First things first, you’re going to need to set up Alexa with the ability to pay for gas. So you’ll need to download the Alexa app onto your smartphone. You can get Alexa from the Google Play Store here.
Now, you can head to any participating gas station (almost every Exxon or Mobil is participating, but only those). Now head to a pump and say “Hey Alexa, pay for gas” to an Alexa device like the Echo Auto or Echo Buds.
Alexa will now recite and ask to confirm the station location you’re currently sitting at. Just say “yes” if it’s correct, then Alexa will ask for the pump number that you are at.
Next, Alexa will say “Are you ready for me to activate pump #[2]?”
Confirm with another “Yes” and Alexa will then confirm that the pump is ready before reminding you that Amazon Pay will be used to pay for your gas. Remember that these payments are made using your Amazon account’s default payment method. You can change this in the Payment Options of the Alexa app.
Keep in mind, that you are going to need some sort of Alexa device in the car. And this makes a really great use-case for Echo Auto, which you can pick up usually for around $20-$30. You can also use the Alexa app that you already downloaded onto your smartphone.
How to view your gas purchases using Alexa
Alexa does make it pretty simple to check out your gas purchase history too. So every time that you use Alexa to pay for your gas, it will show up in Your Orders in your Amazon account. Just like if you bought something from Amazon.
This makes it easier to see how much you spent, and easier to write it off or get reimbursed for work and such.
What limitations are there?
As this is a new feature, sort of, there are still some limitations for using Alexa to pay for gas. For instance, it only works at participating Exxon and Mobil stations. So you can’t pull up to Shell or BP and expect to pay using Alexa. You can find a list of participating gas stations here.
The other major limitation is in regards to payment methods. It is limited to Amazon Pay, which is the default payment information in your Amazon account. This does accept most debit and credit cards, but notably it does not work with the ExxonMobil credit card, or Amazon-branded credit cards and Amazon gift cards.
There are a few other smaller limitations here, like Alexa can’t be prompted to only fill up your tank to a specific dollar amount. So you can’t say “put $20 worth of gas in” or something similar. But users can still stop the pump manually whenever they like. There are also a couple of states that do not allow self-service. Like New Jersey and Oregon, and surprisingly the city of Huntington, New York.
Keep your wallet and phone in your pocket!
While it might sound like there’s a lot of commands you need to give Alexa, and also quite a few limitations, this is going to make it super easy to fill up your tank. As you don’t need to pull out your credit or debit card to swipe it at the pump. Nor do you need to pull out your phone to use Apple, Google or Samsung Pay.
And in the winter, this is going to be really useful. As you can tell Alexa to pay for gas and get the pump activated before getting out of the car and into the cold.
This is a pretty cool feature, and we’d expect it to get more features and support in the near future.
The post How To Pay For Gas With Amazon Alexa appeared first on Android Headlines.
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