Canadian 'Zip Code' Dilemma Solved?

Those of you who partake in traveling through the USA, will inevitably find themselves at a gas station, trying to pay with a Canadian credit card, only to be prompted to enter a USA zip code. This leads to the game of "Crack the Code" by entering random numbers like 99999 or other combinations, that all end in failure. The subsequent step sees the traveler stomping over to the kiosk to declare that they do not have a zip code as they are from Canada. The attendant - rarely all that personable - proceeds to roll their eyes, press a couple of buttons, demands your precious credit card, and orders you to go fill up the tank and come back and pay.

My recent travels through Soap Lake, Washington, saw me follow all of these steps to a tee including the declaration of my non zip-code status at the kiosk. The attendant responded curtly without skipping a beat on her chip aisle stocking "Yes, you DO have a zip code!" ...Intriguing. I wondered if she was crazy or brilliant?

It turns out she is brilliant, as she instructed me to take the three numbers that are in the postal code of the credit card billing address in the order that they appear, and then add two zeros onto the end in order to bypass the zip code. If your postal code is V6Y 2Z4, you would enter: 62400 for your zip code and avoid all the hassles I have described.

CAVEAT: This theory has worked for me at Safeway gas stations in Washington and Montana. I am still in the testing stages at other stations...other than BP .. and Exxon.

Yes, I am a bad person for driving a car, but here's hoping this tip helps my fellow road trippers who, like me, are slow to transition to leaving their car at home to walk across America, fuel free.