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Automotive Information Kuwait

Pay for gas using your civil ID

I think it currently only applies to Kuwaitis since you would need one of the new SMART Civil ID cards. The way it works is you add funds to your Civil ID card using Knet and every time you pay with your Civil ID you get the amount deducted from your balance.

I can’t see how this could be useful for anyone with a Knet card. You can’t use this for your drivers because they need to be a Kuwaiti to get the new Civil ID’s and your children don’t have Knet cards but they shouldn’t be driving and filling up gas anyways. Am I missing something here?

You can get more information by visiting the ALFA website [Here]

Thanks Kuwait!

44 replies on “Pay for gas using your civil ID”

“I can’t see how this could be useful for anyone with a Knet card.”
It has more to do with convenience. 1 card is better than 2 cards. You can’t travel outside without a civil id card anyway, wouldn’t it be swell to also have your knet functionality embedded with it? Give it time and hopefully it would replace a need for the knet card by linking bank accounts to civil id cards (eventually…hopefully…).

“.. You can’t use this for your drivers because they need to be a Kuwaiti to get the new Civil ID’s…”
Again, if they extend it to non-Kuwaitis (which technically shouldn’t be too complicated), this would be useful.

But true, under the given set of conditions, this isn’t too useful. There is scope though, for this kicking off.

1 card is better than 2 cards true, but if for some very odd reason I can now somehow only carry only 1 card then it would be my knet card and not civil id 🙂

KNET:
1-Swipe card
2-Wait for connection
3-Enter Pin
4-Wait for connection
5-Take Knet bill and Station bill.
6-Long line forming behind you

Civil ID:
1-Swipe card
2-Take station bill

i dont understand.. why would we pay to our gas by the civil id? is it just a random stupid use for the chip on the civil id? or are they just trying to benifit the company that sells those vouchers? or i wonder if its a way to track someone activities by monitoring where he fills his car.

The new civil id card better be a good card , each time you give it at the pump reduces it lifetime (chemical exposure,elements etc) .Do you smell $$$ somewhere?

KNET:
1-Swipe card
2-Wait for connection
3-Enter Pin
4-Wait for connection
5-Take Knet bill and Station bill.
6-Long line forming behind you

Civil ID:
1-Swipe card
2-Take station bill

How Much??? KD 4 … Here are .. thx bye

I am always out of cash… and this idea is good for me (faster than K-Net) I recharged my Civil ID with KD20 since last week and I cant wait to try it LOL! Its like whenever I go with anyone I check their gas or as if they need to go to the gas station! 😛

ask rula dashti ..

I am sure she will support providing the new ID cards for non-kuwaiti .

by the way .. the reason they changed them to SMART Civil ID Cards to allow only GCC nationalities to travel to gulf countries without passports .

What ever happened to good hard cash?

I for one wouldn’t trust using a cash card owned and operated by the State!

So if loose my I’d anyone can just use the money in it without a pin code?? Just like a visa card, except visa needs at least a signature, and is insured for fraudulent use??
Money in I’d is not secure! Major fail!

I feel its a better idea, bcz normally people will carry Civil ID, even if they forget K net or money (applicable for expatriates)….so once this system is made available for expatriates’s IDs also, then it will be more useful…

They are testing it for when the expat community get their cards, they are not telling you, you have to pay with civil id cards, it is just offering another solution at no cost to you, in the mean time it is ideal for students at uni for example ! There is a lot of applications for the new chip, this is just the begining.

I guess none of you is looking at it from alpha’s point of view :p

Using Civil ID means they wont have to pay K-Net the 5% fee for every transaction.

The Money wont be installed on the card it’s in alpha system under your civil ID number look at it like it’s your login name. so if alpha is smart it could just put terminals and let you pay by logging in no need for cards, but they want the cheapest solution, *why not use ptro-net*

again using petro-net means paying fee’s for petro-net.

That’s the whole story :p

this is all part of the future plan in taxing individuals for their carbon emitions.

Pretty soon it will be mandatory to fuel your car this way in efforts to track your fuel usage which causes carbon emitions that contributes to global warming.

coming soon….you have to purchase your cigs this way too 😉

I hate stopping at the ATM! So I think its a good idea! needs to be rolled out at other stations and extended to the expats….

Hey Hilaliya,

Watcha mean by….

“Wait – is this the same electronic Civin ID card most people *cant* get until their current card expires? Thats what 2015? ”

I am an expat I renewed my Res Permit and got my new CID 02 weeks ago and it wasnt the new chip ID same old green card with the plastic lamination.

So I’m guessing its still only nationals who are getting the new chip card.

Mark there is a charge for k-net it’s not for to pay, it’s for the company that uses it. when someone becomes greedy they wouldn’t want to pay 50 fils as a fee. -.-

Even the Credit Cards the fee is not suppose to be paid by the customer it’s for the merchant to pay if a merchant forces you to pay it, you have the option of talking to the bank about it.

I’m still in denial.. Civil ID card is and IMPORTANT ID certificate.. it should not be used for something as silly as paying for ur car fuel.

kuwait is turning into a joke, from parliament to sports, education and now this…

what the hell do u want to do with us?!

plus if i was petronet i would sue because there is no competition as everyone will be carrying their civil id and petronet will run out of business that way. they must SUE.

I agree on who says this idea is stupid,,
first I’ll be locking my money & limit my self only with alpha stations. (what if I’m not near one!!)
second as “Lolcat” says, it reduces it’s lifetime.
Third it’s not private anymore by revieling my personal info (age, name..) to someone I don’t know!!
Forth, the chance in losing ur ID is higher now.

All in all this idea is lame.

I am very excited to read all the comments posted by all of you about this new service from the leading Fuel Marketing Company in Kuwait.

First of all the logic behind this service is to extend the use of Newly introduced Civil ID cards and trust me the Government is excited to add functionalities on these cards.

Secondly, there is convenience factor for the new Civil ID holders as it is required for every individual in this country to carry the Civil ID card while other cards are optional and when you need fuel you may not be having the other card or cash with you.

Third factor is about the security and reliability which means that all your transactions including your money is safe as you are dealing directly with the Oil Company and the service is well endoresed by PACI. PACI won’t allow anything unless they are absolutely sure about everything.

Further, you are no longer required to carry cash or withdraw cash from an ATM machine which might have additional charges for cash withdrawal.

Also, there is a Transaction Statement for your purchases as well as payments available to you anytime you want on the website. This helps you track how much you are spending on your fuel.

There is lot more promising about this service and I can provide further details if you are interested. keep watching this post..

Thanks.

Rajeev.

Dear Mark,
You’re not missing anything. This is an other one of those random government projects that is a total waste of time and money and was most likely done to benefit some one (or some company).

Ramez,
Of course paying the exact amount in cash is the fastest way, but then again, I don’t get my salary from my daddy.

Somebody made a shitload of money thanks to wasta and corruption, by suggesting this stupid and useless feature to his relative/friend in the govt and then getting millions to implement it in a half-arsed way with the rest of the money going to his pocket. Livin’ the Kuwaiti dream LOL

I tried it and it worked fine with me .. but their few points why in the registration you must put postal code and bo box ?
and also the worker their when I gave him my card he was surprised and ask me you sure it is working ! and he was laughing
and in the same time it update on the site that I used the card and which station and data time
it was good experience 🙂

The Civil ID payment system is NOT meant and supposed to replace any other mode of payment like ATM Card or existing fuel cards.

This is one additional method of payment introduced to provide one more choice to the Citizens of this country and to improve convenience.

Trust me gentlemen this was probably the one project where NO public money was spent and there is no hidden so called Carbon Taxation on the customers.

I would strongly suggest you to try it once to see how convenient and simple it is and you can start with as little as KD 5.

Further, the safety of your money is guaranteed by the Fuel Company directly instead of a small third party company in case of other fuel cards in the market.

As it is mentioned on the Website, There are NO Charges whatsoever for the customer. All costs are picked by the Soor Fuel Company the owners of ALFA Brand Stations.

Regarding the ALFA stations, these stations are in existance for years the brand has recently been changed to ALFA which should not be visible to everyone going to ALFA Gas station.

Good luck and keep watching. I will inform you about the other undocumented features for this service in my next post.

Drive Safe and dont forget to try ALFA… its a brand new way to pay.

Rajeev.

Dear Dr.Mahboob,

Appreciate your feedback about the registration process. We are fixing it to make more user friendly and soon you will see a positive change.

Further, the registration is only one time task and next time you can Add Funds to your account with minimal effort.

Thanks.

Rajeev

correction:

Regarding the ALFA stations, these stations are in existance for years the brand has recently been changed to ALFA which should NOW be visible to everyone going to ALFA Gas station.

Not necessarily, I for one love the idea of having an alternative way of paying for my gasoline. within the 3 months since I cam back home to kuwait, Ive had 2-3 incidents where I havent got cash or I forgot to see the gas indicator while driving with me not having my wallet on due to short journeys that require me to get back home. My civil ID goes in my car at all given times, I can use it to cross borders without the passport, comes in handy. Should be limited to kuwaitis though, as you know they will always end up in kuwait and be prosecuted if misused, expats have the choice of buying a one way ticket back to wherever they came from with a nice fat middle finger raised from the airplane window.

Some Clarifications:

Q. If they extend it to non-Kuwaitis (which technically shouldn’t be too complicated), this would be useful.

A. in Phase 1, PACI plans to issue Smart Civil ID to Kuwaitis only while in Phase 2, it will be extended to Expatriates.

Q. The new civil id card better be a good card , each time you give it at the pump reduces it lifetime (chemical exposure,elements etc) .

A. The new Civil ID cards are PVC composite cards with quite a few security measures including a Screen Lamination making it very durable and secondly the Chip use in these cards has a life of more than 1 million swipes/inserts which overall makes it a durable card to be used for multiple purposes

Q. So if loose my I’d anyone can just use the money in it without a pin code?? Just like a visa card, except visa needs at least a signature, and is insured for fraudulent use??

A. in case of loss/theft of the card, you can call Soor customer service at 1841010 and the card will be blocked instantly to avoid misuse.. the balance on your card will then be transferred to the new card obtained by you. Also, please note that the Fuel transactions are normally KD 3 to KD 5 only which limits the risk of misuse greatly.

On the other hand if you have a Prepaid fuel card and if you lose the card then you lose the money in it as well, which is not the case with Civil ID cards. Also, the photo on card is matched with the customer to add another level of security…

Q. Wait – is this the same electronic Civin ID card most people *cant* get until their current card expires? Thats what 2015?

A. Already PACI has issued more than 135,000 smart cards to Citizens.. and you can apply for the new card even before it is expired.

Q. KNET fee
A. The Civil Id can be funded online using KNET card on KNET payment gateway.. the KNET charges are not passed to customer giving full value for your money… while all other prepaid cards have an additional charge for the card.

Q. Security and privacy
A. The payments and records are as secure as any other banking transaction as it is used through the same ISO standard payment system used for the banks. Regarding the Privacy, the Soor Fuel Marketing is committed to the privacy of its customer and we DO NOT store/sell/transfer any information that is not printed on the card… BTW dont forget that PACI has tested it themselves first.

Q. ATM and other Cards, Competition
A. This is an additional method of payment for customers. It is not meant to replace the Master/Visa/ATM cards. In fact ALFA itself has a Prepaid & Postpaid Cards for its customers if they wish to buy one.

The ALFA Prepaid cards called “ALFA Fillup” are available in KD 20, KD 30, KD 50, KD 70 & KD 100 denominations and Post paid cards called “ALFA PLUS” can be used as much with payment due after the month of use. Again for the postpaid cards, there is NO hidden charges for these cards.

Just to reassure, your money is safe & secure with the Fuel Company (Soor Fuel Marketing Company) and we guarantee to honour ALFA cards in all our stations or your money would be refunded if you are not satisfied or happy with the service.

Thanks.

Rajeev

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