The present invention extends to managing the dispensing of petroleum
products. A kiosk (e.g., at a gas station) and fuel management system are
connected over a network. The fuel management system maintains balances
for fuel purchasing accounts that can be debited to purchase fuel. To
purchase fuel, a customer enters credentials identifying a fuel
purchasing account at the kiosk. After fueling is complete, the fuel
purchasing account is debited by the amount of the fuel purchase.
Embodiments of the fuel system can also include networked (e.g.,
Internet) based payments into a fuel purchasing account, either from a
kiosk or from a personal computer. Consumers can pay for increased
amounts of fuel, such as, for example, multiple tanks of gasoline, in a
single payment, potentially reducing or even eliminating returned check
losses and/or card fees associated with "tank-at-a-time" purchases.