I have to go inside and pre-auth. This process sometimes only requires a swipe, sometimes chip and pin - but never a zip code.
Could they just fix that?
In my experience the zip code is built into the gas pump machines for 2 reasons: a) provide a least a modicum of security at the pumps the card user is an authorized user; and b) more importantly there is a good chance the manual input of the confirmed zip code provides a slight discount to the gas station with respect to their merchant services contract (which is probably pretty important on low margin purchases of gas).
They could fix it, but I'd be surprised if anyone decided it was worth allocating any resources towards.
One of my British cards (Capital One?) has me use all zeroes.
Check out this video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5b1axnNK-wI
Two attackers. One distracts the clerk, a second slips a skimmer over the in-store point-of-sale terminal in three seconds.