LITTLE ROCK—Small Arkansas retailers say they’re going to have to shell out big bucks to comply with new rules of credit-card companies requiring automated gasoline pumps to be able to recognize personal-identification numbers of debit-card users.

Bruce Gibson of Gibson Oil Co. in northeast Arkansas said the cost to upgrade equipment at the pumps will run $20,000 to $80,000 per store.

Nick Siddique, owner of five Shell stations in Little Rock, North Little Rock and White Hall, said the upgrade would cost $3,000 for each of his 32 pumps, a total of $96,000. He said he’ll probably stop allowing debit-card purchases at those pumps.

Siddique says the card companies should pay for the upgrades, not the stores.

“For the big (retailers) it’s not a problem,” he said. “But for a small guy like us it is.”