Ease the pain of gas price hikes by racking up rewards and cash back while you fill up your gas tank. Here are some of the best gas credit cards I’ve come to know about.
With less income, my family’s more determined about cutting our spending, but unfortunately, we can’t get our costs down all the way to zero — especially when it comes to spending on gas. I get the hives whenever I watch the gas pump sucking out the dollars from my credit card.
My spouse and I use cash back credit cards but we’d like to further optimize their use. So I’m on a mission to find out what else is out there that may get us better savings and won’t require us to do anything extra to receive the rewards. I’ve been doing a bit of research on this front, including capitalizing on what we consider as a fairly fixed expense — our spending on gas. Here were some of the best gas credit cards I’ve encountered in my research:
Best Gas Credit Cards
Discover Open Road Card
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To sign up for this card, here’s where to go.
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Discover Student Open Road Card
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Best Cash Back Credit Cards With A Gas Rewards Component
Discover More Card
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To sign up for this card, here’s where to go.
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Update: At this time, Discover is offering a $50 cash back bonus on its consumer card: Discover More,
if you meet certain spending requirements when using the card. A $100 cash back bonus is available on the Discover Business card
which is Discover’s card for small business owners. Details of these offers are in this article: Discover More Card Offers $50 Cash Back Bonus.
Blue Cash from American Express
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To sign up for this card, here’s where to go.
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True Earnings Card from Costco and American Express
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To sign up for this card, here’s where to go.
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Update: The True Earnings American Express Rewards Credit Card is currently offering a $25 sign up bonus. You can read more about it here.
I consider the first three cards I listed as “gas credit cards” — those geared towards rewarding you for your gas or automobile-related expenditures. However, many general cash back credit cards offer a gas rewards component as well, so I thought to include my favorite ones in this list (see the last four cards listed).
If you like rewards cards, there are many to choose from, whether it be specialty gas credit cards, general cash back credit cards or some other variant of a rebate card. But you’ll need to know your spending habits well (and in the case of gas cards, particularly how and where you fill up your gas tank) in order to make the best credit card choices for yourself.
Cut Down On Gas Expenses, Use Gas Credit Cards
To minimize our gas expenditures, we have also seriously cut down on our on-the-road and commute expenses. I’ve shared that we have been able to trim gas costs and save up to $5,500 a year by making some lifestyle adjustments (including the fact that I quit my job). We are now doing more to save by investigating the use of gas credit cards to receive rewards on our fixed gas expenses.
Recently, I also discussed a very interesting survey about maximizing our gas credit card rewards by picking the right cards to match our spending habits. The biggest takeaways I got from the study were the following:
- If you exclusively use a branded gas card at participant gas stations (that carry the same brand), you’ll get higher cash back rewards than you would from any other form of cash back credit card. The operative word here is “exclusively” (that is, you use the card greater than 70% of the time).
- Don’t use cash back credit cards at all of any kind if you won’t be able to pay off your balance in full each month.
I’d encourage you to read more about this informal study in my article: Maximize Your Gas Credit Card Rewards! How To Pick The Right Rewards Card.
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- Earn top returns: FNBO Direct [1.90%], HSBC Direct [1.65%], WTDirect [1.76%], E*Trade Bank [0.95%], ING Direct [.25% to 1.65%]
- Cash bonus: Discover More [$50], American Express [$25], Lending Club [$25]
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I know you have talked about it before but what was your drive to work before in mileage? My wife will be cutting her commute once we move and I can’t wait for the hopeful gas savings!
Discover periodically offers 5% on gasoline purchases under their Get More program. American Express gives 3% on gasoline purchases, but it has to be at Costco or a “free standing” gas station. 7-Eleven, AM-PM, etc are considered grocery stores so the 3% doesn’t apply.
Cheers,
Ken
Ed: Interesting points Ken, thanks so much for the clarifications! In many ways, Discover is tops when it comes to rewards.
Well, my drive to work was around 30 miles one way so that meant around 60 miles of driving per day (at least). I always felt somewhat crazy that I’d keep a job for 4 years that made me drive all those miles. Here are some details of how I used to commute to the city (from a Bay Area suburb).
But it still wasn’t as bad as the situation of my other colleagues, who used to commute 1.5 hours one way and included driving, taking the train then walking some number of blocks to get to the office. It can truly wear you out, and the commute costs do add up.
Some people I know have decided to take apartments in the city so that they limit their commutes. The sacrifice of course, is that they cut down their time with their families since they only see them half the time (when they go home for the weekends, for example).
Anything for a living, I guess. It’s tough to be without a job and it’s just as tough to have one.
American Express gives 3% on gasoline purchases, but it has to be at Costco or a “free standing†gas station.
Interesting post. Thanks for the information.
I use the Citibank Simplicity Cash Rewards Card. It’s no longer available and pays back 5% on any gas stations.
I use the Citibank Simplicity Cash Rewards Card. Unfortunately, it’s no longer available but it pays back 5% on any gas stations.
I’d like to apply for that kind of credit card. I’m a adventurer, always on the road all of the time and because of that I spend a lot using my credit card. Good job in this post.