Best Gas Rewards Credit Cards

The best gas credits card for you can vary based on comparison factors such as total monthly purchases on your rewards card, how much money you spend on your gas credit card each month, and whether you use a separate card for gas purchases. Picking the top card can save you a considerable amount more than choosing one of the cards with lower rewards, the good news is there are several cards that stand out.

Gas Rewards & Gas Prices

Sadly, gas credit cards and the rewards you can earn from them may be the only good thing about the rising price of gas.  Although earning cash back on your card doesn’t bring back cheap gas it at least takes a bite out of more expensive fill ups.  Choosing the right gas card for your spending patterns can help stretch that cash back a little farther.

Cash Rewards and Interest Rates

One important point is that using a credit card for gas purchases and carrying a balace on it will wipe out any rewards you earn on your purchases. If you really want your gas credit card to make a dent in your gas costs make sure you don’t end up paying interest on your purchases.

If you find yourself putting all your purchases on one credit card, along with your gas, and can’t afford to pay it off each month – you could consider getting a rewards card that’s just for gas and paying for everything else with cash or some other card that features a low interest rate.

How Much Cash Back?

So how much cash back can you expect to earn when you use a rewards card?  The percentage back will depend on which card you qualify for and how you use it. 

Membership Cards

For example, the Costo True Earnings card pays 3% cashback on purchases, one of the best out there.  Of course you can only qualify for the card if you’re a member of Costco wholesale and the 3% cash back rate has an annual cap of $3,000 in gas purchases. So if you’re not member you can’t take advantage of it – and if you do belong to Costco, after you spend over $3K in a year the cash back rate goes down to 1%.

Another example is the Pen Fed Platinum Cashback card that pays a whopping 5% at the gas pump.  This is another card with a caveat.  You have to join the Pentagon Federal Credit Union to qualify for the card and take advantage of the high cash back payout.  The good news is that if you want use the card there’s a way you can become a member but it’s one more hurdle to earning top cash back rates.

Annual Fee

I really like the Blue Cash card from American Express because it has a cashback structure that fits how we spend our money.  They recently updated the card so that now you actually have two options, the Blue Cash Everyday and the Blue Cash Preferred card.

The differences between the two are the card fee and the cashback rates. Although you pay an annual fee with the Preferred card, you earn the highest cash rebate on groceries and gas.  So you have to look at your history and see how much you spend on those two categories to determine if you make enough purchases to make the Blue Cash Preferred worth it.  It makes sense for our family but it might not for you.

Cash Back Categories

Both the Discover More and Chase Freedom offer 5% cash back on gas purchases but they operate a little differently than the other cards mentioned above.  These cards have cetain categories of spending that they pay 5% cash back on during the year.  The categories change every quarter and typically use a seasonal approach.  For example, they might offer 5% back on gas during the summer months when people tend to do the most driving.

Cashback Always & for Everyone

So far we’ve talked about cards that mostly earn 5% cash back but each of them has certain things that might not make them the best card for everyone – membership cards, spending tiers, cash back categories.  Not to say that these aren’t good cards, it’s hard to pass up 5% cash back on gas, but they may or may not be the best fit for you.

There are cards that pay more than 1% cash back on gas every month of the year, don’t have an earnings cap, and are available to a wider audience.  Although the cash back rate on those cards typically isn’t as good, they can still be a good gas card.

One example is the Discover Open Road card.  This card pays 2% back on gas and at restaurants, so if none of the other cards is a fit for you, this could be an option.  They are a litle more strict on who they accept for this card based on your credit history.  If you have a poor credit score you might not be approved or may have to pay a higher interest rate

Comparing Cards

Hopefully this has been a helpful look at the different types of gas credit cards available, how much you can earn, and things to think about for each one. You can review the benefits and features of these top gas rewards credit cards listed below and hopefully find the right gas card that will save you the most money.

Related articles:

• Best Cash Back Rewards Credit Cards
• PenFed Rewards Credit Cards