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Credit cards that provide cash rewards for gas are some of the most popular on the market. Almost everyone who drives a car probably buys gas, so a good gas credit card can be very useful, in part to help offset high gas prices.
By Brendan Harkness
Be on the lookout for features like these if you’re in the market for a gas credit card.
By Brendan Harkness
Do you buy gas? Then there’s a good chance you could find value in a gas credit card. Do you buy a lot of gas? Then you’d almost definitely find a gas card useful.
If you’re already spending the money, why not earn some rewards?
A gas credit card is any card with a bonus reward category for purchases at gas stations. There are also some cards that are co-branded with certain gas stations, which are designed to be used primarily with that brand.
Gas credit cards vary quite a bit. Some offer just 2–3% back in rewards or have spending limits, while our top pick, the Ducks Unlimited Card, offers unlimited 5% cash back.
There are many gas cards without annual fees, so you can earn rewards at no cost whatsoever (as long as you avoid accruing interest and other fees).
A gas credit card can be an excellent way to collect cash back or points — if you use it responsibly. Your purchases will typically be covered by some basic shopping protections, and the better cards have some cost-saving perks too.
Like any rewards card, gas cards can help you build credit. Co-branded gas cards in particular are known for approving people with worse credit, which could make them a great option if you’re seeking to earn credit card rewards, but can’t get approved for a good general-use card.
You can use many gas credit cards to earn rewards for purchases at gas stations other than gas, like snacks or certain gift cards. But some specify that only fuel purchases will qualify for the gas bonus category.
Are you an Uber driver? If so, you should check out the Uber Visa Debit Card. It provides 3% cash back at Exxon and Mobil gas stations, 8% back for Sprint purchases, and 10% back at Advance Auto Parts. And there are some other useful features like discounted roadside assistance.
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The Ducks Unlimited Rewards Visa Signature® Card has the best gas station bonus category, with no cap to the amount of cash back you can earn at the 5% rate.
The Ducks Unlimited is a pretty simple card, with no signup bonus, but if you spend a lot of money on gas every year this is your most rewarding option.
There are some other cash rewards credit cards that can provide 5% back for gas, like the Discover it® Cash Back Credit Card (Review) and Chase Freedom® (Review). Unlike the Ducks Unlimited card, these two usually only offer the gas category for three months out of the year, and it’s also limited to the first $1,500 you spend. You can only earn a maximum of $75 cash back at the 5% rate with those cards.
So if you’re going to buy a lot of gas throughout the year, this is the only card that can give you 5% back the entire time. If you don’t spend as much on gas you may be able to get the same value from one of the rotating category cards. Just use it to buy gas gift cards while the category is active, so you can use them throughout the year.
The Ducks Unlimited is available at the Visa Signature level if your credit limit is $5,000 or above. Otherwise you’ll get a Visa Platinum, which just comes with some basic benefits.
This card can be very rewarding, but it’s issued by a smaller bank and the online services may be a bit behind the times. But we’ve found customer support to be knowledgeable and helpful. We recommend turning off your ad blocker when applying for this card, and also when you activate it after you get it, because it can cause issues when submitting information.
The Wells Fargo Propel American Express® card (Review) has an interesting rewards program with four different categories, most of them related to travel.
Your points will be worth 1 cent each, so you’ll be earning the equivalent of 3% cash back in the categories above. You can redeem in a variety of different ways, like statement credits or for travel expenses, but you’ll only get a maximum of 1 cent per point.
This is a relatively new card offer, primarily aimed at travelers but also featuring the streaming services category. The eligible streaming services are:
3% cash back is about as good a deal you’ll find for streaming services, although more cards will probably start including this as a category.
The Propel card is pretty good for gas alone, but the other bonus categories make it much more useful. Depending on your spending habits, it might be the right card for you.
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For many people, modern life requires a constant flow of gas and groceries, and so you may want a credit card that’s good for both. The Blue Cash Preferred® Card from American Express (Review) fits the bill quite well, offering a lot of cash back at U.S. supermarkets and a competitive rate at U.S. gas stations too.
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The Hilton Honors American Express Card is designed for travelers who frequently stay at Hilton properties. It has no annual fee (Rates & Fees).
You’ll need to redeem your points through the Hilton Honors system. That’s not a bad thing because it has quite a few options like free night stays, vacation packages, and resort-specific services.
The value of your points will vary depending on how you redeem them. It will depend on the particular hotel, time of year, location, etc. But if you take 0.6 cents per point as the valuation at the low end, the 5X points at U.S. gas stations will provide a cash back equivalent of at least 3%.
This is a solid deal for a card with no annual fee. And you’ll be earning at least 11.4% cash back when making purchases from Hilton at the 19X rate. But this is a travel credit card designed for people on the move who often find themselves in Hilton hotels (at least occasionally), and it won’t be very useful otherwise.
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Some reward credit cards have bonus categories that rotate every three months, instead of providing a set amount throughout the year. These cards will usually have gas stations as one of the categories.
The best rotating reward card for gas is the Discover it® Cash Back Credit Card (Review), which has no annual fee. The truly impressive thing about this card is the Cashback Match, which doubles all the cash back you earn in your first year.
Take note that you must manually activate your 5% cash back rewards every quarter, and you won’t earn at the 5% rate until you do. This is as simple as logging in and clicking “Activate.” You can activate months in advance, so be sure to do so.
As you can see, you would get 5% cash back on gas purchases from April through June in 2019. Although this only lasts for a few months, you’ll have other categories throughout the year in which you can earn rewards.
A good strategy could be to buy gift cards for your favorite gas stations during the three months in which you’ll earn 5% cash back at gas stations. Then you can use those gift cards to fill up your tank throughout the year, having already earned your 5% discount when you originally bought them.
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The Discover it® Chrome (Review) isn’t the most impressive card, but for some people it could be a great option to earn rewards for gas spending — particularly during its first year.
So in your first year you’ll end up getting a 4% cash back equivalent on gas and at restaurants, and 2% back everywhere else. While the original deal is not very rewarding, the offer to double the cash rewards makes this quite a valuable card during the first year of use. With the $1,000 limit per quarter, that means you can potentially earn a total of $160 cash back on gas in that first year.
The Discover it Chrome loses much of its appeal after the first year, when the rewards drop to the normal rates. At that point it becomes a pretty average cash rewards credit card.
You can actually get two copies of the Discover it Chrome at the same time (or any other Discover card, like the Discover it above). You’ll need to wait 12 billing cycles to apply for the same card again, however. That would let you earn 4% cash back on gas for another year, for a potential of $320 in cash back from gas over those two years.
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People with limited or bad credit have a harder time being approved for regular cards. Secured credit cards offer a different way forward. They’re easier to get for people with poor credit, but require a refundable security deposit at the start to fund their credit limits.
Most secured cards come don’t offer any rewards, and some have annual fees. But the Discover it® Secured Credit Card (Review) is a bit of an outlier, with terms that seem to belong more on a regular rewards card. This card requires a security deposit of $200 to $2,500 when you’re approved.
This card is pretty much like the Discover it Chrome above, with the same exact rewards program. But some of the terms are a bit different.
The Discover it Secured should definitely be the first choice for anyone looking for a secured credit card. And it might be your only option if you want a secured card that offers rewards for gas.
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Once again, Discover provides the best gas rewards credit card for students. Take a gander at the Discover it® Chrome for Students (Review).
College students are typically new to credit, with limited or no credit history. This makes getting that first credit card tough. Student credit cards are designed with this in mind, and often come with less favorable terms to reflect that. But Discover breaks the mold by offering a student card that is actually pretty good.
The Discover it Chrome for Students has most of the features of the regular Discover it Chrome, with the same rewards program and Cashback Match. But it also provides some extra credit for students who excel in college, and has a different intro APR offer.
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USAA offers a variety of credit cards for military members and their families. The USAA Cashback Rewards Plus American Express® Card (Review) is one of the most rewarding, and with no annual fee it’s not a bad choice for gas purchases.
That 5% cash back is a relatively high offer, although it’s limited to the first $3,000 you spend in those categories every year. That means you can only earn a maximum of $150 per year in those categories, but if you’ll stay under that limit this could be the right card for you.
USAA cards come with a variety of useful benefits specifically designed for military members and their families. So even if you’re not getting the best rewards program, you might like the other features enough to value this card very highly.
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Costco members have a special advantage with the Costco Anywhere Visa® Card by Citi (Review), which is actually one of the better gas credit cards. This card has no annual fee but requires a Costco membership to apply, which is at least $60 annually.
So this card provides 4% cash back on gas throughout the entire year — quite a high rate compared to most cards. In general, gas rewards credit cards don’t offer any bonus categories for wholesale clubs, like Costco. So this card is one of your only options for earning rewards for gas at Costco.
The 4% rewards rate will be limited to the first $7,000 spent each year, but the limit is quite a bit higher than most of this card’s competitors. That will provide a maximum of $280 cash back per year if you use it all.
The other spending categories are pretty good as well. The 3% cash back for restaurants and travel is on the upper end compared to most cards without annual fees. And the 2% back at Costco will be a welcome bonus for any member.
The information related to Costco Anywhere Visa® Card by Citi has been collected by Credit Card Insider and has not been reviewed or provided by the issuer or provider of this product.
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The Sam’s Club® Mastercard® is an obvious choice for anyone who is already a Sam’s Club member. This card is available if you have a Sam’s Club membership, which costs a minimum of $45 annually.
The 5% back you’ll get on gas is a great rate, about as high as it usually ever gets for credit cards. And the $6,000 limit means you’ll be able to earn up to $300 cash back per year on gas, though most people don’t spend that much on fuel.
If you spend $900 on gas in a given year you’ll earn $45 in rewards, enough to offset the minimum Sam’s Club annual membership fee. And if you spend $2,000 on gas you’ll earn $100, enough to offset the Plus membership fee. And that doesn’t even factor in the cash back rewards you’ll earn from the dining and travel categories.
If you’re already paying for a Sam’s Club membership you might as well get some good rewards too. Since this card can be completely free to use as long as you avoid interest and fees, it should be a welcome addition to your wallet.
Most of the cards above are general-use rewards cards, which can be used at any gas station. But there are also co-branded gas credit cards that can only be used at their specific gas station brands. These “gas store credit cards” are similar to retail store cards in that way.
If you already have a member card with a particular gas station, or you always find yourself filling up at the same station over and over, you might find value in its co-branded credit card.
Anyone who does a lot of driving for work should consider a gas rewards card of some kind. Truckers might find these cards useful, as well as Uber and Lyft drivers. Some of these cards are designed for large companies with fleets of drivers.
These cards typically offer fuel discounts, like 5 cents off per gallon. In many cases the rewards are based on your spending: The more gas you buy, the bigger your discount.
But these branded gas cards, unlike the general-use cards above, usually won’t offer rewards for in-store purchases, like food and drinks. You may be able to use the card in the store — you just won’t earn cash back or points for those purchases.
Not every gas station offers a credit card. Keep in mind that some gas cards are issued by smaller companies, rather than the major credit card issuers (like Amex and Chase, for example). That could mean you’ll get sub-par customer support or payment processing systems. If that’s the case, try to pay your bill well before the due date to make sure your payment arrives on time.
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The information related to Costco Anywhere Visa® Card by Citi has been collected by Credit Card Insider and has not been reviewed or provided by the issuer or provider of this product.