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Gas Credit Cards
Fuel prices fluctuate. We've seen this in recent history as gas prices have risen drastically over the past 5 years. Though they have gone down at times, it is still advisable to plan for the future and apply for a gas cards that allow you to earn rebates on purchases made at fuel and service stations. Though it is easy when money gets tight to cut out luxury items, driving your car isn't one of them and the costs associated with doing such make it very worthwhile to carry one of these forms of payment. Not only do they eliminate the need to carry excessive amounts of cash to pay for fuel, the best gas cards inevitably reduce the actual cost per gallon. If you think about it, a gas rebate card offering 5% will reduce a $3/gallon price to $2.85. Though many don't think of it in these terms, savvy consumers recognize the savings and use fuel cards to save up to $2.25 every time they fill their tank. This could amount to over a hundred dollars per year per vehicle.
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- 0% intro APR on purchases and balance transfers for 15 months, then the variable standard purchase APR of 10.99% - 19.99%*
- 2% automatically at gas stations and restaurants all year long*
- Plus, up to 20% Cashback Bonus at popular online retailers when you shop through Discover.com
- Discover is ranked #1 in customer loyalty--16 years in a row! (2012 Brand Keys Customer Loyalty Engagement Index report)
- 24/7 access to a U.S.-based Account Manager within 60 seconds
- Great rewards with no annual fee, no rewards redemption fee, and no additional card fee
- *Click apply to view rates, fees, rewards, limitations and other important information
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Intro APR
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Intro APR Period
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APR
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Annual Fee
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Balance Transfer
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Minimum Credit Required
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0%*
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15 months on purchases & balance transfers*
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10.99% - 19.99% (Variable)*
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$0*
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Yes*
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Excellent
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Best Gas Rebate Cards
For starters, you gas rebate cards issued by banks in conjunction with particular station brands are usually not a good deal. The ones issued just by the stations themselves are even worse. The customers who carry these cards in most cases have their reasons, whether they have business accounts with the merchants or some type of brand loyalty that spans decades when it was easier to obtain credit and gas companies were willing to take the chance on them. Gas company issued cards are generally just as bad as store credit cards. they come with absurdly high interest rates and some companies try their hardest to send out statements at the latest legal date in order to try to get you to make a late payment. This works to their advantage because then you can get bumped to an even higher interest rate than the original. The message: stay away from these types of offers.
Here is another thing that holds true. Station specific cards don't allow the same savings potential that general gas rebate cards provide. The tactics employed are as follows. Many of these cards will advertise deals like "save $.03/gallon." Though this is technically a deal, we don't consider it a great one. If you are buying gas at $3/gallon, this is a straight 1% savings. Anything over $3 per gallon which isn't all that un common yields less than a percent. Now, the best gas cards will offer up to 5% on the entire purchase. On a $3/gallon model, the savings is $.15 which is 5 times the amount of the 3% per gallon model. These types of higher earning gas cards usually fall under the category of general fuel cards.
General fuel cards also give you flexibility, and are much more convenient than the former. It's much more advantageous to carry one gas card than multiple gas cards for specific stations or one for only one station that will require you to drive around looking for the station you need which is not only time consuming, it most likely will result in wasting gas which ultimately costs money. Also many state highways and even interstates have contracts with certain providers. This means that the company will place a bid to provide fuel at all of the rest areas and such on the particular roads. For example, the Massachusetts Turnpike has a contract with Gulf. If you are cruising along this road and need gas and only have an Exxon Card (coincidentally they had the prior contract) you would have to get off the road, pay a toll, and then find an Exxon station. However, if you were to have a general gas rebate card, you wouldn't have to worry about such things. You could stop at just about any rest area and fill your tank up without the hassle of getting on and off and paying tolls/wasting time. Additionally you would most likely save more money on the purchase and much less on the interest (assuming that you didn't pay your balance off in full every month).
The one final thing that we suggest is that when you compare gas credit cards that you also compare cash back credit cards. In many cases, these may be more beneficial and allow you to earn rebates on all other purchases you make, though to a varying degree. You may find out after your research that the best gas card is not labeled as such, it may be a general cash back offer. Note: you may compare offers very easily using our comparative tools, starting with the advanced credit card search.
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