Comparing Bankrate’s top gas credit cards
A closer look at our list of best gas credit cards
Citi Rewards+® Card
Best for everyday spending
- This card is a good fit for: Everyday shoppers who want to earn travel rewards.
- This card is not a great choice for: Those who want the option to transfer rewards to travel partners.
- What makes this card unique? At first glance, the rewards structure seems pretty standard. However, there’s an interesting and valuable bonus: The rewards you earn from every purchase will be rounded up to the nearest ten points. So, a $12 lunch order would earn 20 ThankYou points.
- Is the Citi Rewards+® Card worth it? You’ll earn a Limited Time offer, earn 20,000 bonus points after you spend $1,500 in purchases with your card within 3 months of account opening; redeemable for $200 in gift cards at thankyou.com. Compared to other rewards cards, this offer is just okay. However, the annual bonus of 10 percent points back on the first 100,000 points you redeem is potentially much more valuable because you can earn it every year.
Read our Citi Rewards+® Card review.
Jump back to offer details.
Sam’s Club® Mastercard®
Best wholesale club card
- This card is a good fit for: Sam’s Club members who want to earn rewards on the everyday essentials.
- This card is not a great choice for: Someone who isn’t sold on a Sam’s Club membership — You’ll need one to get the card.
- What makes this card unique? Instead of rewarding you for purchases at Sam’s Club, this card rewards you for everyday purchases like gas and restaurant dining.
- Is the Sam’s Club® Mastercard® worth it? If the idea of your gas station fill-ups and restaurant meals earning rewards that you can use at Sam’s Club appeals to you, you’re bound to find value in this card.
Read our Sam’s Club® Mastercard® review.
Jump back to offer details.
Blue Cash Preferred® Card from American Express
Best for gas and groceries
- This card is a good fit for: Someone with a moderate to large grocery budget.
- This card is not a great choice for: Those who buy groceries at superstores like Walmart, Target or Costco, which are ineligible for the U.S. supermarket cash back category.
- What makes this card unique? A cash back rate of 6 percent is stellar, especially when it’s attached to a rewards category as valuable as U.S. supermarkets (6 percent on up to $6,000 on purchases at U.S. supermarkets per year, then 1 percent).
- Is the Blue Cash Preferred worth it? In exchange for the excellent cash back rate, you have to pay a $95 annual fee ($0 introductory annual fee for the first year). To come out ahead (earn at least $95 in cash back), you would have to spend more than $1,584 at U.S. supermarkets (1,584 x .06 = 95.04). Split equally throughout a year, that’s about $33 per week. That’s excluding additional cash back you might earn by spending in the card’s other bonus categories.
Read our Blue Cash Preferred® Card from American Express review.
Jump back to offer details.
Blue Cash Everyday® Card from American Express
Best for no annual fee
- This card is a good fit for: Those who want to earn rewards on everyday purchases without paying an annual fee.
- This card is not a great choice for: Someone who does their grocery shopping at Target, Walmart or wholesale clubs. The U.S. supermarkets cash back category does not include superstores or wholesale clubs.
- What makes this card unique? In addition to U.S. supermarkets and U.S. gas stations, there’s a more rare bonus category: select U.S. department stores. For families, this trio of bonus categories can be valuable.
- Is the Blue Cash Everyday worth it? If gas and groceries are recurring expenses for you, this card is worth having — especially since it has no annual fee.
Read our Blue Cash Everyday® Card from American Express review.
Jump back to offer details.
Bank of America® Customized Cash Rewards credit card
Best for sign-up bonus
- This card is a good fit for: Someone who wants a variety of bonus category options.
- This card is not a great choice for: Someone looking for a hands-off rewards card. If remembering which bonus category you’ve selected sounds bothersome, you might enjoy a card with fixed bonus categories.
- What makes this card unique? The ability to choose and change your bonus cash back category allows for a flexible rewards strategy and room for your credit card portfolio to grow.
- Is the Bank of America® Customized Cash Rewards credit card worth it? The one potential sticking point in terms of value is the spending cap on the bonus categories — $2,500 in combined choice category and grocery store/wholesale club purchases each quarter, then 1 percent. However, between gas and groceries, a $2,500 quarterly limit is pretty generous — Most people are unlikely to find the spending caps to be value-limiting.
Read our Bank of America® Customized Cash Rewards credit card review.
Jump back to offer details.
Discover it® chrome
Best for first-year cash back match
- This card is a good fit for: Someone who wants to earn rewards on both restaurant and gas station purchases.
- This card is not a good choice for: Someone seeking a traditional sign-up bonus.
- What makes this card unique? Discover’s Cashback Match can offer even more value than a traditional sign-up bonus if you’re willing to wait. Discover will automatically match all of the cash back you’ve earned at the end of your first year. So if you earn $300 over the course of your first year, you’ll automatically receive another $300.
- Is the Discover it® chrome worth it? If you drive and dine out often and you want an easy cash back card, then the Discover it chrome card may be a worthwhile pick. However, you can find better rewards rates for gas, even among other no-annual-fee cards.
Read our Discover it® chrome review.
Jump back to offer details.
PenFed Platinum Rewards Visa Signature® Card
Best credit union rewards card
- This card is a good fit for: Frugal spenders who want to be rewarded for budget staples like gas, dining out, and supermarket purchases.
- This card is not a great choice for: Someone who isn’t interested in becoming a member of PenFed Credit Union. Also, those looking for cash back should look elsewhere — redemption options are limited to travel, gift cards, and shopping.
- What makes this card unique? In addition to gas purchases, this card also offers bonus points at electric vehicle charging stations.
- Is the PenFed Platinum Rewards Visa Signature® Card worth it? You’ll have to be a member of PenFed’s credit union to apply, but the rewards potential could make membership worth considering. Rewards are unlimited, and in the gas-at-the-pump category alone, spending $200 a month would earn 1,000 monthly reward points.
Review for the PenFed Platinum Rewards Visa Signature® Card coming soon.
Jump back to offer details.
What is a gas credit card?
With a gas credit card, you’ll earn points, cash back or miles when you spend at the pump. Most tend to be no annual fee cards that accept fair to good credit, but not all.
Gas credit cards come in a variety of forms. Some are high-earning rewards cards while others can help people with bad credit save at the pump. Further understanding the types of cards makes your decision on whether or not to carry a gas credit card easier.
Types of gas credit cards
The two main types of gas credit cards are co-branded and general-purpose. They each have their benefits, but we like general-purpose gas rewards cards because they’re more versatile.
General-purpose gas credit cards
These traditional options are simply credit cards that offer bonus rewards at gas stations. For example, the Citi Rewards+ Card offers 2X points at supermarkets and gas stations (up to $6,000 per year, then 1X). Gas credit cards, just like all other credit cards, can be either flat-rate or have rotating bonus categories.
Loyalty gas cards
Loyalty gas cards, or cards distributed by specific gas stations to promote loyalty (such as BP, Speedway or Chevron), allow cardholders to earn credits for gas and receive discounts on fuel.
We recommend general-purpose gas rewards credit cards over loyalty cards — you’ll be able to earn rewards at any gas station, rather than one specific branded station. Also, your savings might be limited due to the ebb and flow of gas prices at your particular loyalty station.
Bankrate Insight
Some loyalty programs, such as BPme, allow you to connect your debit or credit card to their app to earn points. This essentially allows you to utilize a general-purpose rewards card as a loyalty card as well. You can learn more in our
guide to gas rewards programs about how these loyalty offers stack up.
Pros and cons of gas rewards cards
Like any type of rewards credit card, gas cards have their perks and drawbacks. Consider the following before you apply:
Pros
- Plenty of no-annual-fee options
- Most offer rewards in additional categories, like dining or groceries
- Available to people with a wide range of credit qualities
Cons
- Gas rewards cards tied to a particular brand may be inconvenient
- Few options to earn rewards on electric vehicle charging
- Gas isn’t the largest component of most people’s budgets
Who should get a gas credit card?
If you drive a vehicle that runs on gasoline, you’ll benefit from a gas credit card — it’s as simple as that. The average American spends $2,094 annually on gasoline, other fuels and motor oil, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics’ 2019 Consumer Expenditures Report. Charged on a credit card that earns 3 percent cash back on gas, those expenses would amount to an annual rewards haul of $62.82. While that’s not a staggering sum, you can think of it as a free fill-up or two.
Gas credit cards are ideal cards for individuals who commute long distances, frequently run errands, love to take road trips or have a busy family. With gas rewards cards, you can earn better-than-average rewards on fuel purchases and can better protect against skimmers, or machines that steal and store your card information, than debit cards.
How to choose a gas credit card
There are a variety of options when it comes to choosing a gas credit card. First and foremost, we recommend that you stick with the general-purpose gas rewards card that will earn you rewards at any gas station, no matter the brand.
Additionally, look for cards that offer no annual fee and perks for non-gas purchases. We’ve pulled together an example of two credit cards that we think would be good choices, using a sample budget of $175 per month for gas and $200 per month on general purchases.
| Rewards structure |
2% cash back at gas stations and restaurants (up to $1,000 in combined purchases each quarter)
1% unlimited cash back on everything else |
Earn 3% cash back in the category of your choice and 2% at grocery stores and wholesale clubs (up to $2,500 in combined choice category/grocery store/wholesale club quarterly purchases). Earn unlimited 1% on all other purchases. |
| Spending example |
$175 * 12 months * 2% cash back = $42
$200 * 12 months * 1% cash back =$24 |
$175 * 12 months * 3% cash back = $63
$200 * 12 months * 1% cash back =$24
*In order to earn 3% cash back at the pump, you would have to select “gas stations” as your category of choice. |
| Annual fee |
$0 |
$0 |
| Sign-up bonus |
Discover will match all the cash back you’ve earned at the end of your first year, automatically. |
$200 online cash rewards when you make at least $1,000 in purchases your first 90 days from account opening |
| First-year value |
$132
(including year-end match bonus) |
$287
(including sign-up bonus) |
| Second-year value |
$66 |
$87 |
The bottom line
In this example, the Bank of America Customized Cash Rewards card offers a better value for both the first year and beyond. You can use this general process to compare any two gas credit cards.
How we selected our list of top gas cards
Credit cards featured on Bankrate.com receive a score based on a 5-point scoring system. With individual categories such as gas credit cards, the analysis focuses on specific features relevant to that type of card, including:
Rewards rate
The highest-rated credit cards for gas purchases typically earn cash back or rewards points at a rate of 2 percent, 3 percent or even 4 percent for every dollar you spend on fuel purchases.
Versatility
The best gas cards offer rewards not just for filling up your vehicle but also for other types of everyday purchases, such as groceries.
Affordability
A truly outstanding gas credit card puts value front and center, meaning that it charges no annual fee (or a minimal fee).
Have more questions for our credit cards editors? Feel free to send us an email, find us on Facebook, or Tweet us @Bankrate.
