NEW YORK -- CreditCardClients.com has conducted research comparing the value of credit card rewards on gasoline purchases. The consumer-focused financial website's analysts evaluated a total of 31 credit cards. They compared each of the 31 credit card's rewards programs: 25 credit cards offer cash-back rewards, and six credit cards offer points. All of the rewards programs were valued in dollars in order to allow a common basis of comparison.
Oil companies issued 20 of the 31 cards analyzed. Seven are issued by large oil companies and 13 by small oil companies, as measured by the number [image-nocss] of stations that accept the card in the United States. The analysts compared these cards with 11 leading general rewards credit card programs that give special rebates or rewards for gasoline purchases. They analyzed 11 additional gasoline cards; however, they were excluded from the final comparison because those cards did not offer rebates or rewards on gasoline purchases.
The CreditCardClients.com analysis defined three common user profiles:
Profile 1. A household that charges an average of $400 each month on gas with a single credit card, but does not use the card for any other purchases. Profile 2. A household that charges $1,500 of purchases per month on a single credit card, of which $200 is spent on gas purchases. Profile 3. A household that charges $3,000 of monthly purchases on a single credit card, of which $400 is spent on gas purchases. The top 5 cards for first-year rewards were Blue Cash from American Express, Citi Diamond Preferred Rewards, BP Visa Rewards Card, Wawa Visa and CITGO MasterCard. The top 5 cards for annual rewards were Blue Cash from American Express, BP Visa Rewards Card, Speedway SuperAmerica MasterCard, TrueEarnings from Costco and American Express and Hess Visa.For each profile, the researchers calculated the value of the rewards that each household profile could receive by using each one of the 31 fully-evaluated gasoline credit cards.
Click herefor the full list of gas credit cards and rewards credit cards.
For more details, click here.
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