best gas card for travelling in the USA

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best gas card for travelling in the USA

Postby yycwrangler » Fri Jul 20, 2018 5:17 pm

Hi Everyone

A bit off topic for this discussion page. Heading down to Colorado from Calgary in Sept. Spending about 4 weeks travelling there and Moab etc. Can anyone suggest a gas card that you get $$'s or anything back for using them. Up in Canada we have a couple like our Superstore where you get 7cents off a liter which works out to around 28 cents a gallon. You can use it to purchase groceries.

I don't see any cards that give you 28 cents off a gallon down in the US but I thought you folks would know being thrifty campers and such

Cheers
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Re: best gas card for travelling in the USA

Postby Ottsville » Fri Jul 20, 2018 6:09 pm

Some gas station affinity cards offer things like $.20 gallon off for the first few months. Costco Visa gives you 4% back on the first $7k of gas each year, so at $3 /gallon that's $.12.
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Re: best gas card for travelling in the USA

Postby RTAMidwest » Fri Jul 20, 2018 11:13 pm

Most of the major oil companies have some kind of rewards card these days, where you get a free card and earn discounts with each fill up. Shell's Fuel Rewards is 5 cents off per gallon every time you fill up, with the possibility of earning more based on your spending. BP and ExxonMobil also each have their own rewards program where you accumulate points that can eventually be redeemed for a discount on a single fill up.

There are also plenty of smaller, regional fuel chains that have their own various rewards programs - Maverick is one you're likely to see around Colorado and Utah. Also, a lot of grocery stores have their own discount cards that can also be used for gas discounts too, either at their own gas stations or at an affiliated gas station. Kroger is probably the biggest one there - although they go by a lot of different names, I believe City Market is most common in Colorado - and have both fuel available at many of their grocery stores, but also own several gas station chain like loaf and jug, where the same card works.
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Re: best gas card for travelling in the USA

Postby S. Heisley » Sat Jul 21, 2018 9:56 am

If you have a credit or debit card like Visa, it will work most everywhere, with most every gas company.

I don't know if you are having this problem up in Canada; but, down here, we are having to watch for credit card attachments put on the card slots by thieves, especially in the cities. If the card slot doesn't look worn and dirty and isn't very flush and tight with the rest, take your card inside to pay. Or, simply always pay inside if you aren't sure.
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Re: best gas card for travelling in the USA

Postby gudmund » Sat Jul 21, 2018 10:55 am

use only one VISA card for everything (along with a debit card - has worked everywhere I have gone between US and Canada when buying gas - only problem was in Canada just last year for the first time when trying to get cash from one of their banks - they now want a pin ## for a credit card (like our debit cards) - contacted my VISA card holder when I got home and I now also have a pin ## for my VISA card for the next time, if asked for. Will be probably checking to see if it works this next week when I cross over the line heading north. 8)
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Re: best gas card for travelling in the USA

Postby S. Heisley » Sat Jul 21, 2018 11:03 am

gudmund wrote:use only one VISA card for everything (along with a debit card - has worked everywhere I have gone between US and Canada when buying gas - only problem was in Canada just last year for the first time when trying to get cash from one of their banks - they now want a pin ## for a credit card (like our debit cards) - contacted my VISA card holder when I got home and I now also have a pin ## for my VISA card for the next time, if asked for. Will be probably checking to see if it works this next week when I cross over the line heading north. 8)


Good to know. Thanks!
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Re: best gas card for travelling in the USA

Postby Treeview » Sat Jul 21, 2018 12:02 pm

The 'gas buddy' website/app works best for me. Saves me more money than messing around with making another debit/ credit card payment
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Re: best gas card for travelling in the USA

Postby working on it » Sat Jul 21, 2018 1:52 pm

S. Heisley wrote:If you have a credit or debit card like Visa, it will work most everywhere, with most every gas company.

I don't know if you are having this problem up in Canada; but, down here, we are having to watch for credit card attachments put on the card slots by thieves, especially in the cities. If the card slot doesn't look worn and dirty and isn't very flush and tight with the rest, take your card inside to pay. Or, simply always pay inside if you aren't sure.
  • When I commuted 120 miles per day, round-trip, to work and back, or when travelling long-distances to remote dragstrips, I used my credit union Mastercard, as debit when local, and as credit far away from home. I filled up a lot in Plano Texas, where I worked, and there was a time when many stations there had card skimmers attached (lots of high-rollers living in that area of Plano, so there was lots of cash to skim, apparently). That's when I started using the credit option on my card, instead of the debit, which required a pin code.
  • But, later on, when gas prices neared $4 a gallon, and I was driving my 11-14 mpg 2004 Chevy 2500HD pickup, as both my racecar-hauling TV, and as my daily driver (before I bought the '09 HHR Panel to cut my fuel consumption by almost 2/3, and before my TTT existed), I started to come up against the $75 credit card limit at gas stations, at that time. My truck had a 36-gallon tank, so a fill-up could hit $150 at some time in the future, and most often did stop me from getting a full tank (not good, late at night, a long way from home, after a race). I didn't like having to stop in some seedy locales, with a full truck of supplies, and a race car on the trailer! So, to bypass that limit, I started using the debit option (if I was still in some larger towns, otherwise not), to get a fuller tank. Later the gas prices went down, and the credit card limit raised to $100, so it was less of a problem (I also carried 10 gallons of regular, and 5-10 gallons of race fuel, in the truck bed, just in case).
  • Anticipating similar credit card limitations, and/or having to use the debit side of my bank card in distant locales to get fuel, I found an app that checks the pump for "skimmers", before I trust it. The app is "Skimmer Scanner", which I learned of thru this link https://www.cnet.com/news/credit-card-skimmers-thieves-are-getting-smarter-you-can-too/, and I got it from Google Play Store for free. I haven't needed to use my debit lately, but I still check the card readers anyway (haven't detected a skimmer, yet).
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