The Advantages And Disadvantages Of Fuel Rewards Programs

If you live in a place where grocery stores offer special discounts on fill-ups at their gas station based off your purchases in the store, you probably feel like you're bombarded with advertising about it.

They market it as the best way to save cash off your fuel purchases and try and entice you to spend as much as you can in their store because, after all, you are going to be saving money at the pump.

However the question is - is it really worth it?

Well, yes and no. It undoubtedly can be when you are already making purchases at that store and are happy with the amount you're spending. The problem is when you discover that you need to spend $15 more to get an added ten cents off your fuel purchase, so you pay out $15 on whatever you see just to receive the fuel discount. That's quite unnecessary if you could have paid much less for your purchase at another store. Bear in mind, an extra ten cents off per gallon is only a $1.50 to $2.00 discount - absolutely not worth wasting cash you didn't need to spend!

Yet another big promotion these types of stores typically run is connected to gift cards. Sometimes if you buy a gift card at their store (typically available for a number of merchants), they will give you twice the fuel discount.

Let's think this through. Say you'll gain 20 cents off per gallon for every $50 gift card purchase you make. Supposing your gas tank holds 16 gallons, that's a $3.20 discount. If you already need to have a gift card (maybe for a gift), that seems like a very good deal - you make $3.20 for really doing nothing.

When you don't have a cash back charge card (such as Discover More), you can optimize this promotion by purchasing gift cards for all of the stores you shop at. You are going to get fuel rewards essentially for shopping in the stores you already shop at.

Nevertheless, in the event you do have a cash back credit card, it can get a little bit more complicated. When you use a gift card you will not be getting cash back rewards, so you need to take that into account. If your cash back card gives 5% cash back at grocery stores, getting a grocery store gift card is pointless. If you get a $50 card, you'll get a $3.20 gas reward and a $2.50 cash back reward on your gift card purchase (assuming you employ your cash back card to buy the gift card), however you'll lose out on the $2.50 reward you would get for using your cash back card on the subsequent $50 purchase.

However, when the gift card is in a category you only get, say, 1% cash back on, then the gift card purchase will be worthwhile. You will obtain the gas reward plus a $2.50 cash back reward since you're buying the gift card at your grocery store. If you utilized your cash back credit card in the store only generating 1% cash back, you would only receive a reward of 50 cents. In this situation, you basically make $2. The question is if the entire process is worth the $2 you gain.

As you can see, there are actually winning and losing scenarios with fuel rewards programs. You just need to make the decision of when it is worth it and when it's not.

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