Gas Credit Cards For Students

Gas prices have never been this high, our economy is arguably in a recession and price of groceries inflate as each day goes by. With more and more Americans foregoing a substantial percentage of their paychecks to gas and auto maintenance, the need for a better, safer solution can not be more pressing than it already is. While we wait for the ultimate solution to eliminating our dependence on fossil fuels, should we continue spending an often ridiculous amount on monthly gas purchasing?
Citi Driver’s Edge Credit Card for College Student
The Driver’s Edge Card from Citibank is a good credit card solution for college students with poor credit scores even those without a credit history. Cardholders do not need to earn income in order to gain an approval. The featured reward program awards a 3% cash rebate for gas and 1% rebate for other purchases. An introductory Annual Percentage Rate period lasts 6 months during which balance transfers, cash advances and purchases incur no interest. The fixed APR becomes 12.99% afterward. Citi Driver’s Edge Card has no annual fee.
Discover Student Open Road Credit Card
Discover’s Open Road Credit Card fro College Students offers an introductory APR period for the first 6 months. Cardholders are awarded a 5% cash rebate on gas and auto maintenance purchases. Other purchases attract 1% in cash rebates. The card also offers double Cashback Bonus on grocery store purchases and Online Bill Payment feature. The fixed Annual Percentage Rate is as low as 15.99%.

Best Gasoline Cashback Credit Cards

Getting a good gas cashback credit card is the easiest way to save on gas, bar none. With gasoline prices increasing every single day, everyone is looking for ways to save on driving. Since you probably can’t sell your car and get one of these highest mileage cars, the next easiest thing is to get a credit card that gives you a little extra cashback on gasoline purchases (always try to get the best credit card for you). At the moment, besides specific gas station branded credit cards, I think the two best options out there is an American Express card and a Discover card.

The best option right now has to be the American Express Blue Cash Card because it offers up to 5% on everyday purchases, including at gas stations, supermarkets, and drugstores. General purchases have the opportunity to earn up to 1.5% cashback. It was named by Kiplinger’s Personal Finance as the “best cash-rebate card” and plenty of people look to it as the best card in their wallet.

Other salient details of the card are that there is no annual fee (I won’t recommend a card with an annual fee unless there is a compelling reason) and they have a 0% introductory APR on purchases for up to 12 months.

A close #2 is the card my wife and I use, the Discover® Open Road(SM) Card. The Discover Open Road card is a consumer card, so you don’t have to play business owner, and it offers 2% cashback at any gas station and any restaurant. Whereas the AMEX card only gave you 5% on gas (and other business-like services), this one includes auto maintenance. This makes the AMEX card a much better card. However, one additional perk of Discover is that you can get anywhere from 5% to 20% cashback bonus when you redeem your cashback in the form of a gift card from one of their retail partners. I used to get double cashback when I sold stuff on eBay because I’d convert my cashback for gift cheques to various stores I frequented.

Update: How could I forget the awesomeness that is the Costco TrueEarnings card? If you get the Costco TrueEarnings regular card, you get 3% cashback on already cheap gas prices. You also get 3% back at restaurants and 1% back on everything else. The only downside is that there’s an “annual fee” in the sense that you have to be a Costco member ($50 annual membership).

Beyond that, you have a few cards that give gimmicky 12 month promotional cashback offers or are specific to a particular gas station company. I am never a fan of the limited time promotions unless the offer is especially juicy and I don’t want to be tied to a particular gas station, I like freedom.