Gasoline pricing is like a roller coaster ride. For the past year, gasoline price was in a steep climb then it went on a downward spiral the last few months. Right now, it is showing some signs of going up again. From a high of $4.50 few months back, regular gasoline now sells in the vicinity of $1.75 with a noticeable rise in some states like California.
Regardless of the cost of gasoline, people still have to fill up their tanks as car travel is the most convenient way of going to work, school, and other destinations. While there are means of mass transportation, it is not convenient because stations are far in between. One has to take another ride from one station to the place of work. Added to this will be the mandatory walk that can cover several miles. While walking is considered to be a very good form of exercise, you will not appreciate it when you are rushing to get to your place of work on time or when you are going home after a hard day’s work.
Driving one’s car is therefore a necessity in the industrialized world, regardless of the cost of gasoline. Since we do not have control on the price of gasoline, all we need to do is to look for alternatives where we can cut down a bit the pump price of that very important commodity.
One way of economizing on gas purchase is through the use of a gas credit card. It is an ordinary credit card issued by banks that has tie-up with gas companies. This gas card can work in different ways:
• When you purchase gas from the pump using the gas credit card, you are charged a lower rate than when you use ordinary credit cards, sometimes lower than when you pay in cash. The idea here is to make you patronize the gas company that sponsors the credit card. Such discount on gas price cannot be availed if you purchase gas from another station that is run by a gas company different from the gas company that sponsors your credit card.
• When you purchase gas from a station run by the gas company that issued your gas credit card, you pay the regular pump price but you accumulate credit points. The accumulated credit points can later be converted into cash or be used to purchase gas from stations of the said gas company.
• When you use your gas credit card to make purchases in stations run by the gas company that issued your credit card, you will be getting cash rebates. The cash rebate will be accumulated and will appear in your monthly credit card bill. There will come a point when you can apply the accumulated rebates to your gas charges.
It is always a good idea that when applying for a credit card, one must closely scrutinize the fine prints. There might be something in the agreement between the issuer of the credit card and the user that might turn out to be disadvantageous to the user. But generally, gas credit cards really provide a hefty discount and benefits to the card holder.
See: Gas credit cards
