What's the best credit card for gas purchases?

The Costco Anywhere Visa® Card by Citi, Citi Custom Cash® Card, Wells Fargo Autograph® Card, and Wyndham Diamond Business Earner card are my top 4 gas cards. While these cards have their own unique perks, they all boast excellent earnings on gas purchases.

What’s the Costco card?

The Costco Anywhere Visa card by Citi is a solid card for Costco purchases and superb for gas purchases.

Here are the earning rates for the Costco Anywhere Visa card by Citi:

• 5% cash back on Costco gas*

• 4% back on EV charging and gas at other gas stations*

• 3% back on restaurants and travel

• 2% back at Costco and Costco.com

• 1% back on all other purchases

The 5% back on Costco gas and 4% back on EV charging & gas at other gas stations are fantastic earn rates (*combined $7,000 spend per year, and then 1% thereafter). You’ll be able to earn a ton of cashback here if you’re a frequent driver.

Does this card have foreign transaction fees?

Nope. You can use this card abroad as you please.

Does the Costco card have an annual fee?

The Costco Anywhere Visa card by Citi doesn’t have an annual fee however you must be a Costco member. That means if you want to get this card you have to pay $65 annually to have a Costco Gold Star membership.

Does the Costco card have a welcome offer?

Unfortunately, the Costco card does not have a welcome offer. It’s really unfortunate as even most no annual fee cards have a welcome offer.

However, it makes up for the fact that it comes with some incredible spend categories.

What’s the Citi Custom Cash card?

If you spend the majority of your money on gas, the Citi Custom Cash might hit the jackpot as your gas card.

The Citi Custom Cash card has a pretty simple and straightforward earning structure:

• 5% back on your top eligible spend category (includes Restaurants, Gas Stations, Grocery Stores, Select Travel, Select Transit, Select Streaming Services, Drugstores, Home Improvement Stores, Fitness Clubs and Live Entertainment) for up to $500 each billing cycle

• 4% back on hotels, car rentals and attractions booked via Citi Travel

• 1% back on all other purchases

The thought process of this being a gas card is that you would only use this card for gas purchases to ensure that gas is your top eligible spend category. However, there is a strict cap of $500 per billing cycle for the eligible 5% category.

So, you'd be able to get 5% back on $500 of purchases within your top eligible spend category every month ($25/mo). If you max this out in a year, you can get up to $300 back in cashback in rewards.

Notably, cashback is accrued as Citi ThankYou points, so you could even transfer the points out to partners like American Airlines.

What’s the welcome offer on the Citi Custom Cash card?

You’ll get $200 in cash back after spending $1,500 in the first 6 months from the account opening.

Does this card have foreign transaction fees?

Yes. You’ll pay a 3% fee on purchases abroad. If you use this as a gas card in the US, it’s not really a huge deal.

Does the Citi Custom Cash card have an annual fee?

Nope. The Citi Custom Cash card doesn’t have an annual fee making it a great card to keep in your wallet as long as you would like.

Can you use the Custom Cash's points for transferable travel?

Yes, but not at a 1:1 rate. If you only have a Citi Custom Cash® Card, you'll only be able to transfer your points to partners like American Airlines or Cathay Pacific at a 1:0.7 ratio. That is to say, 1,000 ThankYou points transferred via Cathay will become 700 Asia miles.

However, if you have a partner card like the Citi Strata Premier® Card that comes with a relatively low annual fee, you can suddenly combine your ThankYou points and get a solid 1:1 transfer ratio.

With this technique, your 5x ThankYou points earnings on the Custom Cash become incredible. If we value American Airlines miles at 1.5 cents per mile, that means your 5x returns are worth ~7.5% cashback—incredible value.

What’s the Wells Fargo Autograph card?

The Wells Fargo Autograph is a more versatile gas card than some of the other cards in this article. Here are the earning rates for the Wells Fargo Autograph card:

• 3 points per $1 spent on dining

• 3 points per $1 spent on gas stations, transit, EV charging, subways, ride shares, parking and tolls

• 3 points per $1 spent on travel (includes airfare, hotels, car rentals and cruises)

• 1 point per $1 spent on all other purchases

The 3 points per $1 spent on gas stations isn’t the best earn rate out of all the cards in this article but the earnings don’t end there for your car on the Wells Fargo Autograph card. It’s really neat that you’ll also earn 3 points per $1 spent on parking and tolls too. If you are driving long distances and/or going to a lot of events this card can be well worth it.

What’s the welcome offer on the Wells Fargo Autograph card?

You will get 20,000 bonus points after spending $1,000 on purchases in the first three months from the account opening. You can redeem these points for travel purposes or $200 directly as cash back.

Does the card have an annual fee or foreign transaction fees?

Nope. You can keep this card as long as you’d like while also using it abroad.

Can you use the Wells Fargo Autograph Card's points for transferable travel?

Yes! You can transfer your Autograph Card's points to the following programs at a 1:1 ratio:

• Aer Lingus AerClub

• Air France-KLM Flying Blue

• Avianca LifeMiles

• British Airways Executive Club

• Iberia Plus

• Virgin Atlantic Flying Club

• Choice Privileges (transfers at a 1:2 ratio)

While the program's transfer partners are relatively limited, there certainly can be good value to be found here.

What’s the Wyndham Rewards Earner Business card?

The Wyndham Rewards Earner Business card is an excellent gas card if you own a business and are traveling by car often. Here are the earn rates on the card:

• 8 points per dollar on purchases made at Hotels by Wyndham and on gas

• 5 points per dollar spent on marketing, advertising and utility purchases

• 1 point per dollar spent on all other purchases

The 8 points per dollar spent on gas is by far the best earn rate out of all the cards in this article and the only caveat is that you have to be a business owner. You’ll be earning a ton of Wyndham Rewards points if you spend a lot on gas.

What’s the introductory offer on the Wyndham Rewards Earner Business card?

You will get 45,000 Wyndham Rewards points after spending $3,000 in the first 90 days from the account opening. Wyndham advertises these points as a way to get up to 6 free nights at Wyndham hotels.

Does this card have an annual fee?

Yes, the Wyndham Rewards Earner Business card has a $95 annual fee. It’s the only card in this article with an annual fee but it also boasts the best earn rate on gas purchases.

Does the Wyndham Rewards Earner Business card have foreign transaction fees?

Nope. As a business owner, you can use this card anywhere your business takes you.

What are some other useful features on the Wyndham Rewards Earner Business card?

• Diamond level benefits: suite upgrades, welcome amenity at check-in, earn 10 points per dollar or 1,000 points (whichever is more) for each qualifying stay

• Annual bonus: Get 15,000 bonus points each account anniversary

• Earn free nights quicker: Redeem 10% fewer points when bookings free nights

How do these cards stack up against each other?

The Costco Anywhere Visa card by Citi, Citi Custom Cash, Wells Fargo Autograph card and Wyndham Diamond Business Earner card are all great gas cards. I made a chart to show their gas benefits along with other miscellaneous benefits on the cards.

For folks that want the best possible rewards for gas on a personal card I would recommend that Citi Custom Cash card. You’ll get 5 points per $1 sent and the ability to transfer to airline and hotel partners. Citi has some amazing travel partners and my personal favorite is American Airlines.

And for business cards, nothing beats the Wyndham Rewards Earner Business Card for gas earnings. 8 points per $1 spent on gas is fantastic. The cool thing about owning a business is that you or your employees could be earning 8 points per $1 spent because you could make your employees authorized users on the card.

The Costco Anywhere Visa by Citi card is honestly the least interesting card out of the bunch. You essentially have to pay an annual fee by getting a Costco membership and you only get the best gas rewards if you get Costco gas. With the Citi Custom Cash card, you get 5 points per $1 spent at any gas station where the Costco card gets 4 points per $1 at any gas station. And the Costco card doesn’t have a welcome bonus…

The Wells Fargo Autograph Card is a sneaky good card. Although it has the lowest earning rate for gas, there’s lots of other solid earning rates for having a car. You get 3 points per $1 spent on parking and tolls which can be nice for folks driving long distances and to big events. I’m thinking of the person that likes to travel regionally by car to a big concert or to go visit a friend in another state. What you could also do is use a card like the Citi Custom Cash card for gas and then use this card for parking and tolls.

Each card has its benefits—are any of these cards enticing enough for you to apply for?