Released: September 16, 2007

Cards that give back after cars fuel up

Source: Elizabeth Douglass, Los Angeles Times

Signing up to get rebates for gasoline purchases has become popular. But there are caveats.

Forget the quest for airline miles. Today’s hot credit card perk is at the gas pump.

Drivers can get 3% or more of their fuel bills returned to them from card giants MasterCard Inc., Visa International and Discover Financial Services as well as large gasoline retailers including Shell Oil Co. and Exxon Mobil Corp.

“A number of cards are increasing the rebates, specifically rebates on gasoline, because they see how consumers are concerned about gas prices and how much it’s costing them,” said Matt Mills, founder of Seattle-based E-Wisdom.com, an Internet site that tracks credit card offerings.

Such offers come with plenty of caveats and fine print. But in California, land of high gasoline prices and long commutes, the deals are worth considering.

“A lot of consumers aren’t aware that these kinds of cards exist,” said Curtis Arnold, chief executive of www.Cardratings.com, a card reviewer based in Little Rock, Ark. “But if you go out on the street and ask someone, ‘Instead of you paying $3 a gallon, you can pay $2.85, are you interested?,’ then people perk up.”

Motorists already are big on using plastic at the pump. As U.S. fuel prices pushed steadily higher, the percentage of gasoline purchases made with a credit or debit cards jumped to 65% in 2006 from 53% in 2003, according to the National Assn. of Convenience Stores.

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