Wow how time flies… it was nearly three years ago that I wrote about Shell’s Credit Card promotion.
Just the other day, a representative from Shell’s public relations firm Edelman contacted me. She wanted to tell me about Shell’s new promotion. If you’ve driven by one, you’ve probably seen the signs… “30 cents off a gallon” (paraphrased).
This sounded pretty phenomenal to me… at first. I looked into it a little more and it’s only for the first 100 gallons. That sounds like a lot, but what it really comes down to is $30 for signing up for a credit card and agreeing to by gas at Shell. After the 100 gallons, I’m not sure if you get any discount (the PR person didn’t mention it).
I happen to have a card from Chase that gives me 5% off gas (the card is no longer available to best of my knowledge). With gas prices around $3 in northern California this gives me 15 cents a gallon off. I realize it’s not 30 cents, but it’s not expiring, nor is it tying me to using only Shell. So I decided to the PR person whether there is an option that doesn’t expire on you. She mentioned that there’s a Shell Saver Card that you can attach to you bank account and save 2 cents a gallon. I don’t think that’s very enticing…
I guess the whole thing just kind of leaves me feeling meh (BTW, I read that meh is actually a word now so I’m going to be using it more often). What’s your take? Are you excited by the 30 cents off or feeling like me?
Shell has expensive gas; I wouldn’t shop there anyway.
Arco seems to be the dominant low-price gas company; I did sign up for their debit card. Their “rewards program” is a ripoff, but the card is great; it waives the 45 cent debit fee and deducts from your current checking account.
-Erica
That 45 cent debit fee is the reason I avoid Arco like the plague. Also the lack of taking my credit card.
We have a credit card from Amoco that gives us 5% back on gas (it gives 10% back during the intro period, but we’ve had the card for years).
With my daily commute (70 miles, round trip) we rack up the miles quickly, and our gas bill is typically $200 – $400, depending on the price of gas. That’s $10 – $20 in savings each month.
We’d probably buy gas at Amoco anyway. Not that I am a big fan or anything, just that the locations are very convenient.
Definitely meh.
The only card I use is my Schwab card. Only 2% back on gas, but then again, it gives me 2% back on everything else as well. With no limit. No need to think about which card to use.
And it deposits my “rewards” in cash form, into a Schwab account every month. I opened the account in January and my Schwab account now has $1200.
I do actually use one other card, my Costco Amex card. But I only use that at Costco.
I have a Cap One card that I use for gas. I travel to a lot of different areas, so a rewards card for a particular station doesn’t make sense for me. The Cap One is good for gas, dinner and for “floating” anything else (I pay it off monthly).
Typically, I’ll build the rewards and trade them in for a flight once a year or so.