The Top 3 Best Business Gas Credit Cards for Frequent Drivers

Whether you’re delivering orders or shuttling between client meetings, gas can easily become a large cost for your small business. Branded gas credit cards can provide relief at the pump—but there are a some better, perhaps surprising, options that provide more value.

We’ll break down the advantages of gas cards, tell you why you might want to steer clear of branded gas cards, and name the top offers on the market.

Why Get a Gas Credit Card?

As a small business owner, transit costs can weigh heavily on your balance sheet. Air travelers can get rewarded for their journeys with a travel credit card, but those cards’ rewards typically focus on flights and hotels. Road warriors are better off with credit cards that give bonus rewards on gas—with fuel prices above $2.50 a gallon in many places, 2% cash back on gas turns into a 5 cent discount on every gallon pumped.

Even better, gas credit cards often come with other rewards categories, ranging from restaurants to office supplies. No matter your top spending categories, you’re sure to find a good fit.

But there’s a caveat: Branded gas credit cards—like the Shell Drive for Five® Card or Sunoco Rewards Credit Card—usually don’t provide a good value. For example, both of those cards offer 5 cents off per gallon spent, which as we noted is about 2.5% rewards using the national average gas price.

However, you earn those rewards only if you fill up at a specific company’s gas stations, your rewards rate goes down as the price of gas increases, and you probably won’t get an introductory bonus offer or bonus rewards in other categories.

All in all, you’re much better off with a general business card that offers bonus rewards on gas, rather than a gas credit card that only rewards gas purchases. In the next section, we’ll explore the cards whose value goes well beyond the pump.

The Top Gas Credit Card Offers of 2018

Best No Annual Fee Card: SimplyCash® Plus Business Credit Card from American Express

The  SimplyCash® Plus Business Credit Card from American Express offers one of the best rewards rates among no annual fee credit cards: 5% cash back on office supply stores and on wireless telephone services and 3% on the category of your choice (up to $50,000 spent annually), and an unlimited 1% elsewhere. The list of available 3% categories includes gas stations as well as airfare, restaurants, shipping, and other typical small business purchases.

The card also comes with a bonus offer of a $250 statement credit when you spend $5,000 in the first six months, and another $250 credit when you spend an additional $10,000 in your first year. Finally, you’ll get 0% APR on purchases for nine months, after which your variable APR will vary with the market, so see the issuer’s terms and conditions for the latest APR information.

Earning 3% cash back on gas—that’s equivalent to 7.5 cents off a $2.50 gallon, for those keeping score at home—this is one of the best business gas cards on the market.

Best Intro APR Period: Ink Business Cash℠ Credit Card

The Ink Business Cash℠ Credit Card from Chase offers 2% cash back on gas and restaurants (up to $25,000 spent combined annually), plus a full 5% cash back on office supplies and landline, cell phone, internet, and cable TV services (up to $25,000 spent combined annually), and an unlimited 1% cash back everywhere else. It also comes with a strong bonus offer of $300 when you spend $3,000 in the first three months. If the SimplyCash’s $15,000 spending threshold is a little high, the Ink Cash offers a more achievable bonus.  

The Ink Cash has no annual fee, of course, and it also offers 0% APR for 12 months on purchases and balance transfers, making it even more attractive to business owners who need time to pay off a big purchase. After the intro period, your variable APR will vary with the market, so see the issuer’s terms and conditions for the latest APR information.

If you want great gas rewards without the fees, plus 5% cash back on typical business purchases, look no further than the Ink Cash.

Best Overall Rewards Card: Business Gold Rewards Card from American Express

The Business Gold Rewards Card from American Express is a charge card that packs a punch on gas rewards. It offers 3 Membership Rewards points per $1 spent on your choice of rewards categories, which include U.S. gas stations as well as:

• Airfare purchased directly from airlines
• U.S. purchases for advertising in select media
• U.S. purchases for shipping
• U.S. computer hardware, software, and cloud computing purchases made directly from select providers

It earns 2 points per $1 on the remaining four categories and 1 point per $1 spent elsewhere. Membership Rewards points can be quite valuable—The Points Guy has them at 1.9 cents a piece—so you’re looking at 5.7% rewards on gas and 3.8% rewards on the other bonus categories. Additionally, there’s a signup bonus of 50,000 points when you spend $5,000 in the first three months.

Unlike the other two cards we’ve mentioned, this one carries an annual fee of $175 annual fee (waived the first year) as well as $50 annually for the first employee card (also waived the first year). There’s no annual fee for employee cards after the first one. However, this card doesn’t have rewards caps, so if you’re a big spender, you’ll see better value with the Amex Gold than the no-fee options.

Keep in mind that this is a charge card, not a credit card: While there’s no preset spending limit, your balance is meant to be paid off every month, and you’ll be hit with steep fees and interest rates if you don’t pay in full. If your card will be a financing option as well as a way to earn rewards, you’re better off looking at the Chase Ink or Amex SimplyCash, which have zero APR periods.

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If you’re looking for a business credit card that will give you some relief at the pump—make sure you explore beyond branded gas cards. There are many options that will provide greater value across a variety of categories.

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from Fundera Ledger https://www.fundera.com/blog/business-gas-credit-cards