Caskback of 1.25% and 5% on gas?
 

Pentagon Federal Credit Union offers 1.25% cash back monthly on all new purchases, and 5% back on gas purchases.

Are there other cashback cards that equal or exceed PFCU?

Amex Blue Cash

Almost all of the low cost gasoline stations in my area do not accept American Express. All accept my Pentagon Federal Credit Union Visa.

One nice feature of the Pentagon card is that you get the cash back immediately as a credit to your account. No minimum to built up, no request for a check required.

Amex Blue Cash
 

Thanks for the pointer to Amex Blue Cash.

The pros (over PFCU) I see are ordinary supermarkets and ordinary drugstores qualify for the 5%, in addition to just gas, and 1.5% instead of 1.25% after the initial annual $6500 in charges.

The cons I see are 1) Awarded annually instead of monthly, 2) reduced award rates for the first $6500 of charges each year (which means you need $26,000 in charges each year before Blue Cash gets ahead of PFCU), 3) Amex isn't accepted as widely as Visa/MC.

Please keep mentioning cards that are as good or better than PFCU!



From the Amex website:
Your Rebate is awarded annually for each Rebate Year (12 consecutive billing periods). Rebate percentages for each Rebate Year are as follows:

Year to Date Purchases Cash Back on Everyday Purchases* Cash Back on All Other Purchases
$0 - $6,500 1.0% 0.5%
$6,500.01 or more 5.0% 1.5%


*"Everyday Purchases" are Eligible Purchases made at U.S. supermarkets, gas stations and drugstores, in each case that are not departments of superstores or warehouse clubs. "Eligible Purchases" are charges to your account for goods or services that have not been returned or otherwise credited to your account. Eligible Purchases do not include Finance Charges, fees, Cash Advances or other means of accessing your account, convenience checks, Balance Transfers, or the purchase of American Express® Travelers Cheques and American Express® Gift Cheques or other cash equivalents. Additional terms and conditions apply.

5 % Cash Back for Gas
 

Yes. I just got the Costco Amex Business Cash back card. It pays 5% on gas
anywhere even Costco. Also pays 2.0 percent on travel and 3% ON restaurant charges. 1 percent everywhere else.

Fidelity Investments Sig Visa gives 1.5% cash back monthly on all purchases with no limits. No annual fee.

Thanks! Two questions:
- I've looked unsuccessfuly on Fidelity and FIsomething. Can you give me a link to Fidelity's various cash back cards including fine print? (I can find one card, but not the one you mentioned, and not a palette of the various cards they offer).
- Do you know what they do on foreign exchange charges?

It appears to be the fourth match returned by the fidelity.com search engine...

http://personal.fidelity.com/global/...dit%20card

For information about foreign currency transcation fees, I suggest you look here...

http://flyerguide.com/wiki/index.php...reign_Exchange

Was that only for a limited time, though (especially the 5% on gas)?

I have a Direct Rewards Platinum card that I get 5% cashback on groceries and gas. Not sure if it works at club stores, probably not. Limit is $500 cash back per year. Originally the agreement was that you could only redeem after 1 year. They just changed it (effective today, oddly enough) so that you can redeem every other month as a statement credit rather than an annual check. I'm at my $500 limit though (since Nov) and I need a new card for the next couple months! I will likely use my Citi Dividend Rewards, which gives me 2% I think. I stopped using that one when they changed from 5% to 2%. That's when I found the Direct Rewards. I just did a search though and didn't turn up a 5% offer. Does anyone know if it is discontinued?

Gas card discounts may be on the way out
 

This story in the L.A. Times yesterday indicates that more and more gas stations are charging up to 4-5% more for paying with a credit card. Kinda kills the incentive to charge it.

"Cash rules at some pumps
Credit card companies' fees can be a significant expense for dealers. Some offer markdowns of 3 to 15 cents per gallon.
By Elizabeth Douglass August 21, 2007 L.A. Times

Americans love their credit cards. But at more and more gas stations, it pays to be part of the cash crowd.

In Costa Mesa, Craig Hummel pocketed a 12-cent-a-gallon discount recently because he used real money at a Valero station instead of his Visa or MasterCard. He bought 9 1/2 gallons of premium for his Mercedes sport utility vehicle and saved $1.14.

"I know a lot of people just go wherever they want for gas . . . but I only come here," said Hummel, a Realtor from Newport Beach. "Over a year's time, you save quite a bit. I think more stations should offer it."

They are. To dodge the rising fees that credit card companies tack on to transactions, both no-name and big-brand stations are charging drivers less when they buy with cash. In California, the savings range from 3 cents to 15 cents a gallon.

See the rest of this much longer story at:
http://www.latimes.com/business/la-f...,6090239.story

This has been done before. Once by Exxon nationwide for $0.05 per gallon. It did not fare well for them then and will not fare well this time. Of course you can always just get the Valero card and get the same discount.

The Pentagon Tech card is not available to the non Pentagon/armed forces civilian personnel , is it??

How to Join...

https://www.penfed.org/howToJoin/overview.asp

In particular read "OR Become Eligible by Joining the National Military Family Association"

I have the AAA Gas Rebate Visa which gives me 5% cashback each month as a credit on my statement.

As has been pointed out before, in other threads, you can join the NMFA, then join PenFed and let your ($20?) membership in NMFA lapse after a year. In other words, you don't have to pay the twenty bucks more than once. Although, you might want to support this worthy group. ;)

Last I looked, "The Gas Rebate will be calculated at a rate of 5% multiplied by your total eligible gas volume (merchant category code 5542 transactions) for that billing cycle and limited to 2% of your total net retail purchases (excluding credits, returns and adjustments) for that periodic billing cycle."

Has this changed? If not, then this has some serious restrictive consequences. You are really getting only 2% back, and that 2% is limited to total purchases of only 1.5 times your gasoline purchases.

I show the math on this and do some comparisons to other cards on the Free Cards page of the Credit Card section of my website below.