Success: My Search For 5% Cash Back Gas Card!

{The is the fourth article in a  series of articles on credit card tips.  These posts cover  many common credit card topics  with action steps you can put to work immediately.}

1. 5 Steps to Lower Your Cards Interest Rate
2. Taking Charge of Your Credit Card Debt
3. Searching for a Rewards Card

Reward Credit Cards

Gas at 4 dollars-now they’re talkin 5 bucks for you Californians….  That’s a huge hit every time you fill up at the gas station.  Almost 80 bucks to fill up my old truck.  Has it hit you yet? I’m sure payin at the pump has taken a chunk out of your paycheck.

Now that the days are getting longer I’ll start biking to work a coupla’ days a week.

Good for my figure, I figure, and good for my billfold!

But for now:

As I have previously written here, I am searching for a gas rewards credit card to  numb the gas pump pain a little.

Think about it. A 5% cash back on gas card makes $4.00 a gallon turn into $3.80.  You may think  20 cents and say, who cares.  I see  $4.00 less every time I  fill-up.

I care-A Lot!  Multiply that times two for my wife’s gas, and it becomes real money in a year.

That’s better than driving across town to save 3 cents a gallon…..

Back to my card search

My rewards card criteria:

• No annual fee.
• Reasonable interest rate-not that I care cause I don’t carry a balance-but don’t like gouging….
• The highest possible percentage back on my gas purchases-the holy grail is 5%.
• Master Card or Visa-as I frequent gas stations that don’t accept my AMEX Delta Rewards Card.

I have stressed here over and over, don’t use rewards cards or any credit cards:

• If you can’t pay it off, in full, EVERY MONTH!
• If you have a spending control issue. Yes you know who you are!
• If you have a low credit rating and haven’t dealt with the issues involved.

I followed the suggestions of Flexo at Consumerism Commentary, put on my pith helmet, grabbed my walking stick, and jumped into the credit card jungle.  You know the jungle- filled with lions and tigers and bears-oh my!

Success! I found a card that met my criteria: the Pentagon Federal Credit Union Visa gas rewards card.

Bummer, it looks like you have to be an active duty member of the Armed Forces of the USA to qualify.

Success again: Tucked away in the small print…  It seems membership in other organizations also qualified.  One of those is the National Military Family Organization. And they  accept civilian members for $20.oo /year donation.  YESSSS!

A reasonable price for getting my 5% gas card, IMHO…

I jumped through the hoops of joining the NMFO-which was just a couple of keystrokes. Then applied online for my Pen Fed Visa Gas Card.

I’m proud to announce they accepted my application and will be sending me a card ASAP.

I have a video here to show you the steps in my journey.  If you need a similar card check it out-it might save you a little computer time. That’s what I’m here for-to lighten your load, ease your burden, walk a mile in your shoes..(yeah, I know you’re turning green and about to vomit, sorry!)

Let me know if you apply for a similar card or if you have questions about my search.

Contest:

I am having a contest at The Millionaire Nurse Facebook page.  I will be giving two autographed copies of my book, The Millionaire Nurse to those who refer a friend to “Like” my fan page.  Here are the details:

How do you win? Simply invite your friends to become a fan of www.facebook.com/TheMillionaireNurse When they do, they need to write “New Fan – (Your name here)” Then YOU and the NEW fan will be entered to win! Contest ends on April 30th…we can’t wait to see who wins!!!

Check out the details on my Facebook page, and while you are at it-friend up.  Love to add you to my list.

Carnivals and Link Love Lately!

Carnival of Banking And Money Management at Credit Eh

Festival of Frugality at Wealth Pilgrim

Totally Money Carnival at the College Investor

Carnival of Wealth at Dividend Investor

Thanks for reading.  Rember-to get on my newsletter list sign up-upper right and get a coupla freebies…Ebook that will show you the way to save money, NOW.  And a mini-course on personal finance delivered weekly in your email over the next 10 weeks.  A GREAT way to get started controlling your money!

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Tags: credit card management, finding the right gas reward card, reward credit cards, searching for a rewards card

This entry was posted on Wednesday, April 20th, 2011 at 12:23 pm and is filed under credit cards. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.