Monday, March 17, 2008

Get 12% Off on All of Your Gas Purchases

I don't know about you, but my gas purchases are starting to get ridiculous. I filled up yesterday and it cost me nearly $48.00!?!? If prices go up much more (which they're predicting will happen), we could be talking about $60.00 fill ups - not to mention what the increase in gas prices does to your food costs, etc.

There is a card on the market that can help take the sting out of what you're paying at the pump. The Citi Driver's Edge MasterCard has some pretty unique features that make it attractive (especially for the first 12 months). The card offers a 6% rebate for the first 12 months on all gas, supermarket, and drug store purchases. It lowers to 3% after 12 months. The 6% deal is great, 3% is average.

Here's where the extra benefits kick in that make this a great card to get while gas prices are high. This card ALSO pays you a rebate of $.01 for every mile you drive in a year. If you drive 10,000 miles per year (pretty average mileage), that's an additional $100 rebate. The caveat is that mileage rebates have to be used for either a new/used car purchase OR auto maintenance costs. That shouldn't be hard however given that you're likely to do some type of oil change, tire rotation, air filter, etc. during the year that will add up to $100.

Crunch all the numbers out and you're getting roughly 12% back on this offer for the first year that you have the card. I'm not factoring in the money you'll get back from grocery and drugstore purchases either. Now - granted my tag line was a little misleading since you can really only apply the rebate to auto costs - not necessarily gas - but if you're saving one place, that's money that can be applied somewhere else - so it is a legit 12%. This is a great deal. I'm going to get the card, keep it for 12 months and then reevaluate! Please make sure to read the terms and conditions - it details what you have to do to get your mileage credits (fax/mail in receipts from car service places so they can verify mileage).

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