Credit card bonus category for fuel

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traumamed

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traumamed
I'm a total dork and love playing the credit card bonus game. It drives my wife nuts. "Dear, for these three months use this card at Amazon, and always use this card for gas, oh and this is the restaurant card, and this card gets used at United but this one is for Delta, and and and..." lol.

For those of you who share this ridiculous pastime with me, I'm sure you have noticed that self-serve avgas pumps sometimes get registered as "gas stations." From a search of PoA, this has been discussed in passing before. However, there is no consolidated source so one can know if the avgas pump they are about to use will be registered as a gas station or as something else. Depending on the card you are using, this could mean the difference between 5% cash back/points and 1%. That adds up and can help one decide which card to use where.

I have started a spreadsheet using my own data points. I have been able to extract info on ~40 airports so far by looking back at my credit card statements. I think it would be awesome if we all had a comprehensive source for this information. I am therefore sharing the spreadsheet here with full editing features, so feel free to add your own info. I am no spreadsheet guru, so I don't know how to set it up to auto-sort, but I will do my best to keep it sorted alphabetically first by state and then by airport identifier code on a regular basis. Or feel free to add that function if you know how.

Here is the spreadsheet.

UPDATE 12/21/24: I have added a "comments" column to the spreadsheet. If you feel comfortable doing so, please note the card that worked/didn't work in the comments. As this data builds, I will probably start adding individual Y/N columns for cards that appear to be popular. Also, in the next day or two, I am going to add a "merchant code" column to the spreadsheet. Please enter it if you know it.
 
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Excellent!

As the in-house expert, what credit card do you currently recommend for fuel/gas cash back?
 
The AOPA mastercard has 2% cash back for FBO purchases which should be another category.
 
dans2992 said:
Pretty sure there is an annual dollar limit on the 2%, so you use it up pretty fast.
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Yep, here it is. You’ll only get it on the first $1250 in FBO purchases per quarter, basically:

“A maximum of 2,500 bonus points will be awarded per calendar quarter, per bonus category, per rewards account.“
 
I don't think I've ever had one NOT code as gas. TBH I don't look that close though. I know all the ones near home that I regularly use do.
 
Couldn't it vary from credit to credit card whether or not it codes as a gas station? e.g. Chase says it's a gas station but Citi says it's not
 
asicer said:
Couldn't it vary from credit to credit card whether or not it codes as a gas station? e.g. Chase says it's a gas station but Citi says it's not
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I believe these categories are standardized, and the merchant chooses one when they setup their point of sale system. That system would handle Visa, MC, etc, so I’m thinking it should be the same category.
 
BoA custom cash rewards visa pays 3% cash back as a base reward; that’s boosted by 1.75X to pay 5.25% back, for customers having $100k brokerage assets at Merrill Edge. That’s year-round, not one quarter per year. I’ve looked at lots of cards, and that’s the best I’ve found for my av gas.
 
dans2992 said:
I believe these categories are standardized, and the merchant chooses one when they setup their point of sale system. That system would handle Visa, MC, etc, so I’m thinking it should be the same category.
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Yes. The merchant specifies a MCC mercant category code for a transaction. 5541 5542 and 5983 are common MCCs for gas purchases. Some banks pay rewards on all three codes, some less. 5983 is for non-automotive fuel, and I’ve noticed that some FBOs do specify 5983 on my transactions.

I’d bet that if you find differences between various gas-rewards cards, it’s entirely due to how many of those three codes the bank chose to recognize. You can find that info in the fine print for your card’s rewards.

Here’s a list of MCC
 
Martin__ said:
As the in-house expert, what credit card do you currently recommend for fuel/gas cash back?
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Amex Blue Cash Preferred gives 3% cash back on gas stations with no cap. It has a $95/year fee though, so you have to see if it makes sense for you in other categories. It also gives 6% back on streaming services and 6% back on up to $6,000/year in groceries.

Discover It does 5% cash back on gas one quarter per year.

Some cards like Citi Custom Cash will give you 5% back up to a certain spend on your top spend category every month.

My everyday/miscellaneous cards are a Citi Double Cash and a Wells Fargo Active Cash. They are a flat 2% on everything, no cap, no categories, no annual fee.

cowman said:
The AOPA mastercard has 2% cash back for FBO purchases which should be another category.
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2% as a "bonus category" shouldn't be a thing anymore. Reason: see above (Citi Double Cash/WF Active Cash).

asicer said:
Couldn't it vary from credit to credit card whether or not it codes as a gas station? e.g. Chase says it's a gas station but Citi says it's not
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I always thought it had to do card type (i.e. Visa/MC/Amex) as opposed to specific bank. It looks like I was mistaken, and @NoHeat has a better understanding as per the quote below.

NoHeat said:
Yes. The merchant specifies a MCC mercant category code for a transaction. 5541 5542 and 5983 are common MCCs for gas purchases. Some banks pay rewards on all three codes, some less. 5983 is for non-automotive fuel, and I’ve noticed that some FBOs do specify 5983 on my transactions.

I’d bet that if you find differences between various gas-rewards cards, it’s entirely due to how many of those three codes the bank chose to recognize. You can find that info in the fine print for your card’s rewards.
,i
Here’s a list of MCC
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Maybe it would be beneficial then to add 5541, 5542, and 5983 as specific codes in the spreadsheet then, if they are known. I have some cards that disclose those specific codes, but others that just list something generic like "gas station/convenience store." What does the collective think? On one hand, I like having more data. On the other hand, the more detail we add, the less useful it could become as a quick reference. Alternately, or additionally, we could note in the comments which card worked.
 
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I've tried both the Amex Blue Cash Preferred and the Citi Custom Cash at a number of FBOs and self-serve pumps.

The BCP seems to have the strictest definition of gas. My local FBO was being coded as 5541 (Service Station), but BCP didn't treat it as fuel, so they're using some additional logic (though interestingly, they do treat in-the-store purchases of food as gas at Sheetz).

I had a good thing going with the Citi Custom Cash card, which does pay out on 5541, so I got the 5% (up to the first $500/mo) on all my local fuel purchases. Unfortunately, sometime in November the local FBO started coming up as 4582 (Airports, Airport Terminals, and Flying Fields), so the rewards went away.

Most other FBOs and self serve pumps have come up as 5983 and not paid rewards for me.
 
traumamed said:
Some cards like Citi Custom Cash will give you 5% back up to a certain spend on your top spend category every month
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This is what i use for avgas. I only use it for avgas, so that's always the 5% category. Iirc it's only 5% for the first $500, then goes to 1%, but most months I'm under that.

traumamed said:
My everyday/miscellaneous cards are a Citi Double Cash
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And that's my everything else card. I used to play the quarterly 5% game and juggle cards, but i just don't have time for that.

I guess I do have an Amazon card that I use there. 5% on that one too I think. That one has rental car insurance included, whereas citi doesn't, so that's another nice perk.

I tried the Phillips 66 card that's supposed to give you $1/ gallon rebate on avgas used for charitable flights, but found the redemption process (mail-in form) to be a pain and then they never paid the full amount.
 
I use a debit card from my local bank for avgas purchases. A few times I've had it declined because the airport pump doesn't ask for a PIN as most gas stations do.
 
I avoid using 'credit' cards - "Playing with snakes" (per Dave Ramsey). If you make a mistake, they'll bite you -
 
The Costco Visa (Citi) gives 4% on gas. I've gotten it everywhere I've bought avgas and my hangar rental also gets the 4%. There is an annual cap, but it's still pretty generous.
 
40YearDream said:
I avoid using 'credit' cards - "Playing with snakes" (per Dave Ramsey). If you make a mistake, they'll bite you -
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Fair enough. To each their own financial strategy. As for me, I'm happy to take the bank's money for purchasing exactly nothing more than what I was going to buy anyway. It usually translates into around $10,000/year of tax-free money/savings for me. I agree though that if someone cannot restrain himself from being tempted by his six-figure credit limit, then he probably shouldn't play the CC game. The banks are betting you won't pay the card off every month. Whomp whomp for them when you do.

Don't get me started on Dave Ramsey. He offers great advice for your average-income, middle class debt slave who has difficulty reaching (or even setting) savings goals. He is not the best resource for people who are fortunate enough to find themselves in the "I can comfortably afford an airplane" financial bracket.
Hang 4 said:
The Costco Visa (Citi) gives 4% on gas. I've gotten it everywhere I've bought avgas and my hangar rental also gets the 4%. There is an annual cap, but it's still pretty generous.
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If you haven't already, would you kindly consider adding the specific "everywhere you've bought avgas" to the spreadsheet if you have a moment? Your usual fuel stops must be coding in one of the categories that have a high likelihood of being recognized as a gas station. Note in the comments section that it was the Citi Costco Visa.
 
UPDATE 12/21/24: I have added a "comments" column to the spreadsheet. If you feel comfortable doing so, please note the card that worked/didn't work in the comments. As this data builds, I will probably start adding individual Y/N columns for cards that appear to be popular. Also, in the next day or two, I am going to add a "merchant code" column to the spreadsheet. Please enter it if you know it.
 
I am going to ask this question because it has happened to me before. If you are using the self serve pumps, have you had any trouble with your credit card information being stolen? I have on three occasions. 2 of them were at Sheetz gas station pumps and one of them was an airport self serve pump. The CC Fraud people have told me that self service pumps are less secure than paying inside at the store counter, so that is what I do. My wife has a Gas Buddy account with a payment card. She gets really good discounts using it at self service pumps but I doubt it will work at airports the same way.
 
William Pete Hodges said:
I am going to ask this question because it has happened to me before. If you are using the self serve pumps, have you had any trouble with your credit card information being stolen? I have on three occasions. 2 of them were at Sheetz gas station pumps and one of them was an airport self serve pump. The CC Fraud people have told me that self service pumps are less secure than paying inside at the store counter, so that is what I do. My wife has a Gas Buddy account with a payment card. She gets really good discounts using it at self service pumps but I doubt it will work at airports the same way.
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Thieves can put a "skimmer" on self serve pumps. It's a false slot, over the real one that gets your CC information. The best defense against those is to use the chip or the "tap" vs the mag stripe.
 
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