Best Gas Credit Cards of 2023-2024 (2024)

No one likes paying big at the pump. But it’s less painful when you can get a little back on what you spend.

The average American family spends roughly $5,000 on gas each year, according to consumer insight firm J.D. Power. With a top gas credit card you can expect around 3% cash back on gas. And depending on the card you choose, you’ll also enjoy plenty of other perks too, like bonus rewards on restaurants, travel and more.

• Best Overall
• Best for Costco Members
• Best for Sam’s Club Members
• Best Frequent Travelers
• Best for Online Shoppers
• Outlook for gas prices
• How we picked

To find the Best Gas Credit Card we looked for cards that offered the highest rewards on gas, without steep spending caps or hassles that make rewards difficult to claim. Since gas is likely to be a big—but not dominant—part of many people’s budgets, we looked for cards that offered generous rewards on other types of spending, like groceries and online shopping.

We also kept in mind that many cards don’t offer bonus rewards for gas bought at warehouse clubs, so we called out picks for Costco and Sam’s Club members. Read on to see our picks or scroll below to find our full methodology.

Best Overall

Why we picked it: The Wells Fargo Autograph℠ Card is great if you want a single no-annual-fee card that offers generous rewards at gas stations, and a broad range of other categories so you can use it not just at the pump, but as your go-to credit card.

In addition to earning three points per dollar spent at gas stations—generally in line with the top going rate—the card offers three points per dollar on restaurants, travel, transit, popular streaming services and phone plans.

While there are a few other cards that offer slightly more generous rewards on gas, they tend to offer significantly less generous rewards on other spending categories or come with onerous terms and conditions. In our view Wells Fargo Autograph Card is the best all-around card that lets you earn a highly competitive rate on gas and matches it on plenty of other types of spending too.

Are the rewards worth the fees: The Wells Fargo Autograph card charges no annual fee, so, assuming you don’t carry a balance, you will come out ahead with rewards the first time you swipe the card.

If you spend $150 a month on gas—roughly in line with the national average—you will earn points worth $54 a year. Add in $500 a month in the other bonus categories (also in line with what the typical American family spends) and you will earn points worth $234 a year, Even better, the card’s bonus rewards are uncapped, so if you spend more, you’ll earn more.

The Wells Fargo Autograph awards points rather than cash back, so it’s important to look at how much cash back you can get for your points. With Wells Fargo, points can be redeemed for cash online in 2,500 point increments for a $25 reward. Points can also be redeemed for statement credits that offset purchases starting at $1.

We considered the PenFed Platinum Rewards Visa Signature card as one of our picks. This card offers a hard-to-match five points per spent dollar on gas. But this card’s points are not as valuable when you claim them as cash or gift cards—they are worth less than 1 cent each.

Best for Costco Members

Why we picked it: If you happen to be a Costco member, your membership enables you to apply for the Costco Anywhere Visa, a card that offers a better rate on gas than you are likely to find elsewhere.

With Costco Anywhere Visa you earn 4% cash back on the first $7,000 you spend on gas and EV charging, including at non-Costco gas stations, plus 3% cash back on travel and dining.

While that’s hard to beat for Costco members, the card does have some big caveats. You must hold a Costco membership to apply for this card. If you are not already a Costco member, the $60 annual fee makes the card far less appealing. And Costco’s rules for redeeming rewards are more complicated and onerous than most other cards’.

Are the rewards worth the fees? The Costco Anywhere Visa Card is available to Costco members for no annual fee with a paid Costco membership. If you have a Costco membership anyway, picking up the card is an easy decision. If you spend $150 on gas each month, you will earn $70 annually in cash back on your gas purchases.

However, if you are not already a Costco fan and are wondering if it’s worth spending $60 for a membership just for this card’s generous gas rewards, the answer is almost certainly, “no.” Counting the fee, you would have to spend $6,000 a year on gas before you outearned the Wells Fargo Autograph card. And because of the Costco card’s cap, after you spend $7,500 the math would again favor Wells Fargo Autograph.

Another potential downside to the Costco Anywhere Visa Card is its rules for claiming rewards. You receive your cash rewards as an annual reward certificate, which is awarded after your February statement closes. The certificate must be redeemed at Costco either for cash or during a purchase, toward the value of merchandise. If the value of your certificate is greater than your purchase, you will receive cash back at the register.

Best for Sam’s Club Members

Why we picked it: If you’re a member of Sam’s Club, the Sam’s Club Mastercard offers the highest cash back rewards on gas that you are likely to find.

The Sam’s Club Mastercard offers 5% back as Sam’s Cash on gasoline purchases at any gas station, up to $6,000 spent each year. In addition, the card earns 3% back at a variety of dining establishments and 1% back on all other purchases.

The card is only available to Sam’s Club members. If you are not in the club, the card’s rewards are far less attractive. But paying the card’s $50 membership fee to access the card could make sense in some cases.

Are the rewards worth the fees? Similar to the Costco Anywhere Visa Card, the Sam’s Club Mastercard is worth picking up if you already have a Sam’s Club membership. Sam’s Club members who spend $150 on gas each month will earn $90 every year in cash back on gas purchases.

What if you are not a Sam’s club member? Purchasing a Sam’s Club membership costs $50 per year. If you spend between $2,500 and $7,500 on gas annually, you can come out ahead versus the Wells Fargo Autograph card by purchasing a Sam’s Club membership and putting your gas spending on the Sam’s Club Mastercard.

Rewards on the Sam’s Club Mastercard are issued as Sam’s Cash, which is easier to use than the reward certificates offered by the Costco card: Sam’s Cash is issued within one to two billing cycles after you earn it, as opposed to once a year with Costco. You can use your rewards online, in the Sam’s Club app or in store. And you can redeem them for cash in-person at Sam’s Club.

Best Frequent Travelers

Why we picked it: If you travel a lot, you may want a gas card that also offers generous rewards on other types of travel purchases.

Whether you are hitting the road, setting sail or taking to the skies, the U.S. Bank Altitude Connect Visa Signature Card delivers, with four points per dollar spent at gas stations, EV charging stations, airlines, hotels, car rentals, taxis, limos, passenger trains and cruise lines. The card does charge a $95 annual fee after the first year, but if you spend a lot on gas or travel, the card’s travel rewards could still make it a smart pick.

The card also offers particularly good value in its first year. In addition to waiving the annual fee, the U.S. Bank Altitude Connect Visa comes with a 50,000-point welcome bonus after you spend $2,000 within your first 120 days.

Are the rewards worth the fees? U.S. Bank Altitude carries a $95 annual fee after the first year, but if you spend a lot on travel and gas, the ongoing rewards you earn will offset the annual fee. When we did the math, we found that cardholders who spend more than $830 each month on gas and travel will earn enough rewards to justify the U.S. Bank Altitude card’s annual fee. If you spend less than this, the Wells Fargo Autograph card is a better choice.

You can get even more out of the card by booking prepaid hotels and car rentals in the Altitude Rewards Center, where you earn five points per dollar on purchases. The card also features two points per dollar at grocery stores, on grocery delivery, dining and streaming services, but you can get equal or greater rewards using the Wells Fargo Active Cash, the WSJ pick for Best Cash Back Card.

While the U.S. Bank Altitude Connect offers excellent rewards for gas and travel, the card lacks some features that frequent travelers depend on. If you travel frequently, consider one of the cards from the WSJ Best Travel Cards list. These travel cards frequently feature a suite of basic travel protection benefits. Some cards with larger annual fees also include perks like airline lounge access.

Best for Online Shoppers

Why we picked it: If you’re looking for a gas card that can double as a great rewards card for online shopping, consider the Blue Cash Everyday® from American Express.

This card pairs 3% cash back rewards on gas, groceries and online shopping. While the bonus rewards come with an annual $6,000 spending cap, the cap applies to spending in each category, not your overall spending. Once you hit the cap in each category the rewards rate falls to 1%.

In other words, you would have to spend more $6,000 a year on gas to see your gas rewards capped, a threshold that’s plenty high for most regular drivers.

Are the rewards worth the fees? The Blue Cash Everyday card carries no annual fee and it offers 3% cashback on gas, groceries and online shopping. For most cardholders, 3% earnings across several everyday categories is a solid value proposition. The downside to the Blue Cash Everyday is that its 3% earnings are capped. The card has a $6,000 annual cap on spending in each of its 3% bonus categories, after which you earn 1% rewards in the category.

Unless you drive for a living, you aren’t likely to hit the spending cap on gas, making this a great potential option as a gas card. Still, in other categories—particularly supermarkets—the cap may prove a bigger limitation. If you spent just $150 a month on gas with this card, you would earn $54 a year in cash back. Add to that $500 a month on groceries—the max you can spend under the rewards cap—and, say, $400 in online purchases, you would earn almost $380 a year in rewards.

If you frequently shop at an online retailer with its own branded credit card, consider that card if it offers more generous cash back rewards. If you are an Amazon Prime member, the Amazon Prime Rewards Visa Signature card offers 5% cash back on Amazon.com purchases. Likewise, frequent Target.com shoppers should consider a Target RedCard in their wallet for a 5% discount on most Target purchases.

Outlook for gas prices

Gas prices can fluctuate rapidly, which means it’s always a good idea to look for ways to save. But what can drivers expect in the coming months?

After feeling some whiplash between ultra-low gas prices during the Covid-19 pandemic, and higher rates close to $4 a gallon this year, drivers may finally enjoy relief again soon.

Gasoline prices have been softening, and the dynamic is likely to remain in place for the rest of the year, says Tom Kloza, global head of energy analysis at Oil Price Information Service, or OPIS.

Much of this comes down to the cost of refining crude oil into gasoline. Earlier this year gasoline was expensive relative to crude prices, which meant pain for drivers at the pump. More recently the spread between these two prices has returned to more normal levels. While conflict in the Middle East could drive oil prices back up, drivers will have to wait to see how much of those extra costs will actually be passed along to them.

How we picked

To pick the Buy Side from WSJ’s best credit cards for gas, we started with cards that offered at least 3% rewards on gas purchases. But just having generous rewards on gas was not enough to make our list.

The cards that rose to the top all offered something else too, such as additional bonus rewards in other categories, or gas rewards that went above and beyond 3%. We also favored cards with simple rules and no annual fee, but selected cards that did not meet these criteria if they excelled in some other way.

To find out more about how we rate credit cards—and to meet our panel of experts—you can also check out Buy Side from WSJ’s full best credit cards methodology.