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Titled: How to save 14% on your gas costs! Get the Automotive category RSS Feed

How to save 14% on your gas costs!

Article Summary: There is a way that you can save from 3% to 14% on gas purchases. This strategy requires no special gadgets or fuel additives and does not require you to change your driving habits or your car.

There is a way that you can save from 3% to 14% on gas purchases. This strategy requires no special gadgets or fuel additives and does not require you to change your driving habits or your car.

There are a number of alternatives that will result in savings. Among the best is the use of credit cards that offer rebates. By using the right cards you can lower your costs without having to change your driving habits or do any special maintanance on your car.

Gas companies want your business. They don't compete on price so they compete in other ways. One commonly used strategy the gas companies use is credit cards with rebates. The normal gas company credit card will create a rebate of 10% on your purchases at their branded stations. Those purchases include your purchases for gas. The first two or three months that you have the card is when they offer the 10% rebate. After the initial period the rebate changes to 5%.

For example currently BP has a credit card that will pay 10% for the first 60 days for BP gas purchases and 5% for BP gas purchases after 60 days. These cards generally offer 1% rebates on other purchases and can be used anywhere Visa or MasterCard is accepted.

The credit card explained above is specifically for BP branded stations. You can not have a rebate at other stations. Instead of a gas company card a general market card might be a good choice if you need to use many different branded stations.

Many card companies have cards that have rebate amounts for gas. For example: currently Discover Card has a Discover Gas Card. This card will provide you with a rebate of 5 per cent of the gasoline you purchase. This card also provides a 1 per cent rebate on other purchases.

Another example: Chase has a gas MasterCard that will give you a rebate of 5% for gas purchases and 2% for purchases everywhere else.

The advantage to using a general market card as opposed to a gas credit card is that you can use the general market credit card to buy gas at any station and get the high rebate. The gas company card only pays you the high rebate at the gas company's own stations.

The general market credit card only pays 6% even at it's highest rebate, but the gas company issued card provides 10 percent rebate for the initial period. In this instance the advantage on the size of the rebate is with the gas company card.

That above strategy will get you a discount of 3 percent up to 10 percent. 3% is good and 10% is even better, but what about getting the savings up to 14%? There is a trick you can utilize to do that.

Pre paid gas cards or gasoline gift cards are sold at most gas stations. Usually these prepaid cards are discounted. You may have to wait for certain promotions but in general you can find one that is discounted. For example by spending $48 on a $50 gift card, you can use the card for $50 worth of gas but it only cost you $48.00.

The card allows you to buy $50 worth of gas but you only pay $48 for it. That is equal to a 4% discount.

Now here is where the extra savings comes in. If you purchase the prepaid card using the gas company credit card during the initial period when you are getting a 10% rebate you will get a 10% rebate on the prepaid card.

If you purchase a prepaid card that provides a 4% discount, the $48 dollar card for $50 dollars worth of gas, you are adding to your savings.

You are getting a 10% rebate on the prepaid card purchase using the rebate credit card and you are getting a 4% savings by purchasing the prepaid gift card. Therefore the total you are getting is 14%. The 10% savings + the 4% savings or 4+10=14. Now you have just saved yourself 14% on your gas purchase.

Article Source: http://www.upublish.info

About the Author:
Scott Siegel
Scott Siegel has written a 143 page manual of automotive industry insider secrets on saving fuel and money at the pump. Visit us to learn how you can Increase fuel economy . Find out how to save fuel and money. Click here to get your own unique version of this article from the Unique Articles Submissions Service