If you aren’t getting 5% back, you are subsidizing everyone else who is.

If you have problems handling credit then it might be better to avoid credit cards – but unfortunately stores raise prices for everyone to pay the transaction costs for credit card users.

The grocery stores that have discount cards have to increase prices to pay for it. Go to every grocery store in your area and compare the prices for what you buy – I did and found one store that was consistently less expensive than any of the others. That’s where I shop.

(Chase has a card that gives 3% back on groceries.)

Best,

James H.

http://autos.msn.com/everyday/GasStations.aspx

It doesn’t rely on user input (like GasBuddy) but instead some combination of credit card data and magic.

I wouldn’t go out of my way to hit the cheapest one on the list (especially since it tends to lag actual prices by a day or two), but it definitely helps to show what the average of the area is and if you’re being taken to the cleaners while filling up on gas.

I have a safeway loyalty card, but if safeway wanted to know my spending habits, I buy extremely large quantities of beer on the holidays and the occasional bag of chips with salsa. I don’t care at all if they have this info. But it sometimes drops the price of the case from $12 to $9.99, well worth it for me.

I also have a buy 12 get the 13th free at Hamilton Deli by Columbia Universty. Getting that 13th free just remind me I have spent $70 on NYPD (no bacon) heroes, very depressing.

The station is normally quite competitive, although sometimes it seems to be a cent or three higher, but I figure I’m still saving 7 cents per gallon.

In my opinion it’s a pretty excellent deal!

The guys all used to go to one coffee shop. Now, though, one of the guys has switched to different coffee shop. “It’s a bit farther to walk,” he said, “but I like it better. They have more comfortable seats, so I don’t feel rushed. They remember my name. And they have a loyalty card, which gives me a little added incentive.”

I didn’t mention that I’d just posted this today.

That’s why I got my Shell MasterCard. It gives me 5% back on gas purchased at Shell (the 5% rebate applies only towards more gas at Shell). I simply found myself always going to a particular Shell station that I noticed always had a low price (it’s a bit far from where I live, but generally on my way to work on days when I drive to work).

After buying gas there several times (and noticing that Shell prices are generally competitive close to my house as well, although my neighborhood is generally more expensive than that of my preferred station), I decided to get the Shell card. 5% back at $2/gallon is 10 cents — and I don’t think I’ve ever seen a Shell around here priced a full 10 cents higher than a competitor. Most of the time it’s within 2-3 cents and maybe 1/3 of the time it’s the lowest price around. At my preferred station, it’s almost always the lowest. So it works out that I’m always better off using the Shell card. It’s also nice that there are no less than 4 Shell stations within a 1-mile radius of where I live. No matter where I’m driving, I’m almost guaranteed to drive past at least two of them (and make note of which has the lowest price). It looks like my gas-buying system is not quite as perfect as matt’s above, but it’s pretty good. According to my latest statement, I saved $162 on gas in the past 12 months.

I have a couple of the grocery store cards too. And of course I get “frequent diner” cards from sandwich shops, etc. Those are usually quite unobtrusive and generally require no personal information. Last year, Quizno’s wised up and changed their frequent diner cards, making them valid only from month to month. I.e., instead of buying 10 sandwiches to get a free sandwich (with no time limit) you get a free sandwich if you buy 5 sandwiches within a given month. Not nearly as useful.

For me, though, I try to avoid Safeway in general. It is the closest grocery store to my house- it’s only three blocks away. But there’s a co-op 10 blocks away, and it’s worth the extra time for me just to shop at a local store. When I go grocery shopping, I often visit three different local stores because it’s the cheapest way to get the combination of things that I want.

http://www.cockeyed.com/pranks/safeway/ultimate_shopper.html

Also, no offense to ctsc in comment #1 above, but I’m pretty sure there’s not a significant difference in “quality” between different brands of gasoline.

The consensus at metafilter seems to confirm this:

http://ask.metafilter.com/mefi/23613

P.S. (I actually contributed a worthwhile–I hope–comment to a post that wasn’t related to housing! :^) )

It works out so that I get a discount of 7-10% (and 12% to start out with) in exchange for paying in advance. It works like this:
- I got a Speedway MasterCard (from Chase), which has 8% rewards for the first 60 days and 4% thereafter on all purchases at Speedway. Purchases made at other places give me 1% rewards.
- I enrolled in the Speedy Rewards program.
- I buy discounted Speedway gift cards. They usually sell for $24 for a $25 card or $49 for a $50 card. They run this promotion for around a month long, every month or two. The discount multiplies every $25 or $50 you add, and you can simply add more money to an existing card. Sometimes, they offer extra reward points when purchasing gift cards as well.
- I earn points on both the gas purchases made with gift cards and the gift card purchases themselves.
- I redeem the rewards points for gift cards.
- Speedway occasionally discounts gas by $0.02 for rewards members.

Loyalty programs exist to serve the retailer and only the retailer; they are marketing programs pure and simple (just like TV exists only to make us buy things).

My local coffee shop has loyalty cards – you know, the 10th latte’s on them. Most of the customers leave their cards at the shop, alphabetized in a box on the counter (easier than keeping it in your wallet). On the rare occasion I buy coffee there (I try to keep my Latte Factor to the barest minimum) I like to pick a card at random for the clerk to punch. See, I’m just sooo generous. (/halo)

http://www.toptiergas.com/retailers.html